


Ascendancy

by Titanmaster_117



Category: RWBY
Genre: Abuse, Abusive Relationships, Action, Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe - Dark, And that's where the problems start, And then it gets even worse, Anti-Faunus Racism (RWBY), Armour isn't useless, Army, Assassination, Battle, Bittersweet, Blood Drinking, Blood and Gore, Blood and Torture, Blood and Violence, Body Horror, Brutal Murder, Canon LGBTQ Character, Canon Trans Character, Canon Wielding, Character Death, Character Study, Civil War, Class Differences, Conflict, Conscription, Corruption, Creepy, Crime Fighting, Crimes & Criminals, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Crushes, Cults, Cultural Differences, Cyborgs, Dark And Troubled Pasts, Dark Empire, Dark fic, Deconstruction, Depression, Desperation, Different types of Dragons, Disabled Character, Dragons, Drugs, Dystopia, Emoticons, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Manipulation, Enemies to Friends, Everyone Needs Therapy, Extinction, Extirpation, Eye Gouging, Eye Trauma, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Fan Soundtracks, Fantastic Racism, Fantasy elements, Forbidden Love, Foreign Language, Friends to Enemies, Gang Violence, Gangs, Genetic Engineering, Genocide, Gladiators, Golems, Grimdark, Grimm Splinter Factions, Group chat, Hate Crimes, Heavy emphasis on Worldbuilding, Hero Worship, Hope vs. Despair, Horror, House System, Human Experimentation, Human Sacrifice, Imperialism, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Inspirations from Destiny, Inspirations from Star Wars, Inspirations from Transformers, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, It would be nice if someone made a TV Tropes page on this, It's not Salem, LGBTQ Female Character, Lies, Loads and Loads of Characters - Freeform, Loads of characters, Loss of Innocence, Loss of Trust, Lots of new Grimm types, Love Triangles, M/M, Major Character Injury, Major Original Character(s), Manipulation, Martial Law - Freeform, Mecha, Mental Anguish, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Mercenaries, Military dictatorship, Minor Original Character(s), Monsters, Multi, Murder, Murder Mystery, Murderers, Music, Mutilation, Mythical Beings & Creatures, New Grimm types, Nightmare Fuel, Nightmares, Not Canon Compliant, One-Sided Attraction, Oracles, Organized Crime, Pansexual Neon Katt, Past Character Death, Past Sexual Abuse, Physical Disability, Physical Therapy, Poetry, Police Brutality, Police Procedural, Political Intrigue, Politics, Pop Culture, Possessive Behavior, Post-Apocalypse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Siblings, Psychological Trauma, Real Life Weapons, Realism, References to Destiny, References to Drugs, References to My Hero Academia, References to Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008), Religion, Religious Fanaticism, Religious Pyrrha Nikos, Renegade Factions, Renegades, Robotics, Robots, Scarification, Sentient Grimm, Sexual Humor, Sibling Bonding, Soldiers, Suffering, Suicidal Thoughts, Syndicates, Techions, Terrorism, Thanks, The Faunus are the Eliksni, The White Fang are a religious order of legend, There are so many characters in this, There is a new leader of the Grimm, They are the 3rd race on Remnant, They're organised into houses, Trans Female Character, Trans Melanie Malachite, Trans Nora Valkyrie, Trauma, Unhealthy Relationships, Unrequited Crush, Unrequited Love, Vampires, Wakes & Funerals, War, War Crimes, Worldbuilding, Yandere, alternative religions, alternative universe - alternative canon, like seriously, no pressure, pop culture references, psuedo-siblings, references to transformers, warrior culture, will update tags as I go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:54:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 36
Words: 443,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27418357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Titanmaster_117/pseuds/Titanmaster_117
Summary: War never changes, merely the adversaries.Jaune Arc's dream was to be a hero, not a soldier. But now, as the Grimm rise up under a new master, he finds that he has little choice in the matter.The Ascendant Court are rising. Darkness will flood over Remnant, and the Second Great War begins.No one is coming out unscathed.Not everyone is coming out alive.And in the end- At the final end of everything- Only one truth is certain:One must always choose a side.Even if it’s the wrong one.(Dark RWBY fic. Minor and major character deaths)
Relationships: Blake Belladonna & Adam Taurus, Blake Belladonna & Original Male Character(s), Ciel Soleli & Weiss Schnee, Flynt Coal & Neon Katt, Glynda Goodwitch & Ozpin, Ilia Amitola & Blake Belladonna, James Ironwood & Winter Schnee, Jaune Arc & Lie Ren & Nora Valkyrie, Jaune Arc & Melanie Malachite, Jaune Arc & Melanie Malachite & Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc & Miltiades Malachite, Jaune Arc & Pyrrha Nikos & Lie Ren & Nora Valkyrie, Jaune Arc & Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc & Winter Schnee, Lie Ren & Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie, Melanie Malachite & Ciel Soleli, Melanie Malachite & Miltiades Malachite, Melanie Malachite & Ruby Rose, Original Character(s) & Original Character(s), Pyrrha Nikos & Weiss Schnee, Qrow Branwen & Ruby Rose, Raven Branwen & Vernal, Saphron Cotta-Arc/Terra Cotta-Arc, Summer Rose/Taiyang Xiao Long, Team JNPR & Team RWBY
Comments: 16
Kudos: 30





	1. Prologue: Transcript

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GodSaveTheKings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GodSaveTheKings/gifts), [The C in MJCK (Writersblock159)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writersblock159/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A piece of history, finally revealed.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_**Theme:** _[Peg Doll Nursery Rhyme from Doctor Who](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FpIrXh7BVs)_

* * *

_Do not go gentle into that good night,_  
_Old age should burn and rave at close of day;_  
_Rage, rage against the dying of the light._

_Though wise men at their end know dark is right,_  
_Because their words had forked no lightning they_  
_Do not go gentle into that good night._

_Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright_  
_Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,_  
_Rage, rage against the dying of the light._

_Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,_  
_And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,_  
_Do not go gentle into that good night._

_Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight_  
_Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,_  
_Rage, rage against the dying of the light._

_And you, my father, there on the sad height,_  
_Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray._  
_Do not go gentle into that good night._  
_Rage, rage against the dying of the light._

**_Do not go gentle into that good night_ , by Dylan Thomas**

* * *

_Transcript recovered from the Forever Forest, just after the last initiation. It had been scribbled onto the walls, and was untranslatable until multiple years later, when new knowledge was brought to light._ _This transcript is now part of the unabridged Age of Endings book, itself part of the unabridged Age of Man collection._

_All continuing versions of the Age of Man books are to be sent for abridgment and editing, and the original, unabridged version of the Age of Man collection is to be kept locked away in the Belladonna Archives. Only those with ARKOS level clearance are allowed to read the unabridged texts and transcripts. Anyone who reads the unabridged texts and transcripts without the correct clearance is to be detained and interrogated immediately, and is to be kept under surveillance for signs of criminal activity until further notice or change in suspect's profile or behaviour demands otherwise._

_Transcript provided below:_

* * *

**_Do you remember me?_ **

**_Do you see me?_ **

**_Will you see me?_ **

**_Will you love me?_ **

**_Will you accept me?_ **

**_I know you will. You're like that, you see. Always accepting. Always loving. Why do you think I fell for you, like so many others?_ **

**_I have come to claim you, my dear. I have come to take what is mine. I have come to hold my beloved by my side, and begin the final evolution of man. We will embrace the great change. We will mould and morph into our new perfect shapes, and we will embrace each other, as man changes and accepts the embrace of our mother eternal, cutting away the chaff from the wheat, culling the weak from the strong, the mighty, the righteous, and begins our final empire, where we will claim these lands like our ancestors of old, and you and I will be the ones to spread our love and unity through our dominion, joined together under the eternal union of man._ **

**_Does the thought not excite you, my dearest? Does the imagining of leading our fellows towards our new paradise, and creating an eternal Eden for our empire not fill you with a feeling of purpose, and belonging? It is the dream that I shall share with you, the dream you will embrace, and the dream that I have been gifted by my mother eternal._ **

**_Do you hear that? My mother is calling us. She has given me everything, and asked for nothing in return. She has saved me from darkness. From the nothingness that laid before me for so long, and needed so little from me. Our paths are aligned, and our goals are the same. My mother will be there to walk me down the isle, while I bring to her the rightful gifts and treasures that she so longingly seeks._ **

**_Let Ozma come. Let him send his hunters and Hunters against me. Against us. Against our rightful joining. It will matter not. Nothing will stand between our rightful union. Nothing will stand betwixt our love, and our imperium. Our covenant._ **

**_Our empire of right and no wrong._ **

**_Our golden world, of only good, where evil shall be only a forgotten word._ **

**_Be ready, my love, for the time of man's hatred towards itself is finally over. Man's ascension towards its true form has come._ **

**_And we will be there to lead them to our new Eden. Our new empire's heaven on earth._ **

* * *

_Transcript end._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a pro tip, friends: Make sure that you have your planning stages done before you begin a story.
> 
> I have, but when I started this, I didn't. Now I do (Sort of), So this is definitely going to be edited around a lot.
> 
> In short order, welcome to Ascendancy, one of the few genuine war fics out there in this fandom, bar Biohazard and Tomorrow And Never Again (Of the former, I have only heard in reviews, the latter by experience of reading). However, it is not only that, but also part worldbuilding fic and deconstructionist fic as well.
> 
> That's right, I'm going to be writing this out as partly a deconstruction as well, where I take apart a lot of the former bits of RWBY's lore and add in my own ideas and bits and pieces, so be ready for all of that.
> 
> But most of all, be ready for the themes. This is a story that is not for the faint of heart. It's as dark as it is engaging.
> 
> If there is one prevailing theme that will be running through this fic, it's this: The light is always darkest before the dawn.
> 
> If there was another theme, it's the poem above, which really does encapsulate the entire message of this fic:
> 
> Do not go gentle into that good night, and rage rage rage against the dying of the light.
> 
> And that's another point that I'll be heading into about this fic: Its themes. There's going to be quite a few of them. When I was thinking this entire fic over in my head, I looked at what I definitely wanted to do, compared to what I could do, and everything seemed to click into place.
> 
> Want to know a fun tidbit? One of this story's biggest influences is Remnant Inferis: DOOM, by GamerJay.
> 
> Yeah, let that sink in.
> 
> Now, you may be wondering to yourself, Titanmaster117, what in the name of Oum could you be offering from any other RWBY fic out there like, literally everything made by Coeur Al'Aran that is different to yours?
> 
> I propose that I am offering something that no other RWBY fic has done before: A full blown war fic on Remnant, a complete retuning a redesigning of the lore around the world, and an in-depth look into the deep psychological issues that come with living in a world consumed by war, all tied together into a neat little bow.
> 
> Sound's fun, doesn't it?
> 
> So, coming up on the menu, we've got 'Survivor's Guilt', 'The manipulation of trust', 'Truth and lies', 'The horrors of war', and 'Dark pasts vs darker futures'.
> 
> But, juxtaposing that, we have 'The power of friendship' (I'm not kidding), 'The power of love', 'The strength of community', 'The innate good in humanity', and 'The refusal to die without a fight'.
> 
> But more than that, more importantly, are the themes of 'Destiny', and 'Love, and the absence of'.
> 
> I think you guys are really going to like the last one.
> 
> So, strap in fellas, and hold your loved ones tight. Not everyone is going to come out of this fine, and not every one is going to live to see the rising sun. The Grimm are on the rise with a new leader, legends are coming to life, the dark pasts of Beacon's teachers and students and the world around them are digging themselves out of the dirt and into the open, and our brave boy and his friends (Did you not read the summary?) Have no idea of the horrors that they are in for.
> 
> Like I said, the night is darkest before the dawn, and so, things must get worse before they get better.
> 
> So, with all of that in mind, I hope that we can see this through till the end, and until then, I shall see you all next time.
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	2. Hello Cruel World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a new day at Beacon, and a fresh new wave of Initiates are brought in for the Initiation tomorrow. People are met, friends are made, and plans are put into motion.
> 
> All of them unaware of what is to come...

**Main theme:** [Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
 **Theme:**[ _Forsaken from the Destiny 2: Forsaken soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7vpszYDFEo) ** _  
_**

* * *

_Be near me when my light is low,  
When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick  
And tingle; and the heart is sick,  
And all the wheels of Being slow._

_Be near me when the sensuous frame  
Is rack'd with pangs that conquer trust;  
And Time, a maniac scattering dust,  
And Life, a Fury slinging flame._

_Be near me when my faith is dry,  
And men the flies of latter spring,  
That lay their eggs, and sting and sing  
And weave their petty cells and die._

_Be near me when I fade away,  
To point the term of human strife,  
And on the low dark verge of life  
The twilight of eternal day._

**_In Memoriam_ (Section 50), by Alfred, Lord Tennyson**

* * *

_A new generation of Huntsman and Huntresses is coming soon. In a few days from now, a new year of Hunters- The best 200 from the coming 2000, the highest number of applications yet- Will be taking residence within these walls, and beginning their training to acquire their Hunters licenses, and carry out and fulfil whatever ambitions that they may carry for themselves, and become warriors ready to continue the war against the Grimm._

_It pains me to say that the ambitions of many of these Hunters to be do not align with the interests of humanity in any way, a lot of the time. Hunters are a pillar of hope and inspiration against the Grimm for humanity, and are the representation of the best that we can offer as a species. Strength, hope, heroism, determination, empathy, and learning to trust and work with others. And yet, thanks to the natural ambitions and greed of human hearts, the path of the Hunter has been twisted and turned into an easy path for monetary gain and status. It is now easier to gain personal status and recognition, as well as treasures, either money or items of lust, with the title of Hunter added to your person as well, as well as various other ambitions and purposes that do not align with the central tenants and pillars of a Hunter._

_(Due keep in note that while some Hunters' best interests do not align with that of the betterment of humanity as a whole, these Hunters can and likely will still perform good deeds and acts of benefit for innocents across the world against the Grimm or other threats, either because it is simply their job, or for their own less to selfless to selfish desires, proving that while some Hunters' motivations may not align with humanity's survival, their actions can speak otherwise._

_This can be seen some of the many different applications and accompanying psychological evaluations for the next year of Beacon Academy that I have seen and reviewed. This is most evidence many different persons, Cardin Winchester, Weiss Schnee, and Pyrrha Nikos, just to name a few._

_However, for every initiate that has applied for this academy with desires and aspirations that do not align with the image of a Hunter, there is an initiate who does, one who matches with at least one of the main central pillars of a Hunter. For every Weiss Schnee, there is a Kay Nin, for every Pyrrha Nikos, there is a Nora Valkyrie, and for every Cardin Winchester, there is a Jaune Arc, whom is a student that I shall write of for another day..._

**_Personal entry, written in Ozpin's journal, recovered from Beacon Academy_ **

* * *

_Early in the morning..._

* * *

As the morning sun lit up the once darkened sky over the kingdom of Vale, shooing away the darkness of the night, and ushering the baby blue that made up the sky, a familiar sight slowly crawling through the air greeted the civilians that lived and worked down below, moving in slow motion towards the cliffside, and the fabled land of demigods and superhumans that inhabited it. To those that lived in the city below, the sight was an uncommon, but still ordinary one, as each passing year, it brought with it a renewed sense of hope and optimism for the future to come.

High in the skies, aboard airships and Bullheads alike, around 2000 souls were on their way to Beacon, desperate and eager to join the elite of society that was the Hunters, the fabled heroes and superhumans of Remnant, that fought back against the tides of darkness and horror that was the Grimm, as well as protecting those who could not protect themselves against the monstrous horde, as well as any other threats and enemies that may try to bring man to it's knees. Aboard these airships, these future Huntsmen and Huntresses and whoever may lay in that strange technicolour rainbow in between, were ready to test their mettle and join the renowned and legendary Huntsman Academy, known only as Beacon Academy.

This school was legendary amongst the Hunters of Remnant, and served as a lighthouse for all aspiring Hunters and warriors of the 4 kingdoms (5 if you count Menagerie) To journey to. Here, the wheat was separated from the chaff, and the Academy routinely pumped out the best of the best, all of them ready to set off and make their dreams and aspirations come to fruition.

However, to the 2000 that inhabited the airships and Bullheads, ready to begin their life anew, they knew that only 200 at best would be allowed into the school after the infamous Initiation that Beacon was partially famous for. Only the best of the best, only the strongest and smartest of them would be allowed into the school of warriors. And this was a fact that all of these soon to be initiates were aware off.

And so, they prepared. They polished their blades, checked their firearms, practiced their semblances, and so on. Well, at least some of them did. Others were content with peering outside, to the city and kingdom below, gazing upon the land that they would soon call home. Some talked to each other, forging the beginning of alliances and friendships that would stay with them for the rest of their lives. A few sat to the sides, not wishing to parlay in the talk and banter that was shared by others, content with their own company. And others too chose to daydream of their lives ahead of themselves, envisioning a vision of themselves where all of the obstacles of their lives were overcome, and their dreams achieved.

One of these dreamers- These students to be- Stood on the ship, his collapsible shield sheathing his sword to his side, armour covering the important parts of his body, the golden double crescents adorning him with pride, as he carried himself with pride and dignity, befitting of a man of his title and family heritage...

Which he immediately sacrificed to sprint onto the top deck and projectile vomit his lunch from his stomach off of the airship, and into the unknown. Perhaps it hit another airship? Or a bird? Or a person? Who knows. The person or bird that was presumably hit, no matter, but that wasn't his problem, no sire.

Jaune Arc, Scion of the Arc family, and heir to the simple Arc family farming property that his twin sister Rogue Arc had christened the Second Arcadia about 2 years back, muttered angrily to himself, as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. Great, now his sleeve needed a wipe, _Dammit, where are the bathrooms on this floating metal bathtub? You'd think that a floating school bus would have something as needed as a place where you might need to go numbers 1 to 2?! I mean, seriously!_

Complaining and bemoaning of Valerian public transportation aside (For now, of course), Jaune moved once more to find a bathroom, trying his best not to make physical contact with anyone as he explored on his great nd epic quest to find the mythological room of the baths, less he accidently hit someone of his pukey sleeve and get a punch to the face as a reward.

Top deck? No bathroom in sight.

Near the captain's seat? Nope. All he got from that was a swift kick out of the cockpit.

Middle deck? No such luck.

Cargo hold? Nada.

Near that weird flappy wing thingy on the outside of the airship, where that butterfly was perched on? Nein.

Flipping hell, who designed these airships!? When he got onto actual ground, he was going to have a word with the designer of this airship, and give him a serious telling off for not accommodating for passengers with air sickness. This will not stand!

 _Ugh, my mouth tastes like stomach acid_ , he thought as he decided to abandon his search, hoping that there was at least somewhere that he could clean himself up. He decided against public drinking areas, for obvious reasons, and was still considering options, before feeling something hit him, and falling to the floor with a loud {THUD}.

Had he run into a wall? Felt like it. Actually, no it didn't. It felt a bit softer. A bit more rounded then a flat wall. Also, it let out a little yelp when he ran into it. Almost like a girl...

Jaune quickly opened his eyes and rubbed his back, to see a girl in red hair and emerald eyes, adorned with Amazonian armour and clothing, doing the same thing.

Ah, he'd not run into a wall. Instead, he'd run into a person.

Aw man, that's even worse!

"Ah crap, I'm so sorry!" Jaune quickly apologised as he jumped up and offered the girl his hand- His clean hand, his left hand, just to let anyone know- To which the girl took the offer, and grabbed his hand, Jaune responding by pulling her up to her feet, and dusting himself off quickly, and continuing on, "I was trying to find a bathroom, because of motion sickness reasons- Which is a very common thing, can I just say?- And I couldn't find it, and I wasn't looking where I was going, and-"

"It's fine, it's fine", said the girl, who, can Jaune just say, had a rather pleasant voice, in turn dusted herself off and looked to him with a smile to her face, though it seemed a bit fake itself, "I'm sorry too. I wasn't looking where I was going, either."

"Ah, don't worry, it's fine", Jaune replied. This girl seemed rather familiar, though he didn't know where from.

And then, he made the mistake of quickly glancing to the side, and looking outside the window...

And seeing the escorting Bullheads...

The moving Bullheads...

"Hugh", Jaune quickly covered his mouth, motion sickness capturing his again, as his cheeks became bloated, and he was only able to mutter, "I-I gotta go! Bathroom! Oh god", before charging off, ignorant of the small crowd that had gathered around him and the red haired girl.

"Oh, er, the bathroom's down the corridor you're heading too, then a left, then a right!" the red haired girl helpfully called out.

"Thanks", he mouthed as he looked back to her, holding a thumb up high, though he did then notice the crowd that had gathered around the red haired girl, looking all starry eyed and as if they were looking at a holy figure or a character right out of a fairy tale. Raising an eyebrow, he was then reminded of his motion sickness, and quickly ran to the bathroom, following the directions that that helpful girl had given her.

Seriously, where had he seen her before?

Ah well, it's probably not important.

As he rounded the corner, he came across a wide cabin, with an important, and frankly terrifying looking hologram of a woman, probably saying something important that he should've been listening too, before blinking out, and with windows that looked out into the world beyond, as clouds and mountains moved and floated by in the world beyond the airship.

It was too much. He groaned, and stumbled away, trying to find his way out of the cabin, his eyes closed throughout the stumble, before they opened, looking right at 2 girls, one of them a young looking girl with black hair tipped in red, eyes a shade of silver he had never seen before, and dressed in black and red gothic clothing with a red cape, the other an older looking girl with long- Very long- Blonde hair, lilac eyes, bracelets on both her wrists, and clothing that left little to the imagination.

Jaune looked at the blonde haired girl.

And then to her boots.

_Sorry boots, you look nice, and I feel bad for doing this, but it's time to hand over your cleanliness._

* * *

_One puke shoe provided kick to the teeth, quick clean up session in the bathroom, and landing later..._

* * *

_Ugh, this sucks_ , Jaune thought, as he offloaded what's left of his lunch- Again- As well as a bit of stomach acid, he noticed, into a trash bin. If this was an omen of his time to come at Beacon, then it was surely not a good one.

This was not a good way to start his school life.

That is, if he even survives the mysterious initiation.

As he wiped his face and hands with a handwipe- One that a boy around his age with a foreign complexion, pink eyes, and green clothing, and thanked him profusely as the green clothed boy waved it off, and went of to join a hyperactive looking girl with short orange hair- And threw it in the bin that he had just puked in, he began to rethink his coming to Beacon.

When he was younger, his parents and sisters had told him tales and legends of his father's heroics and adventures as a Huntsman, and then of his grandfather's career as a Huntsman as well, and then his great-grandfather, and his father before that, who had served as a simple soldier in the Great War, where his family heirloom that he carried with him at his side, the simple sword that had been given the name of Crocea Mors, as well as the collapsible shield sheath that came with it, had helped to bring the kingdom of Mistral to heel, and had breached the walls of Mantle and brought down many of it's welders foes, welded by his great-great-grandfather, Michael Arc, and then his mother before him, Joan of Arc.

(That last one was rather obscure, despite her being his great-great-grandfather's mother, who herself fought in the Great War, up until the middle of it, when the kingdoms had to call a truce to fight the Grimm that'd been swelling and overrunning their territories, in an event known as the Cataclysm, which she died in, and Crocea Mors was passed down to her next in kin. Strangely enough, many and most, of not all of the details of the Cataclysm have been wiped away, as if someone didn't want people to know what happened. Strange).

And even beyond that, were legends and tales that stretched far beyond the times of the Great War, and to the legends and myths that peppered the known past of Remnant, as well as the unknown, with names such as Jeanne d'Arc, Callixtus Arc, Jehanne Arc. From the Valerian Skism, or the War of Roses, or whatever title the nobles and council gave it, where the great families of Vale tore themselves apart over the crown and the right to the monarchy of Vale, to the forging of the 4 Kingdoms of Mantle, Vale, Mistral, and Vacuo, and to even the legends and mythologies that floated before the Great Foundings, the fairy tales of the 2 Brothers of Light and Dark and the religion that followed it, Danse Dans Les Ombres, the man who walked across Remnant and used both the powers of darkness and light to bring upon Remnant the future of Mankind, and the one who gifted man its semblance, or the legend of Sulphur and Omega, the bride and groom that became king and queen, or even the fairy tale of Azul Primus, where a Faunus lord by the name of Azul Primus brought together all of the scattered settlements of man on Remnant, and united them all under the rule of him and his White Fang, as well as a supposed King of Remnant, who supposedly forged Crocea Mors out of aura itself, but one day, he left, and it was said that he and his White Fang would return one day to bring about Remnant's reckoning, and only the King of Remnant would be able to face him and bring about a new golden age for all of man, human and Faunus.

Jaune wasn't one for history, but he knew at least enough about those before him, thanks to his parents and sisters, that the Arc name before him had been held by great heroes. Each of his forbearers held legacies of heroism and righteousness that made the name of Arc almost synonymous with heroes and adventurers, as well as great warriors and even leaders of settlements and armies. And when Jaune had been shown these legends and tales, these stories and myths, he knew what he had to be. He knew what his future was to hold.

He had to be a Huntsman. He had to uphold his family legacy, and become a hero, just like his forbearers. He had to save as many people as he could, and do as much good as he could. It was the path in his life that he felt was right. The only path that he felt was worth following. Anything else, either more or less, just wasn't right. Wasn't one that he had to walk. He didn't believe in destiny, or fate, or anything like that, but he knew, from the first second that he had heard the tales of the Arcs before him, that this was the way forward. The road that he had to travel.

And he would do it because it was the right thing to do. Because, as an Arc, he had an unspoken responsibility to take the blade that slung at his side, and use it against those who would do Remnant and its people harm. The other Arcs of his family- His sisters, his mother and father, and everyone else- Could choose and do whatever they wished. Theirs was a future and dream of their own choosing. He could ask them to do no more or less. But this was something that he had to do. Something that he knew was his calling from day 1. The Grimm attack on the farm over a year ago, and the death of his father only helped to further this motivation.

And he would be damned if he didn't become a hero that the previous welders of Crocea Mors would be proud of.

Unfortunately, his parents didn't think that this was a good career path. Repeatedly, they'd denied his pleas and requests to go into combat school, or at least train in combat, and continuously tried to push him towards different career choices. They didn't wish for their only son run off to become a Huntsman, as they thought that no more Arcs had to, in their words, "Throw their lives away for a never ending battle that would never change", Jaune's father, while he was stil alive, had been eager to put up the family blade over the fireplace and leave it there to collect dust. But that was something that Jaune didn't want. Though, to be fair, his mother was supportive of Jaune's decision as he left, even though she didn't believe that he would accomplish it.

_"Don't worry if you have to move back home! We'll be here for you!"_

The words still hurt, even if she didn't mean it.

Luckily, his sisters believed in his dream, and were willing to help him accomplish it.

Well, okay, that might not be true for the most part.

Saphron, the eldest of the siblings, Doris, the adventurous tomboy and young scrap that was had dreams of becoming an adventurer or a camp owner, teaching others about the joys of the wild (He remembered how she'd always been the one to find the right camp sites whenever they went camping, and had been the most enthusiastic about going out into the wild), Rouge, Jaune's twin, with a personality very akin to a curious and energetic (To say the least) Puppy, and Jenna, the smartest of the siblings, despite being one of the youngest, closer to Jaune's age, but just younger, had all expressed their encouragement in chasing his dream, even if they themselves either didn't like it for differing reasons, or were sure that he wasn't going to pass (Jenna had said that the chances of Jaune even making it past Beacon's initiation were 8.938%, and when it's a specifically specific number with Jenna, you know it to be true), and they had even helped him with training with Crocea Mors, in their free time, and when Saphron visited with her wife and new born baby, and Doris had even helped him get into a little fitness schedule to help him fit into his armour and proper clothing, and to that, he was eternally grateful for them.

His other siblings were... Less than encouraging. Jack and Jill, twin sisters and extremely energetic, were very fond of their only brother, and protested profusely to Jaune, so that he wouldn't go to Beacon. Said that it would be boring without their big brother to hang around with them, to which he had blushed quite a bit, but stayed his ground, never the less. He would not be swayed by the puppy dog eyes of those 2! Not this time, so he decree!

His last sister, Viola, the second eldest of the Arc siblings, was a very different case. To say that the 2 of them were attached at the hip was an understatement. Viola and Jaune were almost always together, hanging out in the same room, playing video games together, building dens in the nearby woods, playing around with the animals, and then later, when they came to Jewel back home, and to the Second Arcadia, going down to the shooting range with Apollo, strutting their stuff down the marketplace, and so on and so forth. Viola was the most affectionate of her little brother (Not to say that his other sisters weren't), And was basically the mother of the house whenever their actual mother or Saphron wasn't around, and Jaune loved Viola, and proclaimed her his favourite sister, much to the ire of the other sisters, and this definitely wasn't a biased opinion due to Viola always spoiling him rotten. Why on Remnant would you think that?

Jaune had held out on telling Viola, knowing that she wouldn't agree with him. Knowing that she would try to talk him down. To make it that he didn't venture of to make his dream come true. So he kept it a secret. He kept it a secret, until the last night before he would leave. He sat her down, and told her of what was to come. Where he would go. To say that she was upset was, like once said, an understatement...

_"Jaune! You are- You have no training! You never went to a Combat School! You've never picked up that fucking sword! You've never been in a fight! I've never even seen you try to wear that fucking armour before! And now you- Now you've decided to drop a fucking bombshell on me and tell me that you've decided to run off to commit suicide all the way in Vale- The corrupt death trap that it is!- And join every other insane psychopath that decided to sell their lives and souls in fighting a stupid, pointless war against a magic negativity monster race or whatever! And you're going in with nothing but an old sword and shield, motion sickness- You have motion sickness by the way, in case you forgot!- And forged transcripts! Fucking forged transcripts! That's illegal, you moron! You cou- No, you will be going to prison for that shit! Just what the fuck are you thinking?!"_

He told Viola about his dream. About his aspirations. About how much he wanted to become a hero just like his father, and then like his father before him, and his father before him, and his father before him.

_"HEROES DON'T EXIST YOU IDIOT! All that those self-proclaimed 'Heroes' are, are just a bunch of selfish, self righteous pricks that just so happened to draw the lucky straw in a war, and rewrote themselves to replace their selfishness with selflessness! You wanna know what our great-great-grandpappy was? He was a killer! That's what Hunters are, Jaune! That's what 'Heroes' are! Killers! Liars and bastards, who throw away their own innocence for their own self gratitude! And even the actually altruistic Huntsman and Huntresses- All those guys and girls that are actually good- They get nothing! The people that they help will throw their kindness in their faces and kick them in the dirt! The good that they do will be subverted and replaced by something worse! And then they'll die, fighting a war which they could never win! That's what good guys do, Jaune! That's what actually good people do! They DIE! Unloved, and thankless! If you go out there, you'll die! An early, undeserved death, protecting people that won't deserve it, and won't thank you for it!"_

He told her to stop, to not throw their great-great-grandfather's name in his face, and that he didn't care if he was thanked, or if he was loved for doing good. As long as he was saving people, and giving them a bit longer to live their lives, then he was perfectly happy with that.

_"...Do you know what our Grandfather's last words were? When mom and dad and me were at his death bed? When you were a baby, and I was still young. I was holding onto his hand for dear life, and he looked to mum and dad, and he said, "Don't let him be like me. Don't let him throw his life away like I did", he said that to them. And then Dad said the exact thing- That exact same thing- To mum before he died after the farm was attacked. They said that because they didn't want to see you throw your life away for- For- For whatever. They didn't want you to waste your life chasing a dream that wasn't worth chasing. A well trodden path that would only leave you to fester and die. And I don't either. I always took mum and dad's side when it came to these things because I refused to allow another Arc to waste their lives acting as the little toy soldiers of Ozpin, or Ironwood, or Cordovin, or whoever, sent out to die for a fight that they would have no chance in hell of winning, or even making an impact in..."_

Jaune had nothing left to say after that. He had nothing to refute, or even a reply for her words. Only a long, uncomfortable silence.

_"Jaune, please. Don't go. Don't throw your life away for a cause and people not worth fighting for. There are other way to be a hero..."_

There was silence for a few more moments, before he gave his answer. He told Viola that he had to get a good nights sleep that night, as the Bullhead to the Valerian terminal left early in the morning, and he had already packed. He gave her his goodbyes, and left to his room.

It made for a bitter fair well between them the next day.

However, now, Jaune was beginning to see the truth in Viola's words. He had come to Beacon with no training, no experience, no actual combat prowess, or any skills to speak of, trying to fake his way in with falsified transcripts and documents that were probably easy to figure out they were fake if anyone bothered to do any kind of background check (Which the staff that ran Beacon probably did), And was running solely on luck and hopefully good fortune. His entire plan was skewed and capable of falling apart at any moment.

Maybe Viola would forgive him if he went back now and apologised profusely?

Probably not.

 _No, focus Jaune, focus!_ he thought to himself, as he hit his cheeks, _You've come too far to give up now. You have a family legacy to uphold, and future people to save, and maybe possibly a girlfriend to acquire, but that's secondary! I mean, the hero thing comes first, obviously, but hey, if you can bag a girlfriend, Jaune my man, then all the better! You'll finally be able to get rid of the title of virgin at 17, and that lucky lady will be going out with the newest, hottest stuff on campus!_

…

_Man, I sound like a scumbag. Oh well, playboy attitude, put away, locked in a box, and thrown in a river. Let's not go there ever again._

Jaune quickly slapped his cheeks, eager to get moving to the... Where were they suppose to go to, now? Ah, dammit, the scary looking hologram lady probably said. Ugh, stupid motion sickness.

He sighed, and pressed on, observing his surroundings, as he walked down the ramp and down the avenue that lead from the docking bay to the massive tower that stood above the other structures that made up Beacon Academy. By the sides of the avenue, there were old pillars that were paired with each other by arches, making rings around the avenue, some of them closer to each other around a stone statue of a man and woman standing tall above a wolf like creature that Jaune assumed was a variant of the Grimm that he would soon face (He'd only seen the Chimera one or whatever it was, and the Nevermore, as well as those 2... Things, that had been leading them), half circles of water separating the rings with ponds, making a sort of garden for the plants that grew between the pillars under the shade of the arches, trees with petals and leaves that were red like roses stood with the pillar rings and the ponds, and old fashion looking lights populated the sides of the avenue, until it stretched and reached a structure at the end of the path, which he assumed to be the gate to the campus courtyard.

Beyond the gate like structure, he could see the tips of the buildings and structures that made up the campus, each one ending on a dome or pyramid, with a tall ball ended pin tipping off each of them. Some of these buildings were interconnected with bridges between them, sloping up and down, and creating a spider web like pattern between them. However, these buildings and bridges were dwarfed by the central Beacon tower, acting as a literal beacon, green lights shining like fireflies in their cage, trapped and unable to leave and join their kin.

The entire structure and layout of the campus reminded Jaune of one of those old castles that you see when you read an old fantasy story. With the princess in the castle, and all that. Only this time, the dragon that held the princess was the Hunters training curriculum, and the princess was his Hunters license. That was a terrible analogy, he knew that, shut up.

Still though, as the knight that he was- Or in this case, as the knight that he was soon going to be trained as- He swore that he would save the princess (His Hunters license) from the evil dragon (Hunters training curriculum), and by god, and Arc never goes back on their-

{THUD}

-Word.

Is this going to be a running trend?

Well, luckily, he didn't fall over this time. Just stumbled a bit. At least there's an improvement. Hey, his training's already begun. Lesson 1: Maintaining your balance and keeping on your feet= Done! A+ all around!

"Hey, watch it!"

Lesson 2: How to not annoy or bother women= Getting there. Should be easy.

Jaune looked back in front of him, to see 2 girls- Twins, by the looks of it- Looking back at him. The 2 of them were of similar height, had black hair, pale green eyes, knee high boots, and strapless dresses. They also looked more like fashion models rather than soon to be Hunters. However, one of them had short hair, 2 feathers, one red and one white, sticking above her left ear, a cut of black fur that hung from her shoulders, wrist bracelets that held 2 claw like blades in place, and her dress was red with black lining and seemingly covered in newspaper articles. It all gave her a sort of gothic like appearance. The other, in contrast to her sibling, had long hair, with a white flower hairpin above her left ear, a scarf made of feathers, and a white pad on her left shoulder that was adorned with red and white feathers. Her strapless dress was pure white with cyan lining, a bow sitting atop her chest, cyan wings that complimented her back, and her boots held blades in the back of the heels (She's gonna kick her enemies to death? Seems a bit impractical, but hey, what'd he know?).

"Oh, sorry", apologised Jaune, as he nervously shuffled in place. He'd walked into the white clothed one, "I was- I mean I wasn't looking where I was-"

"It is fine, sir", gently said the red dressed one, quickly dusting off her newspaper article dress, and looking back up to him, her hands clasped before her, "Nothing to worry about", the look on her face was one of familiarity. Supposedly, this kinda thing must happen to her quite a bit.

Her twin in white then muttered, "Pushover."

The twin in red then turned to her, and firmly said, "Hardly", before turning back to Jaune, a patient look upon her.

Jaune couldn't help but squint his eyes for a second as she looked at the red twin, as she looked him right in the eyes. There was something about her, like she knew something that no one else did, like she held something within her that no one else knew. She looked into his eyes, and looked like she was staring right into his soul, gazing over every single little detail. And horribly enough, it looked like this woman knew exactly what he was thinking, as she tilted her head to the side and giggled.

There was quite the silence following, the 3 of them looking at each other and not moving a muscle, before Jaune quickly stammered, shuffling in place, and saying, "Oh, cra- Crud, sorry, I didn't tell you my name. This is where I'm suppose to, er- _Ahem_ , sorry", he then pointed his thumbs towards himself, "Jaune. Jaune Arc. That's my name. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it!"

The 2 of them raised an eyebrow each, and the white themed twin asked in a sceptical tone, "You sure about that?"

"Oh, um, maybe, I hope so, my- My mum says that they will, so I hope that they do. Do you?"

The red themed one tapped her chin, "While love is a very strong word to use, I would say that the name is aesthetically pleasing to say, so you have one thing going for you, it seems", she paused, and then rolled the name off of her tongue, "Jaune Arc. Hm, see. Sounds nice to say."

"Haha, I'm getting there! Soon, all of the ladies shall fall to their knees when hearing thy name!" he then paused, and looked to the twins in front of him, "I mean, I-if they want to! I'm not gonna tell them to fall to- I'm sorry, can we start over and pretend that didn't happen?"

"Nah", smirked the white themed one, though there seemed to be a hint of disappointment in her voice.

"Oh."

"You don't talk to a lot of women, do you?"

"Only my sisters. And my mum. And my Grandma. And my eldest sister's wife."

"Ah, I see. In that case, you need practice", the white themed girl's face then adopted a look of disappointment to go with her voice, "Seriously, if you want to flirt with us, crashing into us isn't going to cut it."

"Wait, wha- I wasn't- I wasn't trying to-"

"Ah ah ah, zip it, Lady Killer, you don't need to try and hide your intentions. I can smell a wannabe flirt from a mile off. You think you've got the skill and the right to try and seduce us? Ha, fat chance, boy."

"I-I wasnt trying-"

"Shush now, do you hear that? That's the sound of me not caring."

"Er-"

"Get lost, tall, blond, and scraggly, you", she pointed her finger to his chest, "Are not welcome, in our domain."

"D-Domain?" Jaune replied.

"Our personal space. Our bodies. Our domains. Get it?"

"Wha-What? I-"

"Hush. Silence. Me not caring. Get it yet?"

"Melanie, please, there is no need to be so crass", said the one in red, as she looked from her sister- 'Melanie', it appeared her sister in white's name was- Before looking to Jaune, and calmly saying, "I apologise for my sister. She is not the most...", she paused, as if trying to find the right thing to say, "'Polite'... Person out there."

"Hey I heard those air quotes."

Jaune didn't really have a response for them, except for a very uncomfortable and long, "Errrrrr...", seeing as his confidance and entire being had been shattered by a girl that he barely knew, it was safe to say that he couldn't think of a response that he assumed wouldn't leave him subject to ridicule from this Melanie character.

Man, a good distraction would be good right about now.

{BOOM}

Huh, convinient.

Jaune and Melanie quickly looked to the origin of the loud noise, the red themed twin slowly following after, to see a little ball of fire, ice, and electricity rise up from the ground, and 4 figures, all of them women- One rather young looking girl in black and red, short cut hair coloured black with red tips at the end, with a sort of gothic Red Riding Hood look going on, a rather beautiful girl with skin as white and flawless as snow, snow white hair tied into a ponytail, and a strapless white dress and borelo with red lining, a formal looking girl with chocolate coloured skin, a blue beret, white shirt and long blue skirt, elbow length fingerless gloves, and black shoes, and a lithe, fair skinned girl with a bow atop her head, long black hair, a black vest over a white sleeveless undershirt, stockings with a black to purple gradient, black ribbons covering her arms, a small loose scarf covering her neck, and what looked like a magnetic backpack covered by her hair, as well as a few men in fancy looking suits loading up a trolley. From what it looked like, the girls were having an altercation, and it looked like it was getting particularly nasty.

Jaune looked to the twins, and then to the group of girls, and then to the twins, and then to the group of girls, and then to the twins, and then to the group of girls, and then to the twins, and then to the group of girls, and then to the twins, and nervously began with, "Erm, I'm, er, I'm gonna-"

"Of course", said the girl in red, a knowing look upon her, "Go on, don't let us hold you down, my friend."

Her sister, Melanie, let out a, "Humph", and turned her head the other way, while the sister in red chuckled, and waved him off.

Jaune took this as his oppurtunity to go, and began to walk off, giving them a little wave as a goodbye, _Well, that talk went well_ , he thought to himself, _And by well, I mean terribly. Ugh, it's gonna be so awkward between us now, if we ever talk again._

"When we see each other again, it will be under more pleasent circumstances, Mister Arc", said the girl in red. Jaune didn't entirely hear her, and gave a hesitant thumbs up in response, and focused himself on the group that he was moving towards, which had now split up, the pale girl and formal clothed girl going on way with the men in suits, while the lithe girl went on her own in the other, the gothic girl in black and red collapsing to the ground onto her back, her arms and legs flayed out.

"Welcome to Beacon...", he heard her mutter, as he walked up to her, and casted his shadow over her.

"Hey... I'm Jaune", he said as he offered her his hand.

"Ruby", the girl in black and red replied, as she took his hand, and allowed him to pull her up to her feet, then asking the million Lien question, "Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?"

"Ugh..."

* * *

Melanie Malachite looked to her twin, Miltia Malachita (Or Miltiades, if you wanted to know what the longer version was), With a raised brow, seeing the strange sparkle in her eyes, and asked, "Your thoughts, sis?"

Miltia looked to Melanie, and said, "He is like us. In the sort of same boat as us, I would say. He faked his way in. At least, as far as I can tell. He seems weak, scraggly, and looks like he has had little combat training, battle prowess, little skill in battle, at least, physically, and has little confidance in himself. Also, he's a rather poor flirt."

"He's a terrible flirt, from what I've seen just now", said Melanie, as she looked to him and the Little Red Riding Hood as they walked off, huffing and going, "Best not to talk to him. Or have anything to do with him. Guys like that moron don't deserve to be with us. Or in a 10 mile radius of us, for that matter."

"You are very critical of others, sister. You needn't be like this", Miltia calmly said, "Yes, he is not up to our standards in terms of dating stats- Or at least yours, of course- But let us think more about this: Perhaps he actually didn't fake his way in like us, and was legitimately allowed in, though in this case, not because of his physic, but for his intelligence and strategic mind. Strength is not always about physical prowess, you forget, dear sister of mine. Perhaps he is one of the best strategists and tactical thinkers out there, as well as intelligent", the look on her face made it seemed like she thought of it less of a suggestion and more as a fact.

"Er, not even 2 minutes ago, remember?" Melanie drawled with her eyebrow raised even further. Was Miltia really considering that idiot? Ridiculous.

Then again, perhaps Miltia knew something that she didn't. Her sister always seemed like she knew something that everyone else didn't. A lot of decisions that she'd made over the years seemed to have been made with the tact of a girl who knew a lot more than she was letting on.

Then again, maybe she was just trying to get with him. She tended to have a thing for the blond lanky ones.

"Being intelligent and being socially capable are 2 different things, Melanie", Miltia went, "You forget, we've engaged with intelligent people before who tripped up on their own words. And most of the time, those people have been some of the best people that we've ever interacted with."

"Most of the time", Melanie argued.

"Sure, I will make sure to stay on my toes", went Miltia with the look of someone who would clearly not, "But I doubt that I'll need to. He seems like a rather amiable person. Utterly awkward, but kinda adorkable, in his own way", she finished off with a smile.

"Feh, you've always had a thing for the noodles", Melanie scoffed.

"I've had a thing for the nice ones. There's a difference."

"All the people you've been with were noodles."

"And they were nice."

"Whatever", Melanie said, "Besides, now's not the time to start scoping out possible sex buddies."

"That's only you", Miltia deadpanned, then chuckled, a nostalgic feeling came over her.

"What?"

"I don't scope people out, you do."

"Okay, again, whatever. Just keep your focus", Melanie began to move down the avenue, her sister following close behind her, students of all walks of life walking with and past them, the occasional boy or girl glancing at them and admiring them, or even feeling ballsy enough to catcall them, though the 2 ignored them, and kept strutting along, "Remember why we're here."

"Of course I do. I haven't forgotten why", Miltia said, "Why do you think I'm still here, and not with Uncle Hei?"

"Because you hate that blonde bitch as much as I do?" she left out the last part of her thoughts.

"Language, and which one?" asked Miltia, who then adopted a smirk, "Someone has to be there to save your skin, like always. It might as well be the only reason I'm here, if we are being honest", she was lying, but Melanie could barely tell. There was another reason that she was here, there had to be.

"Shut yourself."

"No."

"Ugh, you are an absolute pain in the ass."

"You love me."

"Yeah, I do, and I hate it- Wha… Hey", Melanie placed one of her arms before her sibling, and pointed the other one forward, in the direction of a familiar long haired blonde girl, "There's the bitch!"

"Again, which one?" asked Miltia, "You've gifted quite a few people with the moniker of 'Bitch'."

"The blonde one!"

"Again, which one?"

"The bimbo with the ridiculous mane and the stupidly huge melons!"

"...Again, which one?"

"Now you're just doing it to piss me off!"

"Guilty as charged", Miltia chuckled, and then narrowed her eyes, "Ah, the bar destroyer. I see as to whom you are referring to."

"Yeah", Melanie stretched her legs and stabbed her heels into the ground, "Shall we, sis?"

The Malachite twins eyes met with the blonde girl's.

Miltia armed her claws, and smirked, "Oh, we shall."

* * *

"All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on!" Jaune whined, as he and the new girl- Ruby Rose, her name was, which seemed a bit on the nose considering her chosen attire of red and black- Walked down a winding road together, next to a river that went alongside it, arches and pillars, and the same red trees adorning the sides like before.

From what he could tell, this Ruby girl was about a year or 2 younger than him, which was incredible in his opinion for her to get in this early- She must be someone really special, if she was skilled enough to get in at her age- And seemed to be quite pleasant company from first impressions alone. She seemed to carry herself with an air of positivity and perky attitude, and it was very easy to catch that attitude when around her, if their entire interaction for the last 10 minutes was anything to go by.

Now, if only she hadn't come up with the dumb name. That's a negative point, in his opinion.

Ruby giggled, as she then said, "Look, I'm sorry! Vomit Boy was the first thing that came to mind."

Jaune then narrowed his eyes, "Oh, yeah? What if I called you Crater Face?"

Ruby then pouted, and went, "Hey, that explosion was an accident!"

Jaune then smirked at his small victory, and pointed his thumb to his chest, "Well, the name's Jaune Arc! Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue - ladies love it!"

Ruby then proceeded to raise an eyebrow, and asked in a sceptical tone, "Do they?"

"They will!" Jaune quickly went, before hesitantly saying, "Well, I-I hope they will. My mom always says that... Never mind", right, he was beginning to see something of a pattern emerging.

Ruby giggled at his terrible, oh so terrible attempt at being a flirty flirt-

Not that he was about to start flirting with someone possible below the age of consent. Until he knew what the girl's age was, he was going to assume that she was 16 or younger, and not try to do any of his obviously saucy moves on her. Better to be safe than sorry. Though, to be fair, even if she was at the legal age of consent, the fact that she looked like she was at least a few years below him was proving to be a bit of a turn off. Not that she wasn't, well, attractive, by any means, because she certainly was good looking, to say the least, but he wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of flirting with someone younger than him.

-And then allowed an awkward silence to fall over them for a few moments, before breaking it with a whirl.

"So... I got this thing!" she chirped as she pulled out a giant black and red scythe looking thingy- Bigger than her entire body might he add!- From her side and stabbed it into the ground. How the hell was a girl her size able to move around with that thing? And where did she get it from?! The Grim Reaper's personal armoury?!

"Whoa!" Jaune yelped as he recoiled and jumped back in surprise, "Is that a scythe?"

"It's also a customizable high-impact sniper rifle!"

"A-wha...?"

She cocked her big scythe thingy, and smiled, "It's also a gun."

"Oh. That's cool!" how could anyone not find it cool, even if the idea of a small girl having a big scythe/gun/thing over a third of her height seemed extremely impractical, but again, hey, what did he know?

"So what've you got?"

"Oh! I, uh...", oh god, she was going to make fun of him for not having some big f-off pew pew stab stabby thingy, wasn't she? Ah well, might as well get his mockery over and done with, as he pulled out his flaccid and puny sword, and went, "I got this sword!"

"Ooooohh!" she went as she looked over the sword, looking like she was completely dissecting the blade with her eyes. He was pretty sure he could see calculations and equations floating over her eyes for a second.

 _Okay, that's a promising start_ , he thought to himself, _Let's try not to ruin it_ , "Yeah, and I've got a shield, too!"

He then grabbed the sheath from his belt, and raised it to his arm, allowing it to expand out into its shield form, and raised it up as if to block an incoming attack. Ruby seemed to like it, and went to fiddle with it, "So, what do they do?"

He wasn't sure what she pressed (Must've pressed like a pressure plate or something or other), But the second she touched it, it somehow jumped right off of his arm and into the air, leaving him to twirl around for about 3 to 5 seconds in a show of shame and embarrassment before the shield shifted right back into its sheath form and plopped onto the ground, which Jaune quickly picked up and placed it back on his arm, extending it out once more.

After an awkward moment, "The shield gets smaller", he said, shrinking the shield back into its sheath and placing it on his belt, and then hesitantly said, "So when I get tired of carrying it, I can just... Put it away..."

"But... wouldn't it weigh the same?"

"Yeah, it does...", he said as his shoulders slumped in dejection.

Ruby hesitantly chuckled in turn, and then gestured to her weapon, "Well, I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons, sooo... I guess I did go a little overboard when designing it."

Wait, what?!

"Wait - you made that?!" he asked in surprise.

"Of course! All students at Signal forge their own weapons! Didn't you make yours?" she asked herself.

Okay, slight bit miffed, but that's probably just his fault. If she made her weapon, then probably everyone else in Beacon will have made their own. He felt a bit unsure if he should even try and compete with Ruby and her stupidly cool scythe/gun/thingy, but he might as well try.

"It's a hand-me-down", he went as he gestured with his sword, "My great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the war."

"Sounds more like a family heirloom to me!"

Ouch.

She laughed a bit, before seemingly sensing what she'd said, and went, "Well, I like it! Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days."

"Yeah", he went as he sheathed Crocea Mors in its sheath, "The classics..."

"So why'd you help me out back there? In the courtyard?" Ruby asked as they began moving once more down the path before them.

"Eh, why not?" Jaune went as he caught up with Ruby and began moving with her, and then letting that white, red, and gold butterfly from before rest on his outstretched finger for a moment, right before it fluttered away, "My mom always says, 'Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet.'"

"Hmm", the girl in black and red went as she narrowed one of her eyes, before looking around as asking, "Hey, where are we going?"

"Oh, I don't know! I was following you", he went as they both stopped in place, and looked around awkwardly, "Y-You think there might be a directory? Maybe a food court? Some kind of recognizable landmark?... Is, uh... Is that a 'No'?"

Ruby chuckled, as she then said, "That's a 'No'."

Jaune rubbed the back of his head, as he then asked, "Should we go, I don't know, um, ask someone? Or something?"

"Um, yeah, sure, I guess we should", Ruby went just as awkwardly, "Like, do you mean a teacher, or-"

{BOOM}

"-Some what was that?!"

Both of them flipped around and looked to the origin of the explosive sound, and readied her weapon, Ruby levelling her scythe/gun/thingy, and Jaune raised his feeble sword in turn, himself asking, "Are we under attack or some...", he then lowered his blade in confusion, "Thing..."

Not too far from them, a girl with long blonde hair (He was pretty sure that it was the same blond girl who's shoes he's chucked up on back on the bullhead, and now thinking back to it was making him queasy all over again) Was having a right old brawl with the twins that he'd hilariously tried to flirt with before, firing shotgun shells left and right from her bracelets (?), Tearing up the grass, and dodging swoops and swipes from the 2 sisters, Melanie and the girl in red.

 _She's got shotguns in her bracelets?! What is it with weapons in this school?!_ Jaune thought to himself, _And why didn't she just use those back on the airship? Didn't need to kick my teeth in... With her new puke shoes... Then again, if she did, then I'd currently be missing half my head, so maybe it's more of a blessing then anything else... WAIT A MINUTE, I COULD'VE LOST MY HEAD!?_

The long blonde haired girl then saw both of the 2 awkward teens, and then yelled, "RUBY! A LITTLE HELP HERE?!" leading to both of the siblings that were fighting her to look to her, and then to Jaune and Ruby's direction as well, all of them now looking right at each other, pausing and standing awkwardly in place.

"Um... Ruby, isn't that the girl that you were with on the airship?...", Jaune hesitantly asked, "...You know... The one who's shoes I... _Ahem_... Yeah."

Ruby looked at Jaune.

And then at the 3 girls before them.

And then at Jaune.

And then at the 3 girls before them.

And then took Jaune's arm, and began marching off, "I have never seen that girl before in my life."

"RUBY WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"LANGUAGE!"

* * *

It had taken them a while, but eventually both Ruby and Jaune finally found out where they were suppose to go to, being the main auditorium, and were allowed to follow a bubbly Faunus girl with a rather flashy and colourful outfit and accessories to the auditorium. Once they got there, Jaune could see that the auditorium was quite the sight, the main building itself having a circular wall surrounding it, and a glass dome shielding it, with blue shining lights and fancy patterns and architecture built into the, um, building. Inside, the large hall within it was once again circular, but a large stage sat right at the end of the room, with a backdrop possibly wooden carving of also possibly Beacon Academy behind it, and bleachers and benches siting up top in the walls, sloping downwards, and allowing almost everyone who would fill up those spaces enough room to see what was happening down below, though why they were there, Jaune didn't know. Perhaps this place also doubled as a sparing arena, or something, and people could watch if they wanted.

Oh god, people would be forced to spar against each other in here, and then they'd probably want him to fight in those sparring matches as well, and then everyone would see his utter incompetence, and would reveal his absolute ineptitude. Augh, he was slowly beginning to realise his major error of judgement in coming to this school!

Placing his worries aside, he looked around, to see all sorts of Hunters to be, of all sorts of shapes and sizes and weapons and wear. He saw some initiates wearing high class clothing, with fabric and cloth that looked like it was woven by an angel, and others with armour that covered their entire body, with patterns and colours adorning them. He saw one initiate with long green hair, and bright green eyes, dressed in black garbs with a black pointed hat, holding a staff made of wood in her hand. He saw another student dressed up in military gear and with army grade weapons, a tactical visor on his masked face, a mean looking rifle on his back, and decked out in desert camo. Another initiate was dressed in what looked like clothing covered in scaly armour, with a ethereal blue glow coming from her throat and mouth. One initiate, he saw, wore an armoured suit that covered his face, and left part of his back, which looked like a wolf mane, exposed, while another armoured student, this one much bulkier, held a massive axe in his one hand, and 2 tusks protruding from his mouth. Another initiate had cannon configurations and parts around his head, another had rabbit legs, and was hopping from one place to another, one initiate had squid tentacles for his arms, and another 4 protruding from his back, and 2 students were dressed up in juggernaut armour, one of them in traditional military bulk, welding a large rifle with a massive clip in it, while the other was in what looked like mechanised power armour, red lights adorning him like neon patterns, and a bulking configuration, what looked like a chaingun, on his right arm, and several massive circular ammo clips attached to his waist. There were also a lot of Techions scattered around the crowd, and there was even one person who stood out the most, which would be hard not to be, seeing as they were in a mech suit that was 3 persons tall!

Jaune looked to Ruby, who seemed to be going all doe-eyed at all of the initiates, and almost dissecting their gear and guns with her eyes. Jaune supposed that this was in character for her, as she did say that she had a thing for weapons, so he supposed that it was good to have a hobby.

He then looked to the Faunus girl on his side, her tail weaving from left to right, and went, "Thanks for guiding us here, erm, Neo, was it?"

"Neon, actually, and it's no problem", 'Neon', cheekily remarked, who then followed up with, "Which means that now, you 2 owe me favours, correct?"

"Um", Ruby began, "I suppose so-"

"Great!" she yelped, making both Ruby and Jaune jump in surprise, "I look forward to cashing them in, but just to warn you both, when it comes to favours, Neon Katt spares no one, takes no prisoners, and offers no quarter! And also refers to herself in the third person! Ah ha ha!" she then began to skate away on her roller blades, happily singing to herself, "Never miss a beat~! Never miss a beat~!" as she swished and swooned away.

"...Are all people like that?" asked Ruby nervously, still leaning back in surprise.

"...I hope not", Jaune nervously replied, himself leaning back in surprise as well.

"...People are scary."

"...Yep."

"Why can't they be more like my baby?" Ruby then pulled out her scythe/gun/thingy and hugged it tightly, rocking it back and forth as she then said, "Or like weapons in general? They're easy to understand, and they won't try to do anything unexpected or try to hurt me in any- Ow, Crescent Rose, baby, did you just try and bomp me?"

"I'm sorry, did you just call your scythe/gun/thingy-"

"Crescent rose", she said with a hint of anger in her voice.

"Right, right, sorry. Did you just call your weapon 'Baby'?"

"Yep, she's my baby. You don't?"

Jaune then smirked and, deciding to go along with it, pulled out his sword, and said in a posh voice, "No, I call him 'Darling', and he is the most dashing sword this side of Vale, I'll have you know."

Ruby, now having broken out of her surprise, now adopted a smile on her face and her own posh voice as she then went, "Oh my, I always knew that you were one for the adventurous types, but a relationship such as this? _Gasp_ , scandalous!"

"If this is wrong, then I wish not to be right."

"Ohohohoho!"

"Ohohohoho!"

They both looked at each other for a moment, before kneeling over and collapsing into giggles themselves, and then allowing Jaune to look back up at Ruby, and Ruby to look back up at Jaune.

"Something tells me that this'll be the start of a beautiful friendship between us, my red and black themed friend", Jaune said, offering her his hand.

She gasped, going starry eyed, and going, "Really?!"

"Er, yeah, sure, I don't see why not."

She gasped once more, and took his hand, shaking it rapidly at almost lightning speed (He swore that he was seeing rose petals around him for some reason), Rapidly saying, "Oh thank you thank you thank you! I've never had a friend before well I mean and actual friend most of my friends at Signal were actually just acquaintances that we called friends but we never really hung out with each other too much or at all and-"

"Augh!- Yes- Oof!- That- Ah!- Quite- Ugh!- Alright- Argh!- Ruby- Ergh!- Could- Ah- You- Hgh!- Please- Oh!- Stop- Ahh!- Motion- Ergh- Sickness- Hmph!" he swore that he was going to throw up once again if this kept up.

Luckily, Ruby noticed this, and stopped immediately, waving her hands around and going, "Ah, I'm sorry I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I mean, I did, but I didn't mean to be-"

"It's fine, it's okay", Jaune smiled and said, "It's nothing, really."

"Oh, thanks", Ruby then meekly said, "Really. For that little incident, and for... Yeah, for being my friend."

Oh wow, this... That kinda says a lot about her... That's... Something, he supposed. Wasn't really sure what to say about that.

"It's, um, no problem, really", he scratched the back of his head, kinda unsure of where to take the conversation from here.

Fortunately- Or unfortunately, depending on one's perspective- The situation was quickly interrupted by a familiar long blonde haired girl- Now covered in dirt- Walking up to them, wrapping her arm around Ruby's head and pulling her close, then saying, "Well well well, look at that. My little Rubaby's gone and gotten a boyfriend already? Aw, they grow up so fast~!"

"Ack, Yang! Stop it!" Ruby went as she struggled under 'Yang's' grasp, attempting to wriggle and worm free from her grasp, "I only just met him, don't make it weird!"

"Oh, you never know, first it will be the friendly gestures, and then it will be the faraway looks, blushes, and small smiles, and soon enough you'll both be pursuant of the other's heart, and it'll move on to the smooching and the feeling up and the absolutely lewdest act of all: Holding each other's hand! _Gasp_ , absolutely scandalous!"

"Y-YANG! STOP IT! IT'S NOT LIKE THAT! I BARELY KNOW HIM!"

"Alright, alright, cool down, baby sis, I'll play nice", Yang then looked from her sister (An assumption that Jaune made, seeing as the blonde haired girl kept calling Ruby her sister) To Jaune, waving her free hand and going, "Sup, Vomit Boy, nice to see you're treating my sister well", she then narrowed her eyes, "At least, I think."

"Er", Jaune hesitantly began, "It's, um, J-Jaune Arc, actual-"

"Hush now, I'm talking", she said as she raised her finger to him, "Let me just say, Vomit Boy, that you're lucky that I could find where this academy did all of it's washing up- Had to put on new boots from my bag and throw my new puke boots in the dry cleaning by the way, so thanks a lot for that- But as punishment, considering that I don't think a good kick to the teeth was enough, I now christen you with the grand title of Vomit Boy, from now and forever, till the end of time!" she said that last bit with a rather grandiose voice and pitch.

"Um, o-objection?"

"Overruled", Yang simply said, "However, seeing as you now seem to have made my dearest little sister catch the lovebug for yourself-"

Ruby had something to say about that, "OBJECTION!"

"Sustained. Now, again, seeing as she somehow considers you a friend, I'm willing to look the other way from your little airship incident, for now though, of course. However", Yang narrowed her eyes further, "I will give you the curtesy of a warning: Hurt her, in any way, shape, and or form, and I'll bend your spine over my knee, break both of yours, and split you in half. Lengthways."

She finally let go of Ruby, and walked quickly over to Jaune, getting right up in his face, so much so that he could feel her burning hot breath on his face, and to his surprise, her eyes suddenly turned red, and flickers of light and flame erupting from her mane, now glowing gold.

"Are. We. Clear?"

"Y-Yes ma'am!"

There was a terrifying- Way too fricking terrifying!- Silence between the 2 blonds, before Yang completely lost her malicious look, her eyes turning to lilac once more, her hair loosing its fire, and tilted her head to the side, adopting a chirpy smile and going, "Good to know", she then held her hand out, waiting for him to take it, "I'm Yang, nice to meet you."

Jaune, being too terrified for his life to respond, could only stand completely and utterly still, while the colour from his very being drained from him and pooled at the bottom of his feet. Luckily, Ruby noticed this, and responded to his plight, "Yang, stop it! Seriously! My gods!"

"Right, right, sorry", Yang went, taking his hand in her own and shaking it, "Just wanna look out for you, sis."

"That's nice and all, but you can't just threaten everyone that I socialise with! I don't- Ugh, I- Ugh", Ruby then looked at Jaune, with a sorry look on her face, and said, "I am so deeply sorry for her behaviour. It's just, ever since our father... Well, she's just stupidly protective, and-"

"I-It's fine, really", Jaune stammered, "I've got 7 sisters, and my second eldest is super clingy, so I've seen it all before, I guess."

"S-S-7 sisters! I can barely deal with 1!"

"Hey!"

Ruby then placed her hand on Jaune's shoulder in a show of sympathy, and went, "Trust me, my tall friend, I know your pain."

Jaune then shed a tear, "Finally, someone understands, someone understands..."

"HEY!"

"Hush now Yang, we're talking", Ruby commented.

"Oh, whatever. Fine, moving on", Yang went, placing her arms at her sides, "How's your first day been going anyways, little sister?"

Ruby looked back to her with an offended look, crossing her arms and huffing as she then said, "You mean since you ditched me and I exploded?"

"Yikes! Meltdown already? "

"No, I literally exploded a hole in front of the school! And there was some fire, and I think some ice...?"

"And lightning", Jaune pointed out.

"And lightning, thank you Jaune."

"...Are you being sarcastic?" Yang asked with a broad smile.

"I wish! I tripped over some crabby girl's luggage-"

"Er, Ruby?" Jaune went as he looked past her to the people behind her.

"-And then she yelled at me, and then I sneezed, and then I exploded, and then she yelled at me again-"

"Ruby?..."

"-And I felt really, really bad, and I just wanted her to stop yelling at me!"

"Ruby!"

"Yeah?" she went as she twirled to Jaune, and then to where he was looking.

"You!" went a shrill voice, which certainly got a reaction out of Ruby.

"Oh, God, it's happening again!" the Little Red Riding Hood went as she jumped into her elder sister's arms at the speed of a bullet. All 3 of them could see that the shrill call had come from the snow white, rather beautiful girl that Jaune had seen from the site of Ruby's explosive introduction earlier, with the dark skinned, formal dressed girl with the blue beret standing next to her, her arms folded behind her back, her body posture and face stoic, while the white themed girl was glaring daggers at Ruby, and looked like she was planning to kill everyone in this room, and then some.

"You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!" the snow themed girl yelled once more as she arched forward.

"Oh my God, you really exploded", Yang said in a deadpan tone.

"It was an accident", Ruby went to Yang as she got down from her arms, and then to the snow themed girl, "It was an accident!" before a pamphlet thrust into her face silence her, "What's this?" she asked as she looked at the pamphlet's title, that read 'DUST for dummies and other Inadequate Individuals'.

The snow haired girl then went off and said, "The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries or damages sustained while operating a Schnee Dust Company product. Although not mandatory, the Schnee Family highly encourages their customers to read and familiarize themselves with this easy to follow guide to Dust applications and practices in the field."

"Uuhhh?..."

"You really wanna start making things up to me?"

"Absolutely?"

She then shoved the pamphlet into Ruby's arms and said, "Read this, and don't ever speak to me again."

Yang then spoke up, "Look, uh, it sounds like you two just got off on the wrong foot. Why don't you start over and try to be friends, okay?"

Ruby then put the pamphlet away, and went, "Yeah! Great idea, sis!"

 _Is it, though?_ Jaune thought to himself.

Ruby then cleared her throat, and held out her hand, "Hello, Weiss! I'm Ruby! Wanna hang out? We can go shopping for school supplies!"

This 'Weiss' girl then put on a mockingly sarcastic tone of voice, and went off and said, "Yeah! And we can paint our nails and try on clothes and talk about cute boys, like tall, blond, and scraggly right here!" she finished that off by pointing right at Jaune, her finger almost up his nose.

"Err...", was Jaune's reply.

Ruby, unfortunately, didn't catch on, "Wow, really?!"

"No."

"Er, maybe you should give her a chance, um, Weiss, was it?" Jaune cautiously said, as he looked down at the short, snappy girl, and continued on, "I mean, you seem to have problems with her, but-"

"Shut it, you dolt, I wasn't talking to you", Weiss' shrill voice turned on him now.

"Er, but, um-"

"Zip. It."

Before the conversation (If it could even be called that) Could continue on into the inevitable shouting and screaming contest that most conversations like that would go to, the sound of a microphone being adjusted brought the attention of Jaune, Ruby, Weiss, Yang, and all the other 2000 students, as they looked to the stage to see a middle aged looking man with white or silver hair, as well as brown eyes and sharp facial features green overalls and spectacles, as well as a cane in one of his hands, while next to him stood the scary lady from the airship hologram earlier, only now, he could see her proper features, seeing that she had light blonde hair, green eyes with ovular glasses, a white long sleeved top, a waist high pencil skirt with black and brown stockings, as well as a purple inside, black outside, flame and arrow cut cape, and next to the woman, there was a... Wait, is that a corgi?

 _Was that guy Headmaster Opzin, or whatever it was?_ Jaune thought to himself, _Probably, probably. And if my intuition is correct, that means that the woman next to her is that fabled Glynda Goodwitch, the She-Devil of Beacon Academy that I've been told about... Now that I look at her some more, I'm starting to see why all of the people I've seen talking about her always look like they're about to wet themselves. She does seem to have a naturally threatening presence around her. Also, why is there a corgi?_

"Woof!" went the corgi, which got almost all of the girls in the auditorium to start cooing and awing as the dog, especially Ruby, who just looked at the corgi with starry eyes and waved at it.

"Hi Zwei!" she went, while Yang waved as well, and 'Zwei' gave a happy jump and bark in response, immediately getting all of the girls to start cooing even more. Jaune even noticed that Weiss seemed to melt at the sight at the dog for a second, though she immediately composed herself (Or at least attempted to, seeing how she kept giving the corgi starry eyes), though he swore he also heard a cat hiss from somewhere in the auditorium for some reason.

"I'll... keep this brief", the middle aged man- 'Ozpin', he again presumed- Began, seemingly tired and bored already, though sparing a moment to bend down and give a scratch to Zwei's back, who responded with a happy bark, "You have travelled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction."

Now this got the student body around him whispering and muttering. Did he just insult them all? Ouch.

For some reason, Jaune felt that his little jab at all of them was directed to him more than anything. Did that mean that this Ozpin fellow knew that his transcripts and 'Credentials' were fake?

No, no, that wasn't it. He was just being paranoid. If they knew that his transcripts were fake, then surely they would've singled him out and taken him away already, and then locked him up and thrown him in prison like the scum that he obviously was. If he knew that they were fake, then why hadn't he had the Beacon staff corner him and bring him in for questioning or whatever the due process for finding those with fake transcripts was. No, he was in the clear, for now at least. Obviously it won't be like that forever, but hopefully it won't be any time soon.

Unbeknownst to him, Ozpin's eyes drifted to the blond knight to be for a moment or 2.

"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

Well, that was... Uplifting, to say the least.

Ozpin began to walk off, Zwei following closely after, giving one last bark and waggle of his tale before trundling off, immediately raising everyone's spirits once more, allowing for the woman next to him- 'Glynda Goodwitch', he believed- To take his place and speak into the microphone, in a just as jovial tone as her counterpart, "You will gather in the ballroom tonight; Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

As they both began to walk off, the students then began to talk amongst themselves once more, most of them trying to figure out what was up with Ozpin and his sorta cryptic speech that also sorta said to them 'BTW, you suck'.

"He seemed kind of... off", Yang was the first one to point it out.

"It's almost like he wasn't even there", Ruby then said, getting a nod from everyone around them (Except Weiss), before muttering, "Hopefully I can ask Headmaster Ozpin to let Zwei stay in our room", to which Yang nodded once more, and getting death glares from all of the girls around them.

Jaune then looked at Weiss, and started trying to find something to say to her, "Um, I'm a, er, natural blond, y-you know?" _Why, brain? Why did you decide that that was the best thing to say?! What is wrong with you?!_

In response, Weiss just put her hand to her face, and huffed, before looking to the girl with the blue beret next to her, and going, "Let's go, Ciel."

"Yes, ma'am", went 'Ciel', as they both walked off, away from the group of 3, Weiss almost shoving people out of her way like a member of royalty not willing to be seen with the common masses, and Ciel weaving between them with the subtlety of a Chimera Grimm.

"'Natural blond'? Really?" Yang asked with a raised eyebrow, Ruby doing the same.

"Thank the gods you didn't try that on me...", Ruby muttered, "I think..."

"Hey, it seemed like a good idea in my head", Jaune defended himself with, before muttering to himself, "Thanks a lot, brain..."

"So, you gonna make it your mission to melt the heart of Miss Ice Queen over yonder?" Yang said with a smirk.

"Yeeaahh no", was the simple reply that she was given, "I think I might try again, but I doubt it will work. I mean, I tried to, you know, flirt with another girl like her- Ice Queen archetype and all- And she sorta, er… She verbally castrated me, so that's a-"

"What'd you just call me, Lady Killer?" went Melanie as she suddenly appeared next to Jaune with a menacing aura around her.

"NOTHING!"

"Ah, Lady Killer!" Yang snapped her fingers together as she looked like she was deep in thought, "Should've thought of that..."

* * *

_Later that day, and into the night..._

* * *

As the initiates, 2000 strong, gathered within the ballroom of Beacon Academy, many of them having spent the day exploring the campus that only a few of them would be able to call home, and discovering new things and areas, and talking to any students or staff that they encountered as to gain an understanding of the curriculum and the initiation test the next day, though there seemed to be some unspoken rule among the Beacon populace as to not tell any of the initiates about the test that they would endure tomorrow (Jaune had personally discovered this when he had asked several Beacon staff and students, like a elderly, overweight looking professor with a bushy moustache and permanently closed eyes, who spent an hour or 2 avoiding the question and massaging his ego, as well as what looked like a team of students with a rather adorable looking rabbit Faunus, a large, really buff looking man with a huge sword, a dark skinned boy in orange with pure white eyes, and a girl with a beret and sunglasses that just irradiated pure swag).

So, finding any info on the initiation tomorrow was a bogus. With that in mind, after spending a couple of hours exploring as much of the campus as he could (Getting lost, he meant), He decided to just sod it and walked to the ballroom (Spend another couple of hours getting lost, and stuff), and retire there for the night.

When he got there, as just said, it turned out that most of the other initiates had the same failed plan and subsequent idea as he had, as it was almost impossible to find a space for himself, and he'd been worried that if he did, then he'd have to battle all of the other initiates to the death in gladiatorial combat over it, and would use their corpses and scalps as trophies to mark his kingdom, and forge his lands in the blood of his vanquished foes!

Thankfully, it seemed that at last most of the initiates weren't as territorial as he thought they'd be (Save for some ginger haired jock looking guy who started harassing everyone he could see and tried to steal stuff from other initiates and intimidate them), And he could just plop himself in the first space that he found, and- Barring the occasional peer who tried to nick his spot- He could walk around the auditorium and leave his space with ease and in peace.

Now, if only they would stop laughing at him while he walked around in his bunny PJs.

Did they not know how much sweat and blood he'd put into getting these Pumpkin Pete one in a thousand rare edition cyan blue Thrianta rabbit pyjamas?! A lot! A lot of blood and sweat! He spent 2 years- 2 YEARS!- Searching the entirety of Remnant for these pyjamas! Scouring every store he could find, bringing together so many cereal tops from all across the world (Save for the ones that he used to get his awesome jumper, of course. Totally worth it!), From all walks of life and cereal boxes, creating an epic fellowship of awesomey awesomeness, and then sending them off on a great quest to claim the great onesie that has only been spoken of in the most ancient of legends (On the Bluuit Pumpkin Pete threads, of course), and bring about the end of the ancient beast known as his family's waning respect for him as a decent member of society!

Ooo, that sounds like a great idea for a book series! Or a movie at least. Ah, but what to call it? Um, um, um... Er, Lord/King/Whatever... Of the... Onesies?...

…

Eh, good enough.

Ugh, now his prideful bunny stride had been ruined. Great, _Well, no more strutting my stuff_ , as he had been walking around the ballroom for no real reason in particular, _Let's go find the bathroom, get myself all washed up for the night, and-_

{THUD}

_-Ow._

So it was becoming a trend...

Good to know.

Jaune smoothed out his back once more, and looked up once more to see the same- The same!- Red haired girl in Amazonian getup that he'd walked into before, now both of them in the exact same position as on the airship, only this time he was in his bunny onesie, and he didn't feel the incredible need to empty out his stomach into the nearest trashcan.

"Hello again", went the red haired girl, as this time it was she who got up first and offered him her hand.

"Hey, thanks", Jaune said as he gratefully accepted the girl's hand, and allowed himself to pulled up to his feet, to which he then jokingly asked, "Is this how we're going to be meeting each other from now on?"

The red haired woman chuckled, "I should hope not, might do my back some harm."

"Yeah", Jaune went, "That'd suck", he then quickly said, "Oh, and um, thanks again for, er, letting me know where the bathroom on the airship was so I could, y-you know..."

"It's no problem, really", the red haired girl replied with, "Glad to be of some assistance."

"Yep, although, I should warn you", Jaune quickly said as he raised a finger, "I may or may not have, erm, lost my lunch before I... Could... Yeah..."

The red haired girl caught onto what he was saying, and placed a hand over her mouth, "Oh my!"

"Yeah", Jaune said as he shook his head and looked down to the ground, "That poor girl's shoes... May they forever be in our hearts", he then placed a hand over his chest and whispered, "Amen."

"Wait, so that's what all of that yelling and those horrible sounding sounds were, back on the airship?"

"Mm hm, Yang- That's her name, by the way. The one who's shoes I ruined- Kicked me in the teeth and sent me flying right into the bathroom. She then threatened to beat me to death with my own skull..."

* * *

_{KICK}_

_"AAAAAAAHHHHHH- OH HEY THERE'S THE BATHROOM!"_

_"I'M GONNA BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH YOUR OWN SKULL!"_

_"THAT DOESN'T EVEN SOUND PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE!"_

_{CRASH}_

_"Ow."_

* * *

"...It was quite terrifying, to be honest."

"That... Doesn't even sound physically possible", went the red haired girl, as she tilted her head.

"I mean, that's what I said, but I wasn't exactly going to stick around to find out. Well, I mean, I didn't really stick around, she kicked me right into the men's bathroom and I just sorta waited in there until she stomped off to change her boots, so that's... Yeah, that's something."

"I'm sorry for not being there to help", apologised the red haired girl, "I should've been there, but there were people swarming me, asking me for autographs, and I couldn't-"

"Hey, don't worry about it, I'm fine", Jaune said as he smiled and put his hands to the side, showing off his recently acquired war wounds, "All I got from it was a split lip and a chipped tooth, and I'm pretty sure we'll be getting a lot of those in the future", he then paused for a second, "Possibly a dumb question, so forgive me if I'm wrong, but why would people ask for your autograph, may I, um, ask?"

"Wait, you don't know why- Wait, why didn't your au...", she then paused, and looked like she just realised something important, before stifling a chuckle, and going, "I'm sorry, but is- Is that a... Is that a bunny outfit?"

"Bunny onesie, thank you very much", he said as he puffed himself out with pride at his blue furriness.

The red haired girl chuckled again, before going, "I don't mean to offend you, but isn't it a bit silly to be wearing a bunny outf- Onesie, sorry, as a fully grown teenager?"

Suddenly, Jaune let out a huge, very audible, very drawn out gasp, as he then shoved his hand right in front of the red haired girl's face, as he then dramatically went, with a possible real sob, "I... I cannot look at you any more. You... You have the audacity, to call the ultimate, most legendary piece of clothing ever, silly!? You ask if I, a faithful and loyal follower of the great Pumpkin Pete, wearing one of his most prized pieces of clothing to ever- EVER!- To be released, feel... 'Silly'?!"

"...Huh?"

He then pointed to himself, "This, Miss... Er… You-

"Pyrrha Nikos", helpfully said the red haired girl.

"Thank you, Miss Pyrrha Nikos, my name's Jaune Arc, it's a pleasure to meet you- This, is a Pumpkin Pete, one- ONE!- In a thousand, super, ultimate, rare edition, cyan blue, Thrianta, rabbit, pyjamas! I went through hell and back, to get these pyjamas! I searched far and wide, going through shop after shop, collecting cereal top after cereal top, in the ultimate quest to find, and collect, the sacred article of clothing known, as the cyan blue Thrianta rabbit pyjamas. Many have tried to bargain with me for it. Many have tried to bribe me for this sacred article of clothing. Some have even tried to steal it- Seriously, a few people have tried to break into my home, just to take it- But time and time again, I have held strong, and I have kept my guard strong, and my will indominable! So, when you ask, 'Doesn't this outfit make you feel silly?' I turn my head, and wear this great onesie, with pride, and a mighty heart!"

"Yeah, wear it with pride, man!" went a jazzy looking dude with a fedora and sunglasses, nodding his head in agreement.

"Woo woo!" went the red twin nearby, while Melanie slapped her on the arm.

"Thank you!"

"Well", went 'Pyrrha', not even fazed by, in his opinion, the greatest speech of all time, it seems, "You're certainly, heh, loyal to your fanbase, I will say."

"Hell to the- Wait", Jaune paused, as he slowly began to process everything that he just said, before the colour quickly drained from his face.

He then looked around, to see the rest of the auditorium- Literally, everyone- Staring at them with wide eyes.

Or more specifically, him.

He then immediately put his hands to his face and began to crouch down in shame, "I am... So sorry for that. I mean, I just... I have no idea why I did, literally all of that."

"It's fine, really", Pyrrha said as she went to pull him back up, "I thought it was rather-"

"You!" yelled a familiar shrill.

"-inspiring..."

The both of them quickly looked to the side to see an also familiar snow themed girl stomping up to them, her narrowed eyes locked on the blond knight-to-be in particular.

"You know, when I first met you earlier, I thought you were just a weakling, and a moron", Weiss went as she stomped right next to Pyrrha and glared daggers at Jaune as he stayed slumped to the ground, "But you know what, now I see that you belong in an insane asylum!"

"Um, I-"

"It's okay, Pyrrha, you can thank me later", she calmly went, before looking back to Jaune and sneering, "I mean, honestly, do you really think that you can just start screaming about some ugly looking outfit such as that to, well, anyone, much less Pyrrha Nikos!"

"Well, yeah, I know that now", Jaune shamefully began, "I was just-"

"A moron?"

Pyrrha tried to begin again, "Er-"

"Pyrrha, please, I have this", Weiss went once more, then once again looking to Jaune, "You know, it's people like yourself that ruin the reputation of Hunters out there. Thinking that they can just harass whoever they want all willy nilly without any consequences!"

"He wasn't-"

"And to top it off, you decide to direct your... Your... I don't even know what that hogwash even was, but you decide to direct it all at Pyrrha Nikos! The Pyrrha Nikos! What on Remnant were you thinking?! Scratch that: You weren't thinking! At all!" a few people in the ballroom were nodding along, agreeing with Weiss' points, though Pyrrha didn't look like she was terribly happy about it.

"...", Jaune wasn't really in the position to say anything. He didn't really know what to say that wouldn't result in his throat being ripped out and thrown to the masses for their amusement, _Weiss is terrifying_ , he concluded.

"Honestly, I doubt that the huntress who graduated top of her class at Sanctum would want anything to do with your worthless behind", Weiss concluded, looking proud for defending Pyrrha's honour, though Pyrrha didn't look too happy about it, and seemed to be glaring at Weiss when she wasn't looking.

This time, Jaune definitely had something to say, though it was less of a statement, and more of a question, as he poked his head out of his hands and went, "What's Sanctum?"

For some reason, multiple students seemed to gasp, though he wasn't really sure why, and even Weiss and Pyrrha seemed to be surprised, though he wasn't sure why. Weiss then spoke up, "You know, Sanctum?"

He paused, before drawling out, "Am I... Supposed... To... Know?"

"Sanctum! Sanctum Academy!"

"Oh, what do they teach- Oh wait, is it like Signal Academy? I heard Ru- Someone I met today mention it", he decided not to include Ruby in this. Save the poor girl at least a shred of embarrassment.

"Ugh, un- Unbelievable!" Weiss exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air, before going, "Have you at least heard of the Mistral Regional Tournaments?"

Another pause, "The what?"

"The Mistral regional- She won them 4 times in a row! A new record!"

"That's... Good?" he went, before going, "I mean, that's great! I'm sure it's great! I'm sure it's awesome! I suppose that it's great to win stuff sometimes, you know. I mean, I once won a baking contest once. I won 20 Lien. I spent it all on comic books. That was a good day."

Pyrrha finally got a word in, "Well-"

"I honestly... I don't believe this!" Weiss exclaimed, "How about this: She currently holds the title of 'The Invincible Girl'! No one- NO ONE!- Can ever hold a hope of beating her!"

"You mean like the character from X-Ray And Vav: End of the Game?"

"No, I don't watch that garbage, and NO!" there were a few gasps at her heretical claim, with a few cries of 'Heretic!' and 'Burn the heretic' but she ignored them and tried again, "She's appeared on live news broadcasts all of the time!"

"Oh, I don't watch the news. Tends to just be depressing, all of the time, the current news cycle, I mean. I only ever tune in when it's the weather report."

"Oh my- She's on the front cover of every Pumpkin Pete Marshmallow Flakes Box!"

Ding. Lightbulb.

Jaune then gasped, as he shot up and pointed at Pyrrha, "So that's where I know you from! That's you?! But they only do that for star athletes and cartoon characters!"

"Yeah, it was pretty cool", Pyrrha then spoke up with, "Sadly, the cereal isn't very good for you."

Jaune then kept that same position for a few seconds, before visibly deflating, and going, "Oh gods, I just went on a mad tirade to a celebrity..."

"Yep", Weiss went.

"Oh gods, I just did all of that."

"Uh huh."

"Well", Pyrrha began, "I-"

Jaune didn't even register what she was about to say, as he quickly fell back down to the floor, rolled up into a ball, and started rolling away, going, "Don't mind me, don't mind me, I'm just gonna grab my stuff and find some rope. Or a gun, preferably. Probably do the job quicker. Just gonna roll off to my demise. See ya, everybody."

"Wait, er, Jaune, I'm not-"

Too late. He'd already grabbed his stuff, and did a roly poly right out of the ballroom, preferably to find a corner to sulk and possibly cry in.

He remained oblivious to the 2 people who followed him out.

Nor did he notice the red dressed twin looking at him, her eyes following him as he left. A quiet sentence left her lips, unheard by all.

* * *

"Well, that's taken care of, I suppose", said Weiss, as she dusted her hands, and nodded her head, probably congratulating herself on a job well done. At least, in her opinion, of course, "The nerve of some people, truly."

Pyrrha looked at Weiss, putting on her best face as to not reveal her less than amiable first impression of the girl, "I don't think all of that was necessary, Miss-"

"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company", Weiss grinned as she took Pyrrha's hand and shook it, "You might've already heard of me."

"Oh, yes, of course", said Pyrrha, as she kept on her friendly smile, despite wanting to frown. She'd heard of Weiss Schnee, definitely. Her company was one of her sponsors. However, that didn't mean that she had to like them. She'd heard of the SDC's... Less than favourable reputation, especially amongst the Faunus subbluuits and threads on the Internet. Heck, she'd even met the head of the SDC, Jacques Schnee, during on of the sponsorship meet ups, and he'd approached her personally. Spoke words of encouragement, he did, promised to hang flyers of her across Atlas to get more people to recognise her, and she'd hated every second of it. It was the exact opposite of what she wanted.

(Though her father had enjoyed it very much. She had gotten a scolding after that for showing her displeasure at the venture, as such a thing was a sign of weakness.

And Pyrrha didn't enjoy the thought of weakness anymore than her father did.)

And now, she'd made it all the way to Beacon to try and get away from the fame and the popularity and all of that rubbish that she'd been unaware off back when she was pushed into this life of hers, and she'd even met a person who, as it turns out, didn't know who she was in the slightest, and, despite his obvious quirks, seemed to be a rather fun guy to hang around, and yet, her fame, personified in Miss Weiss Schnee, had come to seek her out and make sure that she couldn't just have the damned peaceful, and enjoyable school life that she'd wanted for so long, and chase away her hopes of achieving that...

So, first impressions, truly.

"I don't think that was truly necessary, Miss Schnee", she repeated, getting it out successfully this time as she tugged her hand away from Weiss' just a little too forcibly.

"Please, call me Weiss", she didn't really want to, "And trust me, Pyrrha, it was. Men, such like that one, won't leave you alone until you hammer it into their skulls that you want them to leave you alone."

"But, he seemed like a nice guy", Pyrrha went, as she discretely wiped her hand on her waist, "I mean, sure, he's a little... Weird, but-"

"He's probably insane", an involuntary twitch of the eye followed, "Ruffians like that shouldn't be allowed in Hunter Academies", nearby, a Techion sitting next to a girl with a bow and a book huffed in annoyment.

Pyrrha then tried to ease the conversation, "Well, aren't we all a little insane? I mean", the chuckle that broke up the sentence didn't sound entirely fake, "We are teenagers and barely adults with, some would consider, superpowers, who are training in a school on how to fight and kill evil monsters that feed on negative emotion and want to kill all life on this planet that isn't like itself. I think we all have to be a little insane to even accept this as fact, little less go along with it."

"Well, um, y-yes, I suppose", Pyrrha hid the mirth that she acquired from scoring one against Weiss. Others did less so, as they openly chuckled or nodded along, the girl in the corner with a book in hand and a bow atop her head being the most open about it, despite her look and posture, the Techion next to her noticing this almost immediately. Weiss continued on regardless, "But still, let this be a lesson, Pyrrha, it's the nice ones that get you. Trust me, I have quite the experience. Don't let him fool you, Pyrrha, he's just out there for your fame and status, nothing more."

 _How very... Noble, of you_ , Pyrrha supressed the eye twitch this time, _And hypocritical, might I just add_.

Weiss then looked at her with hopeful eyes, "So, Pyrrha, have you given any thought to whose team you'd like to be on? I'm sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong, well-known individual such as yourself!" there was a chorus of murmurs, some in the positive, others in the negative.

Pyrrha pretended to ponder over it for a second, ignoring the mumbles and whispers around them, "Hmm... I'm not quite sure. I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may."

"Well... I was thinking maybe we could be on a team together."

"Well, that sounds... Grand!" she lied, hiding the annoyed grimace on her face, _Hypocritical, once again_.

"Great!" Weiss mirthfully chuckled, before looked behind herself to do some... Weird, evil looking daydreaming, or something, before looking back to Pyrrha, and going, "Well, I've got some beauty sleep to catch up on. Good night, Pyrrha, hope to see you again tomorrow, and may we make the best team possible!"

 _I hope not_ , Pyrrha neglected to say, as she said her goodbyes as well, watching Weiss walk off, back to her stupidly fancy looking pillow and sleeping bag, and then excusing herself to the bathroom, preparing to clean herself up before bed.

Weiss... Had not made a good first impression on her. Selfish, egotistical, arrogant, rude, hypocritical, and spoilt, to say the least, and that was just from the first impression. Her mother always said to never judge a book by its cover, but from the front cover and title, as well as the back synopsis and description that she'd seen on Weiss, it was not looking to be a good read.

Jaune, on the other hand... Well, he did seem weird in his own way, quirky, out of place amongst the Hunters to be that had gathered, and could slip into moments where he becomes unaware of the world around him. At least, from the initial impressions that she had gotten from him. However, from those first impressions, she also gathered that he was a rather interesting person to be around, kinda funny, passionate about his hobbies and likes, and was rather out there, which, sometimes, can make for an interesting and rather jovial person to hang around with.

"Oh, oh, Miss Pyrrha, Miss Pyrrha! Co-Could, could I please have your autograph?"

Also, he knew barely anything about her, save for that silly cereal promotion, so that was a bit of a bonus.

As Pyrrha gently turned down the girl who asked for her autograph, and made it into the bathroom, she looked at herself, and nodded her head. This Jaune fellow seemed like a good person, though, like said before, her mother always said to never judge a book by its cover, so she'd keep her guard up around him. At least, for now. However, she concluded that indeed, this may require some further investigation.

However, that chance may have been lost, thanks to the unwanted intervention and interruption of one Weiss Schnee, so that... Ugh. That's just great. Thanks a lot for scaring away possibly the only chance of having a normal friendship for the first time in her life, Schnee. You always know how to make things better for everyone else.

Pyrrha allowed her plastered smile to fall, letting her frown show for the world to fall. Weiss' first impressions had left a lot to be desired, while Jaune's… Well, that spoke for itself, though it was still good.

With a keen mind, and a steady heart, Pyrrha decided that, in the morning (Since she doubted strongly that he would actually carry out those awful things to himself when he'd, haha, rolled away) She would seek him out, and try to talk with him again, preferably away from anyone who would try and interfere with it. Specifically Weiss.

Though she wasn't sure wherever she was going to carry out her goal on the grounds of actually making a genuine friendship, or doing it to spite Weiss a little.

Probably both.

* * *

"Well, that was a thing", Yang finally said, as she and Ruby looked to where Jaune, Weiss, and the Pyrrha Nikos herself once stood, which was now vacant, what with Jaune rolling away out of the room (As well as the ginger haired girl and lithe boy who followed them out), Weiss having left to her queen sized sleeping bag, and Pyrrha heading off into the girl's bathroom to clean herself up before bed. Of course, she didn't need to do that, since they were about to all go to sleep, and they'd all need to wash up again in the morning, but Ruby supposed that she was like Yang in that regard, always wanting to make sure that she was 'On fleek', or whatever term she used for obsessing over her hair. Or maybe she just went in there so that she could process that entire interaction that had just taken place (If it could even be called that). Probably the latter, in all likelihood.

"Yeah, I... I suppose so", Ruby replied, unsure of what to say at the moment.

"That's your first friend?" Yang asked with a raised eye, her answer coming as a pillow to the face.

"Knock it off Yang, he's nice!" Ruby exclaimed with a frustrated grimace, hoping she didn't hear the uncertainty in her voice.

Maybe she did, as her next comment that followed was, "You sure, 'cause he seems to be a bit more, unhinged, then that."

"Be nice, Yang, we only met him today- Well, I only met him today, I guess."

"Hey, I talked to him too."

"No, I talked to him. You threatened to break his knees and then his spine if he did anything to me, something which I doubt he would actually do."

"Oh come on, like Weiss-Cream said, it's the nice ones that get ya."

"Oh, so you're taking her side now?"

"No, of course not, that's one Weiss Queen that seriously needs to chill out-"

"Ugh. Double ugh."

"-I'm just saying, she raises a good point. I mean, if you're not careful-"

"Yang, I'm 15, not a child!" Ruby whined, "You don't need to baby me so much. I can handle myself."

"Hey, I never said that you couldn't", Yang defended herself as she raised her hands, "I just don't want you to get hurt in any-"

"Yang, please!" Ruby went as she looked right at him, "I swear, you've been like this ever since Dad-"

"Ruby!" Yang hissed, her eyes flashing red for just a second.

Ruby's eyes widened, as she remembered where they were, and she looked around to see if anyone else was watching them. To their luck, no one was paying any attention to them, all of the initiates too caught up in their own conversations and attempts to fall into slumber to hear or acknowledge them.

Ruby grimaced, and then looked at Yang, who'd turned her head away. The girl in red then spoke once more, more quietly now, "Yang, I know that you're protective, but ever since Patch, you've just been... I-I don't know, but I don't... I can't... I'm sorry, I'm trying to find the words."

"Don't bother", Yang muttered, still not turning her way, "You've made your point."

Ruby became saddened, regretful for their talk just then, and quietly said, "Yang-"

"Go to sleep, Ruby", the blonde girl quietly said, as she spared a quick glance to her little sister, her eyes red, her face stoic. Her words were commanding, hurting, and hurtful.

Ruby didn't know what else to say, so she didn't say anything else. She just turned over and pressed her head against her pillow, both of the sisters regretful of the words that they chose.

* * *

Jaune looked at the bunny outfit that he'd been wearing, the once warm fabric now cold in his hands, as he sat in the hallway outside of the ballroom entrance, his bags and sleeping bag right next to him. He'd taken the onesie off, and had slipped into his shirt that he'd been wearing earlier, as well as a pair of shorts that he had in one of his bag.

As he looked at the onesie, he felt a wave of nostalgia hit him, as well as a wave of sadness and confusion. He'd had this onesie for over a year now. He'd spend 3 months before that searching for the flipping thing, and had had quite the adventure whilst looking for it, as well as sending all of those damned cereal tops, and waiting for it to come and bless him with it fluffy powers.

And sure enough, he'd gotten it alright...

He'd gotten it on the same day his old home was attacked.

He'd gotten it on the same day his father died.

He closed his eyes as his mind flashed back to it. To that day. Flashes of fire and blackened wings came to mind. Flashes of blood and screaming. Of black birds and chimeras. Of 2 hulking, upright chitinous figures, one black, and one white, slashing and swinging. Of him and his family running, as far and as fast as he could. Of them eventually being rescued by the House of the Golden Sun. Of being moved from here to there, abandoning the life he once had for the sake of safety.

…

He opened his eyes once more, looking back to the onesie in his hands.

Perhaps he should get rid of this thing. Throw it in the trash and be done with it. This thing held too many memories. Memories that he needed to let go.

…

He held it closer, hugging it against his chest. Another day, perhaps. Perhaps.

He decided to store it away for now, and shuffle the problem away for later, opening up one of his bags to stuff the onesie in. However, before he could put it in, something quickly zoomed right past him, and before he knew it, the bunny onesie was snatched right from his arms in a blur.

Eh?

"Oh my god it's the cutest thing ever! Can I keep it, Renny? Can I can I?"

Jaune quickly looked to the voice's origin, to see a fair skinned, short young woman with turquoise eyes and short orange hair, a wide smile and closed eyes on her face, as she moved back and forth in place, hugging the onesie to her chest and face, whilst also dressed is a dark grey shirt with the word 'Boop' written in bright white on the front, with one of the Os replaced with an pink emblem of a hammer with a lightning strike going through the middle, and she also wore a pair of bright pink shorts, with white lightning bolts decorating it like polka dots.

"Nora, what did we say about taking other people's stuff?"

Jaune then looked to the second voice, to see a boy about his age with sharp foreign complexations, jet black hair tied in in a pony tail in the back with a pink streak in them to match his eyes, and dressed in a dark green, exotic looking sleeping yukata, with black patterns with yellow outlines covering it, and an emblem of a pink lotus flower on both of his shoulders.

"That it's thievery and a criminal act, which is a bad thing to do, and is a heinous activity that we shouldn't partake in?" 'Nora' replied, well, more asked then replied.

"That is correct, yes", 'Renny' responded with, not looking terribly fazed by this 'Nora' girl's recent antic.

"Okay!" Nora chirpily replied, as she quickly handed back the onesie to Jaune, who hesitantly took it back, not sure of what was going on. Nora, never loosing her smile, quickly went, "Sorry! So sorry! I just saw it, and I thought that it was super cute, and I like cute things, almost as much as I like pancakes, and I really like pancakes, and I just saw the little blue bunny onesie, and I just wanted to hug it, even though it smells of sweat, which is kinda gross, but it's still super cute!"

"...Uh", was all Jaune could say in response.

Renny just shook his head, and calmly said, "I'm sorry for her behaviour, she tends to loose herself a bit, when she sees something that she likes."

"Er", Jaune said, not sure wherever to feel cheered up or weirded out, "I'm not sure wherever to feel cheered up or weirded out", he paused, before going, "Oh, god, sorry, I didn't mean to say that. I just, I mean-"

"How about both?" Nora asked, neither of them looking offended by his comment.

"Huh?"

"How about you feel cheered up, and weirded out?" Nora tapped her chin, and looked away for a second, "Apparently I have that effect on people. That's what Ren says, at least!"

"Er, okay then?" Jaune slowly said, pausing for a few seconds, before asking, "Is there anything that I can, er, help you with? Or are you here to give me the rightfully deserved bashing and humiliation for my little display of idiocy back there?"

"Oh, no no no, don't be silly!" Nora said, "That's not it! Of course not! Me and Renny thought that you were funny, back in the big ballroom, and we figured that you might be a bit lonely when you rolled away like a runaway burrito, and you looked fun, and you might be nice, so we figured that, you know, we should test run a friendship, and see how it goes from there!"

"Er… Alright... Then?" he hesitantly said, unsure of what to say next.

Thankfully, Nora seemed to notice that, and continued on with, "My name is Nora Valkyrie, pancake queen, lover and devourer of pancakes, and welder of the mighty Magnhild!-"

Suddenly, she pulled a massive hammer somehow out of nowhere, and slammed the end of it into the ground, creating a crack in the floor. Jaune was immediately surprised by this, and was immediately wondering as to where she got the hammer. Renny seemed to be surprised as well, though this was replaced with a look of resignation, as if he'd seen this all before, and had just accepted this as his life. Jaune wasn't sure if he was to feel sorry for him, though he was starting to.

"At your service", Nora continued, as she did a little curtsey, and then wrapped one of her arms around Renny, while the other one was used for balancing her hammer against her shoulder, as she then said, "And this is Lie Ren- I like to call him Renny", oh, so Renny's just a nickname. That make's sense, "His name's actually Ren Lie, but his family traditions say that his last name has to come before his first, which is confusing, as it technically makes his last name his first one, but then if that was the case, then everyone in his family would've been called Lie, and that would've been confusing, and also it would've sounded like he was a liar, which he isn't, so everyone just calls him Ren, because it's much nicer, and it rolls off the tongue better. Me and Ren go way back! Like, waaaaay back! We've been friends for soooooooo long! What are the odds we'd still be together? Well, not 'Together-together...'. Not that I'm not saying that he's not handsome; he is handsome, as you can probably tell, but that'd just be weird, right?"

"Er, maybe?" Jaune raised his eyebrow, "I'm, not entirely sure."

"Oh, it's fine, look at me, apparently I tend to ramble, so that's all fine and dandy!" Nora went, as she then asked, "So, can we please ask what your name might be?"

"Oh, sorry, where're my manners?" he went, before clearing his throat, and going, "I'm Jaune. Jaune-"

"Jaune-Jaune? Your name is Jaune-Jaune?" Nora asked with a raised eyebrow, while Ren next to her just rolled his eyes, and gave him a 'I'm so sorry for her behaviour' look.

"Er, wait, no, it's-"

"Oh my goodness, that's so clever! And so convenient!" Nora went as she jumped up on the spot, "It won't matter if anyone forgets your first or last name because they're both the same!", she then dramatically gasped, and quietly whispered, "Jaune-Jaune, you're so clever oh my god!"

"No, wait, it's not-"

"Oh, oh, Ren, can I change my name to Nora-Nora?" Nora then asked as she looked to Ren, who had a gentle smile on his face at seeing her antics in play, "It would be so easy to remember, and it'd be so cool, and we could be the Double Same Name Club, and you can change your name to Ren-Ren, and we'd be all cool, and we'd wear shades, and then we'd all be cool and awesome, like sloths, or Captain Vale, or OddsGuyOut and My Name Is Gyf on DustTube who make the wholesome videos about cats and children's games and video game lore and-"

Nora then proceeded to go of on a massive tangent, ranting on about the benefits of having an identical first and last name, while Ren decided to sit next to Jaune, right next to his bags, and said, "On Nora's behalf, I apologise for her behaviour, she can get quite excitable at times."

Jaune raised an eyebrow, and then nodded his head, "I see, hm, well, she certainly seems like good company."

"The best", Ren said with a small smile.

"I'm sure of that", Jaune paused, before asking, "Is she your sister?"

Ren gave a half shrug, "It's complicated."

Jaune chuckled, before going, "Should I leave it at that?"

"If you want", Ren went, "I would personally like it if you did, but I don't mind."

"Alright then, if you want, I won't force you", Jaune replied, "So why're you here? With her? Talking to me, I mean? Not to be offensive, or anything, but, you don't seem like the kind of guy to hang out with, well, anyone that she likes. Me, I mean."

Ren gave a deadpan look, "And yet I'm still here", Jaune began to stammer a response before Ren cut him off, "I'm joking. That was a joke."

"...You don't tell a lot of jokes, do you?"

"No, but I've seen other people do it."

"Heh, alright then", Jaune nodded, then said, "You didn't answer my first question, by the way."

Ren shrugged, and said, "Nora's reasons are the same as my own, just less eccentric and... Nora like. Like she said, you might be nice, though Nora also wanted to watch you practice your 'Acid spitting semblance'. Her words, not mine."

"'Acid spitting'... What? W-Wait a minute", Jaune narrowed his eyes as he flashed back to the airship (Only feeling a little bit queasy while he was doing it), And when he came off the airship, and threw up in the trashcan, and then looked at Ren, and exclaimed, "Hey, you were the guy who gave me the handwipe back when we got off the airship!"

"Of course", said Ren, as they both noticed that Nora was calming down, but was still ranting on, now having moved onto something about hammers made of pancakes, and everyone dressed up in gorilla outfits and welding clubs made of syrup.

Jaune smiled at this, and said, "Thanks, by the way. For the airship, I mean."

Ren nodded, "It's no problem, really."

Jaune hummed in response, and then continued, "And for not leaving me alone out here, I guess."

Ren shrugged, "You're welcome."

They both chuckled in response, and Jaune then continued, "Are you sure you wanna be out here? I mean, with my little show in there, I don't think you'd be awarding yourself any reputation points by being out here with me? You could probably still get back in there, and no one will ask you why."

"Well, we could, but then you wouldn't have someone to spend the night with", Ren said with a straight face, "That, and we've never really minded about what others have thought about us."

"Mm hm", Nora hummed as she broke out of her long winded rant, and jumped down between Jaune and Ren as she then went, "Me and Renny-"

"Ren and I."

"-Renny and I have been with each other long enough to know that what others think about us shouldn't bother us, or dictate what we do! We don't care what others think about us, because what good would worrying about it do us? We'll be the people that we are, and not the people that others think we are and should be!"

Jaune looked to the ginger haired girl with wide eyes, "Wow, that's, um, that's really smart. And wise."

"She's full of surprises, trust me", Ren said as he smiled at Nora's bout of wisdom.

"That I am!" Nora chuffed, putting her arms to her side and puffing out her chest in pride, before looking down and seeing a wire poking out of one of the pockets on Jaune's bag, and asking, "What's that?"

"What?" Jaune asked as he looked to where Nora was looking, "My bag?"

"No, the wire", Nora replied as she pointed, "The wire poking out of your bag."

"Er- Oh, my headphones!" he realised, as he began to pull them out of his bag, taking his scroll out of his pocket as well, "They're my headphones. I've got a playlist of songs on my phone that I like to listen too, and I usually use my headphones to listen to them as a sort of exercise walking sound... Ah", he went as he pulled out a pair of black and pink headphones, sighing as he then lamented, "Ah, crap. Must've taken Rouge's headphones", he paused, before looking at Nora and Ren and going, "Rouge's my sister. These are her headphones."

Nora tilted her head and giggled, "You sure about that?"

"Hush, you", he jokingly replied.

"Alright then, Fearless Leader!" she exclaimed, letting out a loud guffaw, as she threw her arms in the air.

Jaune couldn't help but laugh along, and Ren let out a chuckle as well, before Jaune looked at Nora and went, "You wanna listen?"

Nora's arms fell as she looked at him with an eyebrow raised, "Hm?"

"To my playlist. You want to have a listen?"

"Is your mixtape fire?" Nora smiled.

"It is so fire, you will literally explode", Jaune said as he played along, offering his scroll and headphones.

"Heh, alright then, I'll give it a shot", Nora replied as she gladly took the headphones and scroll, and began to scroll though his playlist.

"Nora", Ren simply said.

"Oh, sorry", Nora said as she looked to Ren, and then to Jaune, and said, "Thank you, Jaune-Jaune!"

Jaune just rolled his eyes, and said, "No problem, happy to help."

Nora nodded with a smile, and looked to a specific song in his playlist, "'Sunflower'? Oooh, sounds fun."

"Oh, that's my favourite song. Absolute earworm. I listen to it all the time."

"If that's the case, then let's give it a hammer strike!"

"You mean, 'Give it a shot'?"

"I like to mix it up", Nora answered, before selecting the song, and putting on the headphones, allowing the music to flow into her ears like a river.

_Ayy, ayy, ayy, ayy (Ooh)_   
_Ooh, ooh, ooh, ohh (Ooh)_   
_Ayy, ayy_   
_Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh_

"Hm, not what I thought it'd be, I suppose", Nora mused, as she placed her hands to the headphones, and began to nod her head to the beat, a thoughtful look on her face, "I prefer upbeat pop music, and rock'n'roll, loud and full of energy, practically bursting with it, but I suppose I can get behind this."

Jaune raised and eyebrow, and looked from Nora to Ren, and asked, "She's a musical critic?"

Ren shrugged, and said, "I suppose she's got specific tastes."

_Needless to say, I keep her in check_   
_She was all bad-bad, nevertheless (Yeah)_   
_Callin' it quits now, baby, I'm a wreck (Wreck)_   
_Crash at my place, baby, you're a wreck (Wreck)_

"Ooh, now it's picking up", Nora said, as once again, that growingly familiar smile creeped up on her, and the nodding of her head became more prevalent, "I'm liking this a bit more."

Jaune looked back to Ren, and asked, "What music do you like? I don't really have a favourite genre, I just kinda like music how it is."

Ren mused Jaune's musical choices, giving off a hum and an accepting shrug at his answer, before going, "I prefer traditional Mistralian music. Calm and peaceful. Erhus and Pipas, and the like."

"Hm, not bad", Jaune said, musing his answer, "I've listened to a few songs like that. I've actually got a couple of songs like that from video games on my playlist. I got the main theme from The Few Of Them, as well as the song Valentine from Green and Yellow, if you wanna have a listen."

Ren gave a nod, "I'll have a listen, then. See if they're as good as you say."

_Needless to say, I'm keeping her in check_   
_She was all bad-bad, nevertheless_   
_Callin' it quits now, baby, I'm a wreck_   
_Crash at my place, baby, you're a wreck_   
_Thinkin' in a bad way, losin' your grip_   
_Screamin' at my face, baby, don't trip_   
_Someone took a big L, don't know how that felt_   
_Lookin' at you sideways, party on tilt_   
_Ooh-ooh, some things you just can't refuse_   
_She wanna ride me like a cruise_   
_And I'm not tryna lose_

"So, how'd you meet her, anyways?" asked Jaune as he motioned to Nora, who was now happily humming to the music, and bobbing her head back and forth, "Nora, I mean. Are you really siblings, or is there something else going on?" Jaune gave a bit of a teasing smile, "Is she your 'Hunter Partner'?" he gave a little chuckle as a follow up.

Instead of giving a chuckle or laugh in response, or even a sputter of embarrassment that he'd at least expected a bit, Ren held a sombre look, and looked down, "It's... Complicated."

"Oh", was all Jaune could say for a few seconds, before going, "Do you... Do you wanna-"

"No."

"Ah, okay then."

_Then you're left in the dust_   
_Unless I stuck by ya_   
_You're a sunflower_   
_I think your love would be too much_   
_Or you'll be left in the dust_   
_Unless I stuck by ya_   
_You're the sunflower_   
_You're the sunflower_

"Er, alright", Jaune cautiously began, "Okay, let's try this again: Why'd you and Nora wanna come to Beacon? I mean, I've got my reasons, but they're not exactly the best, so I'm hoping that you can probably beat me into the ground with that."

Ren didn't lose his sombre look, "We had nowhere else to go."

"Oh-Oh, oh gods, I am, just making this even worse, aren't I?"

"Mm hm."

"Don't wanna talk about it, b-because I can- I can listen, if you wanna. I don't mind. Well, actually, there are probably- I mean, I think that they're psychiatrists in Beacon. Pretty sure that comes with the territory of being a Hunter. Oh, god, no offense, I mean, god I'm sorry."

"It's okay, really", Ren said, before going, "Psychiatrists?" Jaune nodded, and Ren paused, before going, "When we're ready", he then looked at Nora, "When she's ready..."

_Every time I'm leavin' on ya_   
_You don't make it easy, no, no_   
_Wish I could be there for ya_   
_Give me a reason to go_

Nora's smile began to sadden, though it didn't fade away. Her head bobbing lessened, and she moved her body against Ren's, and rested her moving head against his shoulder.

_Every time I'm walkin' out_   
_I can hear you tellin' me to turn around_   
_Fightin' for my trust and you won't back down_   
_Even if we gotta risk it all right now, oh_   
_I know you're scared of the unknown (Known)_   
_You don't wanna be alone (Alone)_   
_I know I always come and go (And go)_   
_But it's out of my control_

Nora's head rubbed against Ren's shoulder, and he patted her head in response. Jaune smiled and chuckled at the sight. He'd comforted his younger sisters like that whenever they had nightmares, or were awake during thunderstorms many times before, and he'd been comforted like that from his elder siblings many times before as well, in his younger days.

"She's really something, isn't she?" Jaune said, resisting the natural habit to comfort her like one of his younger sisters, remembering that she knows him not, and it was much too early for that.

Ren smiled, as he looked down at Nora, and said, "Yes, she really is."

_And you'll be left in the dust_   
_Unless I stuck by ya_   
_You're a sunflower_   
_I think your love would be too much_   
_Or you'll be left in the dust_   
_Unless I stuck by ya_   
_You're the sunflower_   
_You're the sunflower_   
_Yeah_

Jaune noticed that the song had ended, as Nora had raised her head, and taken the headphones off, and looked to Jaune, and went, "That was good! That was great! Not my usual genre, but I like it!"

Jaune smiled, liking that his favourite song was getting a thumbs up, and said with a smile, "Glad you like it!"

Nora's smile widened and grew once more, "In fact it was so good, that I think I might listen to it a second time!"

A small laugh, "Told you it's an earworm."

"That it is, Jaune-Jaune, that it is", Nora confirmed as she placed the headphones back in, and hit the replay button, bobbing her head to the song once again, and now humming along to the beat, and even muttering a few words from the lyrics now and then.

Jaune looked to Ren, and confidently said, "You guys are cool. You and Nora. You guys are cool."

"Thanks, we try our best", Ren said as well, then holding out a hand, "Friends?"

Jaune shrugged, and with a smile, went to take his offer, and shook his hand, "Why not? My mum always told me that strangers are friends you haven't met yet."

"That's a brilliant life lesson", Nora chuckled, hearing their conversation, "You know, if everyone held that lesson to heart, then the world would have less problems", She then took both their spare hands, and shook them as well, "How about the bestest of friends?"

Jaune tilted his head, "Isn't that a bit early?"

"Never too early to make new friends, I say."

Jaune smiled, and in the kindest way, he said, "You're weird."

"You're weird too."

"Never said I wasn't."

"Same here", Nora then wrapped her arms around both Ren and Jaune, postulating, "We could become the weirdo's club. A club of weirdos. It'll be awesome, trust me."

"I'm sure that it will", Ren sighed, but didn't stop smiling, even when Nora let go of both of them, and went back to listening to the song in her newly acquired headphones.

Jaune then looked to Nora, and then to Ren once more, and then up to the ceiling, "Friends, huh?" he quietly muttered...

Hm...

You know what, with friends like these...

Maybe his time at Beacon wouldn't be so bad after all.

Unbeknownst to any of them, perched on the wall, a white, red, and gold butterfly eyed them intently...

* * *

The next day, more than 10 to 20,000 men and women would die...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, here's my second chapter for my story, which, when reviewing it, came out a hell of a lot longer than I thought it would be. Ah well, the more the merrier, am I right?
> 
> Yeah, I'm right.
> 
> Anyways, leave a review, tell me your thoughts, and as always, I'll see you in the next chapter.
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	3. Initiation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the day of Initiation, and everyone is getting ready. Teams and partnerships are discussed, and the gathering is made.
> 
> And then tragedy strikes.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Theme:**[ _The Prowler by Daniel Pemberton_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unZRzMw48uE)

* * *

On the day of Initiation, all 2nd to 4th year teams and students are to stay in their dorms while the teachers monitor the Initiation in the Emerald Forests. Lessons on this day are cancelled, as all of the teachers will be monitoring the Initiation that day, so students are expected to entertain themselves, unless they are called upon for an emergency.

All initiates in the morning of the day of Initiation are to gather at the edge of the cliff that overlooks the Emerald Forest, fully awake and aware, with their weapons in hand and senses at peek efficiency, so that the Initiation can begin:

1\. Students shall be launched from launch pads* And land in the Emerald Forest. Students are expected to utilise their own landing strategies in order to safely land without harm.

2\. Students are to be aware that the Emerald Forests is a Grimm infested location (Though they are not to learn about the regular monitoring and control of the Grimm population in the Emerald Forests, as well as its security systems and protocols in preparation for the annual Initiations), And are to constantly be aware of any local Grimm near their location, and must eliminate them less harm come to them (If Grimm encounters prove to be too problematic or dire for Initiates, then the teachers are expected to intervene.

3\. Students are to then move to the location of the Relics, which they are to recover in order to pass the Initiation. These Relics dictate the teams that the initiates will be placed in, as well as those teams' structures and formations. Students are expected to make haste to these Relics, and move to them as quickly as possible, as there are only a few Relics, and as such, there shall only be a few spaces for teams and students.

4\. Students, along the way, are expected to meet up with other students, and find their Hunter partners, which are decided via direct eye contact*. In the event that students are unable to find a partner, then they are to be reviewed by the teachers and faculty, where another student without a partner will be assigned to them. In the rare event that there are no partners available for students, then special conditions for teams and students will be reviewed, assessed, and assigned fir the students.

5\. Once the initiates have retrieved the Relics, they are to then report to the bottom of the cliff face, where Bullheads will be waiting to pick them up, and take them to Beacon. Initiates who are not able to acquire any Relics will be signalled, and directed to the bottom of the cliff face as well, where the Bullheads will be waiting to take them to Beacon as well, where they will be referred to by the headmaster, and transport will be arranged for them to take them back to their homes and kingdoms of origin.

_(1A. Launchpads, Ozpin? Really? Isn't launching our initiates off of a cliff face using launchpads archaic? Can we not just drop them out of airships or Bullheads over the Forest at random points, and let them go from there?)_

_(4A. In the personal opinion of this teacher, I must disagree with the method of partner selection in the case of direct eye contact. While I will admit that the current selection process does encourage Hunters to learn teamwork and cooperation with others, as well as adaptability and the possibilities of learning new skills from partners and teammates, I have to voice the fact that selection of partners by just eye contact does not result in compatible teams or partners, as there has been many teams over the course of Beacon Academy's history that have been incompatible and unable to function cohesively as a unit. These teams do not usually last long in the long term of either Beacon Academy or as Hunter teams in general, and usually split apart at the end of Beacon's academic course. A better solution to this problem would be to completely revise the selection process, furrily assessing and evaluating each student, and calculating the best possible partner combinations by thoroughly assessing each student, assessing their strengths, skills, personalities and traits, as well as personal traits and habits, in order to decide the most probable and beneficial partner combinations that we can possibly produce. While I will admit that this will take much longer, and will require much work and stress, I believe that if we are to produce the best Hunters in Remnant to defend humanity against the Grimm and any other threats, then it is but a small price to pay, for the safety and security of the people of Remnant.)_

_**Recovered Beacon Academy documentation, by Miss Glynda Goodwitch** _

* * *

"Wake up, lazy butts!"

Ugh...

Jaune and Ren slumped up with a groan, looking very much like death, dried drool covering the side of Jaune's mouth, as he realised that Nora shared yet another similarity with his sisters: They were all morning people. Unfortunately.

"It's morning! It's morning! It's morning! It's morning!" Nora sang as she darted from here to there with the energy of a hyperactive rabbit and Jaune meant that as the highest compliment, really.

"It's morning?" he drawled.

"It's morning!"

He groaned, "It's morning..."

Ren slowly turned to him, looking as dead as Jaune, and said, "I'm sorry on her behalf. She's too good of an alarm clock."

Jaune just slapped his hand on Ren's shoulders, and as a tear rolled down his face, he said, "I know how it feels, my brother. I truly know..."

* * *

"I can't believe we've been at Beacon for a full twenty-four hours! Not that I thought we'd get kicked out or anything, I mean, you're the perfect student", Nora said, gesturing to Ren as and Jaune brushed their teeth in the bathroom. Nora then gestured to Jaune, "And Jaune-Jaune is super nice, so that's an obvious reason why he's still in, and I'm... well, I'm me! But it's just crazy, you know?"

"Er, Nora?" Jaune began.

"Yeah, Jaune-Jaune?"

"Why are you in the men's bathroom?"

"What? Why would I wanna go into the boy's bathroom? I don't wanna see their gross ding dongs and stuff!"

"Then why're you in the men's room?"

"What? Don't be silly, Jaune-Jaune, I'm not in the boy's bathroom!"

"Er, what, then why are... Wait... Hold on..."

Jaune paused, his eyes narrowing as he looked at himself right in the mirror in deep thought, and then looked to Nora, and then to Ren, and then to the same swagilicious girl with the beret and shades from yesterday, now just in her bra and undies.

The girl then just looked at him with a sly smirk, "Yes."

"Er…"

* * *

"..."

"..."

"Well, that happened!"

"Yes, Nora, that did indeed happen", Jaune heard Ren say to Nora, as they sat in what looked like the main dining hall of Beacon, along with what looked like every other possible student to be that had come to Beacon, after they'd sorted out all of their stuff and stored it in the ballroom (Though they had to stay behind for a few minutes to make sure that no one- Especially that ginger jock guy- Didn't go through their stuff as a prank, or just because they wanted to be jerks and thought they could take any advantage of them in any way, because of Jaunes little display last night.)

Well, Jaune and Ren sat. Nora was up on her feet, waiving her arms around and shovelling pancakes down her throat, as she then somehow said, "To be honest, I'm kinda surprised that she didn't smack you in the no-no place!"

"Yeah, I'm... I'm really surprised too...", Jaune said.

"Well, I guess she did smack you. Just, you know, just not in the face or the ding dong!"

Jaune's face then went red and steam started coming out of his ears as he thought back to that little... Event...

_"Hm, not too big, not too small... Just right..."_

Then she smacked his butt. He felt so dirty just by sitting down.

"Anyways, moving past the bathroom incident", Nora said as she slammed her hands into the table, and then pointed her finger into the air, and proudly yelled, "As the president of the Weirdo Club-"

"When were you made president? I don't recall casting a vote."

"-I hearby call our first meeting to order! Our first topic: How to meet up as a team during initiation!" Nora then looked to Ren and Jaune, "Does anyone know what we're being initiated with?"

"You mean how the initiation will go?" Ren asked.

"Yep!"

Ren paused, looking deep in thought, and then shrugged, "I don't know. We tried asking yesterday, didn't we?"

"Yeah, and everyone decided to be big meanie bobeanies and not tell us anything!"

"Same here", Jaune raised his hand and said, "Tried asking a bunch of people. None of them were very revealing, to say the least."

"Aw, why's everyone gotta be all mean?" Nora exclaimed, as she plopped right back into her seat at the table, right next to Ren, and shovelled a pancake into her mouth.

"Perhaps, you 2, the people we all asked didn't tell us anything because they are not allowed too", Ren then piped up with, as he cut his knife into a plate of pancakes before him.

Nora then looked up, "Oh, so it's like a movie thing? 'Don't release any spoilers, or you'll ruin the movie for everyone' kinda thing?"

"I hate when people do that", Jaune muttered.

Ren, after hearing Jaune's mutter, and nodding in response, then looked at Nora once more and said, "I suppose so. The faculty of this school will most likely not want the initiates to know what the initiation actually is, so that when it comes, the students will be able to truly test themselves, and be prepared for any situation, and not have any premade plans or preparations set in so that they can cheat in any way possible", he then paused, "Or something along those lines, I suppose."

Nora thought for a moment, before going, "I guess", and then smiling once more and going, "That's a shame, really", Nora then looked between the 2 boys, and going, "But still, I hope we all end up on the same team together!" she then waffled down another pancake, and then excitedly went, "Oohhhh! We should come up with some sort of plan, to make sure we end up on the same team together! What if we bribe the headmaster? No, that won't work. He has the school."

"Nora, we don't know what the initiation is going to be", Jaune said, not stopping the small smile on his face from creeping up, "How are we suppose to come up with a plan if we don't even know what we're doing in the first place?"

"My, oh my, Jaune-Jaune, have you no faith in your Weirdo Club president-"

"I still don't recall a ballet being held."

"-And pancake queen?"

"I still don't recall a ballet being held."

Ren smirked, and just said, "We can always improvise. Nora's surprisingly good at finding things when she needs too."

"Yeah, how'd you think I found Renny?" Nora said as she wrapped her arm around Ren and pulled him close.

"Actually, I was the one who found you."

"Semantics!" Nora happily went, before she then said, "I know! We'll have some sort of signal! Like a distress signal!"

"What, like a siren, or something?" Jaune asked.

"No, silly, like a- Oh, can you imitate a sloth?"

"Nora?" went Ren, as he finished off the rest of his pancakes, and raised an eyebrow at Nora.

"Yes, Ren?"

He wiped his mouth, as he then said, "I don't think sloths make a lot of noise."

"True that", Jaune said.

Nora looked to be in deep thought for a moment, before going, "That's why it's perfect! No one will suspect we're all working together!"

Ren smirked, and Jaune was about to say something in response, until he felt something slimy smack into the back of his head with a loud {SQUISH}. Nora and Ren were not oblivious to this, and they looked to Jaune, and then to the bac of his head.

"W-What was that?" Jaune asked, getting a shiver down his spine, as the slimy substance began to crawl through his hair, and down his neck and back.

"That, would be a pudding that someone threw at you", Ren calmly replied.

"How dare whoever threw that waste a perfectly good pudding!" Nora exclaimed.

"Nora, priorities, please."

"Sorry."

Jaune then looked to where he figured that the pudding had been thrown from, to see that same ginger jock guy sitting at a table near them, along with a crowd of other people, all of them looking their way and laughing, not even bothering to conceal it. Nora immediately gave them a death glare, and picked up a syrup bottle, but Ren caught her hand, and forced it down. A silent conversation was carried out between them, and after a few moments, Nora sat back down, though she wasn't looking pleased by it.

Ren then grabbed Jaune and went, "Duck."

"Huh?"

Ren then forced Jaune's head down, and he then saw the shadow of what looked like a rotten orange flying over his head, before it...

Huh?

It stopped right in place, floating right in the air, completely still, and covered in a purple glow, before quickly being launched back into the direction that it was before, and splatting into the head of a boy with a sleeveless hoodie and light green mohawk, sending him out of his seat and falling on his back on the floor, trying to wipe the rotten fruit off of his face.

Jaune then lifted his pudding covered head, looked at Ren and Nora, and asked, "W-What was that?"

Ren then raised his eyebrow, and said, "Not us, unfortunately."

"I woulda launched a grenade into his face", grumbled Nora.

"Ahem."

Jaune, Nora, and Ren then looked to the side of the table to see-

Oh heck, it's the scary lady!

Right before them was the scary lady from the auditorium the previous day- Miss 'Glynda Goodwitch', he presumed- Now in full view and close up, a riding crop in hand, and a sharp look on her face.

"Erm, Miss... Goodwitch, is it?" Jaune hesitantly asked, "Please correct me if I'm wrong."

"No, you are indeed correct, Mister Arc", said Miss 'Goodwitch'. Jaune was then about to ask how she knew him, but then she said, "Your transcripts provide all of the necessary information about you, Mister Arc, that's how I know you", when she said the word 'Transcripts', there seemed to be a hint of annoyance on her face.

"Ah", Jaune said, "I see", he then finished with, desperately trying to hide the sheer panic that he was going through on the inside, _She knows, she knows! That's the only reason why she's here, isn't it!? She's gonna publicly tell everyone about my fake transcripts, humiliating and shaming my family name, and then boot me out right here right now, and then-_

"I suggest you go get yourself cleaned up, Mister Arc", Miss Goodwitch then said, surprising Jaune, but he did his best to not let it show.

"Um, er, yes, Miss", Jaune then said as he got up, and headed off for the bathroom, trying to ignore the sniggers and judging eyes that were following him.

"C'mon Nora, let's go", he heard Ren say, turning around to see, to his surprise, Ren and Nora following him, quickly catching up to him and walking alongside him, which kinda warmed his heart up, and he let it show by giving them a quick smile, one that they followed up with.

"And as for you, Mister Winchester and Mister Thrush", he then heard Miss Goodwitch say, "This is hardly the attitude becoming of a Huntsman. You do something like this again, and there will be consequences. I expect you to improve, if you wish to make it in this academy, understand?"

""Yes, Miss"", they both replied with, the one voice from the location of the boy with the mohawk sounding genuine, while it was easy to tell that the one from the location of the ginger boy didn't take it seriously, or paid it any heed at all.

Jaune then heard Miss Goodwitch scoff, as if she wasn't buying it at all, and then he heard her heels beginning to click away on the floor in the opposite direction. Jaune had been told and had heard stories about Miss Goodwitch over the years, more of them horrifying then good, but from what he'd seen so far, they all seemed to more exaggerated than true. Sure, she seemed to be quite terrifying, but she didn't seem like she wanted to bite someone's head off like a-

A pack of handwipes was handed to him, which he took. He looked to the person who'd handed him the pack, to see that the familiar twin in black and red had gotten up and given them to him, with a helpful smile on her face.

"Here you go", the girl in red said, "You might need these."

"Er, thanks. Thanks a lot", Jaune replied with, sorta surprised by the random act of kindness.

"It's no problem, happy to help", the red twin replied, before moving back to her seat, and going, "I hope your initiation is a successful venture, Mister Arc."

"Er, thanks, thanks a lot", Jaune paused, "Um, miss..."

"Miltia Malachite", she said, "Go get yourself cleaned up, Mister Arc."

"Right, thanks Miltia", Jaune finished, as he, Nora and Ren then found the doors out of the dining hall, and made their way to the bathroom.

Jaune then looked at Nora, who had a Cheshire grin on her face, and asked, "What?"

"'Mister Arc'?"

Jaune then began to chock on his own spit.

* * *

"Seriously, you're gonna start talking to the bunny boy?" Melanie growled in an annoyed tone of voice as she and her twin sister grabbed and attached their weapons from their lockers, Melanie putting on her bladed heel boots, and Miltia slapping her claws onto her wrists, quietly humming to herself the I Burn song to herself while Melanie continued, "I get that you have a thing for the noodles but for god's sake, you saw that stupid bunny suit last night-"

"I thought it was cute", Miltia said as she finished sorting herself out, and ceased humming to herself, acquiring a gentle smile on her face. It was obvious that there was more than one reason for her interactions with him.

"Whatever, you saw that dumb display that he did to Pyrrha Nikos- Freaking Pyrrha Nikos!- And how long it took him to grab the obvious, and even before that, there was that goddamn terrible- Absolutely fucking terrible!- Display of womanly courtsmanship-"

"Not a word."

"-That he tried to pull on us just yesterday, and still, you want to try and get into the pants of that guy! What the hell, Miltia!?"

"I do not wish to begin sexual relations with that man, dear sister of mine", Miltia said.

"'Man', she says", Melanie rolled her eyes, "Then what?"

"I wish to begin a friendship with him."

"Wha- Why?!"

"Sister, we have been together since even before we escaped our mother's womb. Do you really not know mine motivations for wishing to make friends with Mister Arc."

"Apparently not, it would seem", Melanie said with a frustrated look upon her. She'd always kept her cards close to her chest. It was freaking impossible to tell what that girl was thinking, like, at all. All of the time.

"I told you yesterday, dear sister mine."

"Yeah, you said that he was nice, or whatever. But that ain't gonna cut it here, O sister of mine", she said that last bit with a hint of annoyance.

"And why is that, Melanie?" her smile was beginning to fade, "I question you not on what partners, or friends, you choose to make. Why should you question mine?"

"Because of literally every interaction we've had with him, or every time we've seen him! He's either clinically insane, or a winnable Casanova, or whatever! He's a terrible influence, if I've ever seen one."

"Is that so?"

"Very much so."

Miltia's smile widened, "Well, I look forward to proving you wrong. In the meantime, let's finish up any last minute preparations. I would rather we didn't go out into whatever our initiation might be without making sure that we are prepared for every possibility."

"Ugh, yeah yeah, sure", Melanie said, taking a bottle out of her bag, and about to put it into the locker, before taking a look at the back of the shampoo, and pausing for a second, "...Miltia."

"Hm?" Miltia paused, as she finished looking over herself in a mirror to make sure that nothing seemed out of place, and looked to her sister, folding away the hand held mirror and shutting her locker without even looking, "What is it?"

"You know the shampoo we asked Uncle Hei to get? Urban peach brand number 2114X0? The one we were constantly pestering him about? The one we gave him specific information about, and the only one we use to clean our hair, as it requires very, very, specific shampoo to look as good as it does?"

"Yes, Melanie, I know. I should know, I was there. Whatever is your-"

"This is Urban peach brand number 2114Y0."

"Pour it."

And she did just that.

"...I meant pour it down the sink, not onto the floor", Miltia deadpanned as she watched Melanie dump a whole bottle of shampoo onto the floor without a care in the world.

"Well then, you should've been more specific", Melanie said as she finished pouring out the entire bottle, and tossed it right into the bin on the other side of the room, "Nailed it."

"It's a tripping hazard, sister, we should clean it up."

"Yeah, but it's slippery", Melanie said with a smirk, "And it'll help get rid of people we don't like."

"Hello there, ladies", said a large ginger haired jock with a 2 handed mace on his back, as he leaned on the wall and gave them a sly look, "You're looking pretty bored", his smirk widened, "Wanna go somewhere fun?"

Miltia's smile faded, and a stoic look came over her, and she looked at the jock, "Mister Winchester, wasn't it?"

"Cardin Winchester, please, I'm sure you already know of me, obviously", he held an ugly smirk on him.

"Never heard of you, actually, my apologies. And I will have to decline your offer, I'm afraid", she moved closer to him, "My sister and I are actually waiting for someone, so if you could-"

"Who, the bunny boy?" 'Cardin' sneered. Miltia recalled him looking her way when she was handing Jaune her pack of tissues. She nodded, and Cardin's sneer worsened, "Oh please, that retard looks like he can't even get a girl off even if he tried. He's gonna be a disappointment, trust-"

"Could you take a step to the left please?"

"What? Oh, sure", Cardin said, as he took a step to Miltia's left, "Anyways, he's probably got a dick the size of a- AUGH!"

That was the sound of him slipping up on Urban peach brand number 2114Y0, and falling face first onto the floor with a satisfying {CRACK}, which Miltia then used as an opportunity to smack her foot onto her back, and, using the shampoo as lubricant, shoved him away from them, the shampoo making him extremely slippery, and sending him flying across the floor with the speed of a rocket, into a section of disused, rusty lockers and a trashcan in the corner of the room.

{CRASH}

"AUGH MY EVERYTHING!"

Miltia then looked at Melanie with a satisfied look on her face, "Huh, I suppose you are correct, sister."

"What'd I tell you?"

* * *

"So, you seem awfully chipper this morning!" Yang said as she and Ruby began to lock and load, taking out their weapons and gear from their locker, and prepping for the initiation ahead of them. Neither of them had said a word about their interaction last night, and neither of them had any plans too, which was a repeating pattern between them that had started ever since... Yeah.

"Yep! No more awkward small talk or "getting-to-know-you" stuff", she exclaimed as she flexed her Crescent Rose, and held it close to her, sighing as she stroked it, "Today, I get to let my sweetheart do the talking."

"Welp, good to know that you're doing well", went Yang as she finished off loading up her gauntlets, and let them shift to their bracelet forms, "Can't have you at your minimum, can we?"

"Mm hm", hummed Ruby, who then went, "Do you still not know what the actual initiation is, by any chance?"

"Nope, not a clue", Yang answered, "Think it's where we're gonna get our partners?"

"Ah, I hope not!" Ruby yelped, "I need to find a partner that can work with my super awesomey awesome skills and not, you know, hate me or anything like that..."

"Encouraging words, truly", Yang snarked, before going, "And I need to veto that partner so that they're a good match for you. And if they're not, then I smack 'em in the face. The Gods good work, truly."

"Oh my- Yang!" Ruby exclaimed, "You don't need to do that for every person that I meet!"

"And why not, my dear baby sister?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I swear, it's like you don't want me to have friends", Ruby muttered.

"No, that's- I'm fine with you making friends", Yang corrected, "I'm all for that. In fact, I encourage it."

"Just like Jaune, then?" Ruby asked.

"Hey, you saw his little show and tell last night, with the bunny outfit, in front of the 4 time Mistral champion herself, you gotta either be pretty crazy to pull of something like that, or pretty ballsy, and just from seeing that guy, I'mma go with crazy."

"Oh my god, Yang, you're being absolutely-"

"Ridiculous!" Ruby and Yang looked to the side to see the familiar blond boy fumbling past them, holding a map in his hands as he looked from here to there, while behind him, the lithe boy in green and the short ginger girl from last night and earlier in the morning trailed behind him, "There's no way I put my gear in locker 636 yesterday! I would've remembered having to count that high! Why does this have to happen today?"

"Because you're forgetful?" absentmindedly asked the ginger girl.

"Yes, thank you for that critical piece of information, Nora, I'll be sure to keep it close to my heart."

"Ah, don't sweat it, s'all good."

"Nora, he was being sarcastic", said the lithe boy next to her.

"Yeah, I know, Ren, I just thought it'd lighten the mood."

"She's not wrong", said Jaune, "It did lift up my mood. Thanks, Nora."

"Aw, no problem, Jaune-Jaune, happy to help", 'Nora' chirped as she scooted closer to 'Ren'.

"Yeah, thanks, that really brought up m- AUGH!"

{SLIP}

{THUD}

"Who put this Urban peach brand number 2114Y0 shampoo here!?" Jaune yelped as he rubbed his now sticky shampoo covered back on the floor.

"Ah, Jaune-Jaune!"

"Jaune!" Ruby yelled as she skirted to where Jaune was laying on the floor, "Are you okay?"

"Ah, yep, I'm fine", he said as he tried to get up from the slippery floor, "Who left all of this AGH!"

{SLIP}

{THUD}

'Tried' being the appropriate word.

"Ugh", he groaned as he eventually caught his balance, thanks to the assistance of a locker, Ruby, and Nora, "Thanks guys."

"No problem, Jaune-Jaune."

"Happy to help."

Then, the voice of the scary lady from the initiation was heard over the speakers, _"Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."_

"Ah, you guys get yourself sorted out and head off to the- To the cliff?" Jaune paused, and then looked at Ren, "They're not gonna push us off the cliff and see how many of us aren't smashed to death, are they?"

Ren shrugged, "I hope not."

Nora giggled, "I hope so!"

Everyone gave Nora a worried look and a wide berth.

"Er, okay then", Jaune slowly said, before shuffling out of the shampoo puddle, and then went, "Right then, you guys go get yourself sorted out, and get yourself to the Beacon Cliff. I'll catch up."

"Are you sure?" Ren asked.

"Ah, don't worry about it, I'll be fine", Jaune reassured him, "I'm a pretty fast runner, if I do say so myself, and I'm pretty sure you should probably be worrying about yourselves for whatever this initiation actually is."

"Okie dokie, Jaune-Jaune!" Nora said, as she grabbed Ren by his arm, and started to drag him off, "See you later!"

"You too", Jaune replied, "I hope you guys end up together!"

"Psh, not 'Together-Together'", Nora muttered, as she pulled Ren along, and went in a sing-song voice, "Onwards to victory, my dear Ren-Ren, to ever lasting victory!"

"Yes yes, Nora, onwards we go", he said in such a nonchalant manner, as they disappeared round a corner.

"Bye bye, Jaune, see you at the cliffs, try not to fall off", Ruby jokingly went, as she and Yang headed off, to the initiation, to which he gave a joking reply, and began to wonder to his locker, while the 2 siblings wondered out of the locker hall, and onwards to the cliff, towards the initiation, and the day to come.

* * *

"I'll try my best, see you there", Jaune jokingly went to Ruby and her elder sister (Who gave him a stink eye, for some reason), and then went about to finding his locker, which had proven difficult a task with Nora and Ren, and would most assuredly be a much greater quest by his lonesome.

"Let's see, locker 629... 630... 631... 63... Ah, there it is."

Shortest. Quest. Ever.

Jaune quickly pocketed the map away, and went to his locker, trying to remember the code to open it, "Let's see, what it 2/2/19... No, no, no, it was... Er… 7/18/13! Yeah, that's what it was", he went as he finally opened his locker, and went to grab his sword and shield, "Phew, that was a close one, don't wanna-"

"You!"

"Me?" Jaune then looked to his side to see that same ginger haired jock from earlier in the morning standing right by his locker, fuming, and glaring daggers at him.

"Yes you, bunny boy!" the jock went, as he stood right next to Jaune locker, his deep indigo eyes staring right into the blond knight-to-be's baby blue.

"Er, can I, um, can I help you?" the blond boy nervously asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, you can help", the jock replied, before-

"Hey, what are you doing!?" Jaune yelled as the jock grabbed him by the shirt.

"You can help by staying in there!" the jock went as he stuffed the blond boy into his locker, and slammed the door to it shut on the blond boy, the automatic lock sealing it instantly.

"Hey, what the hell are you-"

"You, bunny boy, caused me not one, but 2 hot pieces of ass!"

"What? What are you talking about? I have no idea what you're going on about!"

"You know what I'm talking about! 2 hot ass twins, and they deny me, Cardin fucking Winchester, for you! A fucking bunny retard!"

"Twins? Oh, Miltia and Melanie! I think, at lea- Hey, wait, you can't just call-"

"Oh, shut up!" 'Cardin' said as he kicked the locker for emphasis, and then started to march off, "You know what, you can stay in there, miss the initiation. You wouldn't have even gotten in anyways. I'm doing everyone here a favour by keeping you here."

"Hey, wait, where are you going!?" Jaune yelled out to the jock, as the imposing boy slammed the doors out of the locker room wide open, and then slammed them behind him with a loud {SLAM}, and left Jaune alone in the locker room, still stuck in his locker, "Dude? Are you still there?"

…

"...Hello?... Is anyone there?" the locker boy called out, "I'm stuck in a locker... Some ginger guy shoved me in here and I can't get out... Hello?... Please... I'm gonna miss initiation if I stay in here... Hello?... Anybody?... Anyone?..."

Then, a light of hope came to the blond boy, as he heard the doors to the locker room open once more, and light footsteps come into the room, walking around the room cautiously, as if looking for something.

"Oh, hey, hey, hello!" Jaune called out from the locker grates, to whoever had come into the locker room, "Help me! Please! Some ginger jock guy locked me in here, and I can't get out!"

"You don't need to yell, you know", came the calm, stoic voice of a woman, as quickly after that was said, 2 amber, cat like eyes shone from the other side of the locker grates, looking into the locker, and into Jaune's own eyes, "I could hear you from in the corridor."

"Er, wow, that's some good hearing you've got, then!"

The amber eyes flicked away for a second, before looking back, "That, or you're just really loud", Jaune heard this, and muttered his apologies, "It's fine", a pause, "You said somebody locked you in here. Do you know who?"

"Er, some ginger jock guy. Don't know what his name was. Carl, or something, I don't know. Hey, do you think you can-"

"Get you out?"

"Yeah yeah yeah, yes please! I really don't wanna spend all of my initiation in a locker. Might look bad, you see."

"Understandable", the amber eyes went as they moved away, and a beeping was heard, "Do you know the code to this locker?"

"Oh yeah, it's my locker. Er, is it... Er…"

"Helpful, truly", went the kind stranger.

"No no, wait, I got it, I got it", went Jaune, as he tried to think, "Um, what was it, what was it?... 1... 2... 2! 2/2/19! Yeah, that's what it was!"

"Alright then", said the stranger, "Let's get you out of-"

"ROCKET LAUNCHER ACTIVATED."

"...What was that?" Jaune asked.

"...Not the lock", the stranger said.

"...Oh."

{BOOM}

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-", went Jaune as the locker somehow- SOMEHOW!- Propelled through the roof- THROUGH THE ROOF!- And left a hole in the roof, as it shot right through the sky, and left a trail of smoke behind it, "WHO IN THEIR RIGHT FUCKING MIND PUT THIS AS A FEA- BLLLLAAAARRRGGGHHHH!"

* * *

Blake didn't move a muscle. She stayed looking up into the sky, through the new hole in the ceiling that had been made, following the trail of smoke in the air, her extra ears under her bow twitching at the loud, sudden noise, her finger still pointed out to where the locker keypad had been.

"...Woops."

"Woops indeed."

Blake whirled around.

"You..."

* * *

"Look guys, a shooting star!" went a dragon Faunus called Esper Fyre, as she pointed to the trail of smoke, and the shard of light as it quickly shot through the sky.

"Wow!" went a squid Faunus named Sora Auburn with starry eyes.

"Make a wish, guys", went a human in full military gear and forest camo named Razor Azure.

"Wait, guys", went a large, armoured walrus Faunus named Matera Teale, or Tusks as a nickname, "I don't think that's a shooting star."

"You think so?" asked a human girl by the name of Lavender Nera.

"Wait, he's right", went an armoured wolf Faunus called Kay Nin, as he listened in to the faint screaming and sounds of puking, "I think that's a rocket locker, not a shooting star."

…

"Look guys, a shooting rocket locker!"

"Wow!

"Make a wish, guys."

* * *

"I must say, Glynda, I have a rather good feeling about this year", said Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy, enjoying the tranquil silence of the Emerald Forest as he and the rest of the Beacon faculty stood over the cliffs, before breaking the silence with the sound of a coffee mug surprisingly filled with hot cocoa being sipped from.

"Of course, Ozpin, though I should let you know that every time you say that, it will only lead to destruction and horror", deadpanned Professor Glynda Goodwitch, the headmistress of Beacon, as she looked over her tablet at the initiates coming to Beacon that she held in one hand, the other one holding a happy Zwei, and then she looked to the 2000 launchpads that they had set up on the cliffside, and then to the faculty that had gathered with them, "I have had enough experience around you gentlemen and gentleladies to know that to temp the universe is to invite the forces of chaos."

"Oh come now, Glynda, you say that as if we're beacons of madness."

"Yes, I do say it like that, don't I?" she said.

"Ah haha! Come now, dear Goodwitch, surely you see not our magnificent adventures that we have had over the years as nothing more than chaos!" guffawed Peter Port, the loud, boisterous professor and 'Storyteller' of Beacon.

"I refuse to indulge that question with an answer", Glynda replied in a stoic tone.

"Hahaha, why, I remember when we went out into Vale after the first year as my glorious tenure at this fine academy, and we visited the Great Lake of the Deathstalker, where I wrestled and tamed the vicious beast with nothing more than a toothpick and my great big manly-"

"Please, make him stop", Glynda sighed, while Ozpin hid his.

"Calm down, Glynda, let him have his fun", Ozpin said as they drowned out Port's talk about a Leviathan Grimm and a sea slug that gave him the ability to control the elements.

"It's only fun for him, for the rest of us less so."

"You speak as if nobody enjoys his stories", the both of them looked back to Port, to see the shy mouse Faunus Professor Peach, and Prof- Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck listening to the boisterous professor go on, Oobleck occasionally taking a sip from his thermos, and Peach wincing every now and then that Port would suddenly exclaim about singlehandedly destroying a Weaver Grimm nest with nothing but his bare hands and a can of bug spray, or something along those lines.

"I will never understand how they can listen to his stories like that", Glynda muttered with an eye twitch.

"You say that as if you don't like Peter."

"Of course I like him. As teachers, we're contractually obliged to like each other. It's his overexaggerated stories that I don't like."

"Everyone has their quirks, Glynda."

"I'm not saying that they don't, and I'm not saying that I don't like or appreciate Port. I just don't like that his stories have a tendency to go into the realms of wild over exaggeration", Glynda sighed, "Look, getting the topic back on track, my point earlier still stands; It seems just getting us together in a single spot and just muttering a single word is an invitation for the universe to come and throw another disaster right at our-"

"-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-"

"-...Do you hear-"

{SLAM}

{BOOM}

"Ow", went Port, as he got himself out of the crater that had formed around the... Rocket locker?

The rocket locker's door, in its battered and beaten state, thanks to the rather explosive landing, then fell off, and out came one Mister Jaune Arc, as he too fell to the floor and onto the locker door, though he quickly brought himself upwards and went, "Ah! What! Where am I?!"

"At the Beacon Cliff, Mister Arc", Ozpin said, taking another sip from his cup, while everyone else was trying to regain equilibrium over themselves after jumping out of their skins at the sudden explosion, "I must say, if this is how you will be getting to classes in the future, Mister Arc, then I believe that you have an excellent future ahead of you in this academy."

"Oh, er, um", the Arc Scion quickly looked around him, to see no other students around him, only teachers, and then looked back to Ozpin, "Well, you know the saying, Sir, Professor, Headmaster, Sir, the, um, 'The early bird get the worm', and, er, yeah", he chuckled, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to have a quick lie down."

{SPLAT}

That was the sound of one Jaune Arc quickly flopping over onto the ground, knocked out and snoring away.

"...Perhaps we should leave him like that for a bit, Glynda", Ozpin said, remembering how he had been told of Jaune Arc's all too common air sickness, "Let him gain his strength back a bit."

"...Yes, that would be wise."

"Woof!"

* * *

With a shudder and a shiver, Jaune quickly rid himself of the last chunks of dirt that were on him, and let them fall onto the strange tile that he stood on. Great, he'd not even started, and he'd already gotten war wounds, as he looked to the dirt stains on his clothes and armour, and the red scrape on his hand that'd now smudged the skin red as he'd tried to rub the pain away. Didn't work, obviously. Only just made it worse (For some reason, a few initiates had looked at his now scabbed over split lip, and newly acquired war wounds, and then looked at him with raised eyebrows, muttering to their fellows about something called 'Aura', or whatever. Weird.)

Jaune then looked to the endless sea of initiates that had gathered around the cliff, all of them standing atop strange silver tiles like he was, all of them looking anxious and nervous, though less so than himself, as he was currently screaming inside, completely unaware of how this whole initiation was going to go. Oh god, what if they really were going to chuck them off the cliff and see how many of them live?!

Perhaps he really should've gone to Haven academy like that Reese girl had suggested. At least as far as he knew, they didn't throw their students off of cliffs!

Then, he, and all 2000 other initiates, heard a happy bark cut through the air, and they all looked to see Headmaster Ozpin standing next to Professor Goodwitch and multiple other teachers and faculty members, and at their feet, the same corgi from before (He shall now refer to the dog as Beacon's official mascot), had run right up to Ruby and Yang, as was playing with the 2 of them, both of the siblings cooing and cuddling the small dog, before Ruby picked it up and hugged it tightly as she giggled and smiled, the corgi barking happily and wagging its tail in response. Jaune could then see almost every student there- Including Weiss, surprisingly- Giving the 2 students death glares, while one girl- The lithe girl with cat like amber eyes (Jaune would have to remember to thank her for helping him out earlier)- Was giving, surprisingly enough, the dog a death glare, for whatever reason.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest", Ozpin went, drawing back everyone's attention from the dog, though Ruby still held him close to her like a mother would her baby.

Glynda then stepped forward and spoke up, "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumours about the assignment of 'Teams'. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion", she paused for a few moments, for dramatic effect, Jaune presumed, before continuing with the ultimate bombshell, "Each of you will be given teammates... Today."

"What? Aw...", Ruby went in a scared voice, hugging the dog closer to her, as she whimpered like a wounded pup. It was actually kinda adorable, in Jaune's opinion.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well", Ozpin said, causing Ruby to groan in response, "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

"""""WWHHHHAAAATTTT?!""""" went the entire collective mass of initiates. Ruby in particular looked like her whole world had just shattered to pieces. Poor girl.

"OH BULLPOOP!"

"THAT'S NOT FAIR!"

"WHO DESIGNED THIS SYSTEM!?"

"I WANT A REFUND!"

"WILL THERE BE CAKE!?"

Jaune almost went deaf at the sounds and calls of all of the initiates complaining and yelling, but in all fairness, they're not wrong. A partner immediately chosen by eyesight is not, and will not be, a suitable way to choose a partner for the rest of your school and possibly Hunter life! It's basically a lottery! What would happen if you get a terrible partner, or a partner that's a complete jerk! Like that ginger guy! This is hardly an effective system!

Though Nora seemed to like it, as he heard her talking happily to Ren, promising that she'd meet up with him down there, and Ren agreeing to do the same, albeit in a much calmer fashion.

Ozpin just ignored all of the comments and complaints, and once the cacophony of noise had stopped, he just continued, "After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die."

Jaune gulped. Oh, 'Die'... That's certainly not a sign of his soon to be immediate death. No sire.

Nora seemed to like it, though, as he heard her giggling.

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation", Ozpin continued, "But our instructors will not intervene in any situation that you come across or create. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing multiple relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately", he paused, "However, do keep in mind that there are only so many relics there, so speed and efficiency will be crucial in for you success. Any initiates who cannot or do not find a relic will be unable to attend Beacon, and will be send home tomorrow. Now, are there any questions?"

Jaune, feeling a question coming along, raised his hand nervously, "Yeah, um, sir-"

"Good, now, take your positions."

Ow.

"Uh, sir? I've got, um... a question."

What was that springing noise that he was hearing?

"What is your question, Mister Arc?" Ozpin asked.

"So, um, er... Uh, Ho-How are we getting down there? Into the forest? You're, like, dropping us off or something?"

"No. You will be falling", Ozpin said with a hint of amusement, while Glynda rolled her eyes.

"Oh, uh, I see...", he nervously said, still unsure as to what that springing noise was, "So, like, did you hand out parachutes for us?"

"No. You will be using your own landing strategy."

Landing what?

"Uh-huh... Yeah", Jaune went, annoyed that the springing sound was getting louder. If anything, it now seemed to be right next to him, "So, what exactly is a landing strateg-"

{SPRING}

"-YYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

Oh, so that's what the tiles were, and what the springing was. They were springboards! Oh, okay, that makes sense...

…

Wait, no it doesn't!

Why hadn't he noticed this!? Why hadn't anyone ever told him about this!? This seems like rather important information to share with someone!

"-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

As he twirled and twirled in the air (It's surprising that he hasn't lost his breakfast yet. Again), and sailed to the floor, he was only just able to notice the multitudes of specks of varying colour, size, and sound that were flying with him, all of them emitting the same sound as he was.

"""""-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"""""

Just in case you didn't know.

As Jaune saw the rainbow specks of sound and shape falling with him, some of them screaming, someone them complaining about their current undergarments, and a few of them hastily writing their wills whilst in flight, a single thought suddenly came through most of them there.

"""""WHAT THE HELL IS A LANDING STRATEGY?!"""""

Seriously, why didn't anyone tell him about this?!

As Jaune tried to stop himself from spinning around like a frisbee (Tried being the appropriate word), he suddenly heard Ruby shout something about a bird, and Yang letting out a loud cheer. Sounded like at least one of them had this landing strategy thing sorted out! Now how the hell was he suppose to do it! He couldn't even see anything! It was all a flipping- Literally!- Vortex! Where was he anyways!

"-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

Screaming was not going to help him out of his predicament and he sure as hell knew it!

_Oh god oh god oh oh god the ground is getting closer the ground is getting closer THE GROUND IS GETTING CLOSER!_ Jaune panicked to himself, while his voice box was currently occupied with the all important task of screaming, _I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die oh god oh god oh god! What do I do!? What do I do!? Is this how I die! Snapping my neck and being crushed to death by the force of the impact!? Is this how they weed out the weak ones!? Oh god I really am gonna die! No no no no no no I don't wanna die like this! I wanna go home! Oh god oh god oh- IS THAT A FUCKING SPEAR!?_

And sure enough, a spear flew right at him, catching and impaling his flailing jumper hoodie, and sent him flying out of his uncontrollable descent, and heading right for a tree, the force of the spear landing it right into the trunk of the tree, and leaving him dangling from it like a ragdoll. A shaken, and probably traumatised ragdoll, but a still functioning one, at least, which was rather surprising, seeing as the sheer force of the impact should've shattered his bones and internal organs, and left him a bloody mark on the tree, but hey, he was alive, who was he to complain?

Jaune then quickly realised that someone had gone out of their way to save him from being a crushed pile on the floor, and in a show of gratitude, shouted out, "Thank you!" to whoever was listening, hoping that they'd respond.

"I'm sorry!" was their response.

Huh, whoever said that sounded familiar... Ah well, it probably anything to worry about. What was currently important, was getting himself unstuck from this position. Deciding to not just wait around for someone to get him, the blond boy reached for the spear holding him captive, and tried to tug it out, to no avail. A tug at the spear, and then another, and then repeat several more times. Nothing. Ugh, this was gonna be a while.

"Come on, come on! Stupid...", he groaned as he tried to get at the spear, attempting to wiggle it free from the tree that held it captive, when, suddenly, from the trees and the bushes, a rustling was heard, and out from the forest fauna, a girl with white hair in a pony tail, and snow themed clothing emerged, and looked at her surrounding for a few moments, and then looking up to the blond boy high up in the trees.

The Arc looked at the Schnee.

The Schnee looked at the Arc.

The Arc used special ability: NERVOUS WAVE.

The Schnee scoffed and walked away, grabbing a nearby rose by it's hood, "By no means does this make us friends."

"You came back!"

_It wasn't very effective!_ Jaune thought to himself as he tried to call out to the 2, "Wait! Come back! Who's going to get me down from here?!"

"Mister Arc?"

Jaune then heard, and only a second later, registered the voice, "Miltia?"

He looked down, to see the familiar twin with pale green eyes and a black and white theme and dress looking up at him in the trees, her head tilted to the side, a smile upon her, and her hands clasped in front of her, "By any chance, do you require some assistance?"

"Um, yes, that would be nice", Jaune replied, "Thanks, in advance."

"It is no problem, Mister Arc", Miltia went as she then quickly hopped and jumped from branch to branch, bouncing off of them or using them as monkey bars, before landing on the tree branch right next to his head, "Happy to help."

"Woah!" Jaune exclaimed as Miltia helped him to pull out the spear from the branch, "How'd you do all of that?"

"The leaping?" Miltia asked, to which she got a nod, "Training, and stamina", she smirked, "Did you really think I was just a pretty face?"

"Well, I guess if you're trying for a Hunters school, you've gotta be pretty skilled", Jaune said, as they pulled the spear out, and Miltia caught Jaune by his hoodie before he fell to the ground, "And strong too, by the looks of it."

"I'm going to have to break your heart on this, Mister Arc, but I'm not that strong", she went with a strain in her voice, her fingers uncurling and her arm trembling from trying to keep Jaune up, "You'll be fine if I drop you here."

"Well, I did just get ejected off of a cliff, and flung through the air like a frisbee, and then a spear almost impaled me, and saved me from being a red puddle on the ground by forcibly attaching me to a tree, so I think I'll be fine, at this point", Jaune confidently answered.

Miltia giggled, "Good to know, Mister Arc", she went, as she let go of his jumper, and let him fall to the ground with a {THUD}.

"Ow."

Miltia giggled again as she jumped down, spear in hand, "'I think I'll be fine', he says."

"Oh hush", Jaune said, as he picked himself up, groaning as he got up, "Ow, ow, ow, ugh, ow", he quickly stretched his back and legs, "Ow."

He then felt a hand rubbed his back, and found that the hand belonged to Miltia, who smiled, "You seem tense."

Jaune raised an eyebrow and smirked, "Is this the part where we kiss?"

Miltia's head tilted, "If you want~"

Jaune then turned red, "Oh, wait, I mean, I don't- Er, um, I mean-"

Miltia laughed, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding, Mister Arc."

"Oh, er, thank goodness", he went as he wiped a drop of sweat off of his brow.

Miltia then looked hurt, "Why is it good, Mister Arc? Are you saying that I'm not pretty?"

Initiating panic mode, "Ack- No! No no no- I mean, you are pretty! Very much so, but, er-"

The twin in red and black then laughed again, "Well, isn't that a nice thing to hear?"

"Er…", brain fart.

Then, the 2 of them heard another rustling once more from the bushes, as leaves and branches were moved aside to make way for the beast coming through. The 2 of them readied themselves for battle, Miltia raising her arms and letting the claws on her wrists glimmer in the sun, the spear in her hand firmly grasped, while Jaune pulled out his sword and shield, and took up the best position that he could, his sword outstretched before him, and his shield second place, guarding his and Miltia's body from harm.

A tall figure in Amazonian armour and with a rounded shield with 2 sections of it missing on both sides, with emerald eyes and red hair tied into a ponytail atop her head, walked through the fauna, brushing off any leaves that'd attached themselves to her, and looked up, to see the blond boy and the twin in black and red before them, smiling and waving to them.

"Hello again", Pyrrha Nikos, the cereal girl herself chirped as she looked at the both of them.

_Oh god, it's the cereal girl from last night_ , panicked Jaune, as he felt a sweat bead roll down his head, _Oh god she's gonna hate me for the bunny incident last night and she's gonna use her fame as a cereal mascot to make fun of me and destroy whatever shred of dignity I have left and-_

"Hello Jaune", Pyrrha said, as she approached the new pair of partners, "It's good to see you again."

"Oh, er, um, yes, hi, hello, Miss cerea- Nikos! Pyrrha Nikos, not cereal! Why would I think cereal? That's just silly! Anyone else suddenly want cereal?"

"What cereal?" Miltia asked.

"Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes."

"Oh, those things will clog up your arteries like nobody's business."

"But they taste great."

"True."

"Well, you too seem to be getting along well", Pyrrha said as she stopped next to the new pair, but her smile seemed somewhat irked at Miltia's appearance and Jaune's comment to her.

"Well, I suppose we are required to do so, Miss Nikos", Miltia said, "Since we shall be providing each other's company from now on. If we pass, of course", she then held out her arm with the spear in hand, "I believe this may be yours, Miss Nikos."

"Oh", Pyrrha went, as she gracefully claimed her spear from the smaller girl, "Thank you very much."

"Wait", Jaune began, pointing to Pyrrha, "That spear saved my life! That was you?!"

"Er, yes, yes it was", Pyrrha said as her spear shifted to a- Did it just shift to a sword? Why does everyone else get the cool stuff?- And attached it to her back alongside the shield, going, "I saw that you didn't seem to have a good landing strategy, so I figured that it'd be good to help you out. Can't have a fellow student being injured during initiation now, can we?"

"Oh god thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!" Jaune went as he grabbed Pyrrhas hands and began to shake it profusely, "I almost died I did well I didn't and that was all thanks to you thank you thank you thank you so much!"

"Oh, it was no problem, really", Pyrrha went.

Jaune then noticed how much he was shaking her hand, and let go, "Oh wait, oh god, I'm so sorry, I mean, I didn't mean to-"

"Jaune, please, it's no problem, really", she said, her smile looking a little more fake.

"Right, sorry, sorry, I'm just, you know, really glad that I'm not dead, and all."

"Yes, well, I'm glad that you're okay", Pyrrha said, "I would hate to have seen you hurt."

"Oh, well, thanks", he paused, "So, er, about the whole, you know, bunny thing from last night-"

"It's alright, really, Jaune, you needn't apologise for it."

"Okay, that's good, that's good, I would hate for any friendship that we have between us to be ruined by any, er, awkwardness, or anything."

"O-Oh, right", Pyrrha went, "Of course."

"Ah", Miltia sighed, placing a hand to her chest with a smile, "Young love, how I envy you~"

The both of them stuttered and spluttered.

"Ah, M-Miltia! It's not like that!"

"Y-Yeah!"

"I mean, I only just met her!"

"S-Same!"

Miltia giggled, "Oh, that's what they all say, then comes the smooching~"

""ACK!""

"GODDAMMIT!"

The newly gathered 3 Hunters to be quickly turned once more to the fauna around them, only to see a bundle of white with cyan linings pop out of the trees and bushes, scaring off a butterfly, and covered in leaves, twigs, and dirt, squirming and swearing to herself as she tried to pull the sticks out of the tears in her dress.

"Goddamn fucking- AUGH! My dress is ruined, my hair is ruined, my makeup is ruined, everything is ruined! AAAHHH!" Melanie cried as she mourned the loss of her hair and clothes, and then looked at the gathering before her, and then to her twin, and pointed at her and yelled, "How are you perfectly fine!?We were just thrown off a cliff into a forest and you don't have a scratch on you!"

Miltia looked over herself. Not a scratch. She giggled, "Because I'm fabulous~"

"FUCK YOU I'M FABULOUS TOO!"

"Obviously not."

"AUGH!" she yelled as she approached them, "Let's just go to the ruins or whatever, we're wasting time here."

"Miss, um, what was your name, may I please ask?" Pyrrha asked politely.

Melanie looked to Pyrrha, "Oh, Pyrrha Nikos, it's Melanie. Melanie Malachite. Certified bad bitch and absolutely fabulous."

Pyrrha seemed to be annoyed by the way she responded for a second, but she quickly recovered, "Melanie is right. We're burning daylight sitting here. We need to get moving to the ruins, grab the relics, and move-"

"Dibs!" Melanie yelled, "My partner! Pyrrha Nikos is my partner! 4 star Mistral champion is my partner! I call dibs!"

Miltia shrugged, "Jaune and I have already been declared partners by the rules, so-"

"HA! I get the most powerful huntress here and you get the bunny noodle! As all things should be!" Melanie then grabbed Pyrrha by the wrist, and began to drag her off, "Something tells me that this is the beginning of a successful partnership, Pyrrha! With your strength and power, and my beauty, intellect, and pure unadulterated awesomeness, we'll be the most powerful, and the best pair in all of Beacon! No, scratch that, in all of Remnant!" Pyrrha looked like she ws about to say something, but Melanie then quickly said, "Onwards, to the relics!"

"Er, the relics are to the north", Pyrrha quickly said.

"Yes, of course, to the north!" Melanie stopped, "Which is..."

"Um", Pyrrha pointed to the side, "That-"

"That way! I knew that! Obviously!" Melanie then shifted to the side and began to walk off, dragging Pyrrha along with her, "Don't worry, we'll be an awesome pair! We'll be popular, we'll be celebrities, we'll get- Well, who needs grades, we're gonna be learning how to kill Grimm, who cares about times tables, and all that crap! We'll get all of the boys! We'll-", and just like that, they disappeared through the bushes, and were gone.

Jaune looked to his new partner, "Um, should we, I don't know, follow them?"

Miltia paused for a second, and then said, "That would be advisable. In a forest like this occupied by Grimm", Jaune gulped in response, "It would be best to stick together in groups. While it might draw more Grimm to ourselves, it would be safer to stay in groups as we traverse through the forest. Strength in numbers, and all that. Plus, if the teachers are grading us, then if we stick together, and they see us working together, then we'll be put into a team together", Miltia shrugged, "In my opinion, at least."

"Well, I suppose that makes sense", Jaune nervously shrugged, then hesitantly began to move, "We should, erm, get moving."

"Yes, that would be wise", Miltia went, and the new pair of Hunters began to move out, passing the trees and through the bushes, until they too were out of sight.

Jaune didn't hear what Miltia muttered next.

"Whatever you say, my king."

* * *

"Helloooooooo?" Yang called out as she wandered the forest, having nailed her landing strategy, and began her search through the trees and growths for her little sister, so that she could partner up with her, and keep anyone else from harming her, "Is anyone out there? Helloooo?"

She mentally paused for a second, replaying her last words that'd played in her head once more. _S_ _o that she could partner up with her, and keep anyone else from harming her_.

Yang was... Well, she knew that Ruby hated that. She knew that Ruby hated how she was... Protective, of her little sister. How she was quick to threaten and scrutinise any potential threats against her.

But what was she to do? Ever since Dad... Left. Yeah. Ever since he left, Ruby has been her only family. Her, well, her egg donor, Raven Branwen, she walked out on them, for whatever reasons she had, and her actual mother left one day on a mission, and never came back, to which everyone assumed that she was dead, to which Yang spent so many years searching for Raven, only for Patch to fall, and their dad to meet a similar fate. What exactly was she suppose to do?

Certainly not let their drunkard of an uncle take Ruby under his wing. That man was an alcoholic for about 99% of the time. She wasn't about to let that guy take her sister and turn her into another useless drunkard like him. Who was the one that practically raised Ruby while their dad (Bless his heart) Was sulking in his room day and night? Yang, thank you very much, so it's safe to say that the blonde haired girl felt a little entitled to the position of Ruby's caretaker and protector.

She stopped in a wide opening, and raised her arms and voice, "I'm getting bored here!" and indeed she was. Thinking about topics and subjects that she already knew the answer to had a bad habit of doing that to her. Luckily, a distraction to break this chain of thought came to her when a rustling in the bushes was heard, "Is someone there?" she asked as she moved forward to a bush and parted the branches, "Ruby, is that you?"

A growl was her answer.

"Nope."

She quickly jumped back and rolled to her left, and a large black beast- A Grimm- Lunged out of the bushes and swiped at now empty air. An Ursa. The Minor variant, by the looks of it. Hardly a threat, from what Qrow and dads teachings have told her, but a threat none the less.

At the end of her roll she let her bracelets form to gauntlets, to Ember Celica, and readied herself, inviting the bear imitation of a bear (Ah, puns. The highest form of comedy~) To make the second move. However, a second Ursa decided to take its companions place, as it came out of the bushes with a swipe of its own, though she quickly cartwheeled to the side, and allowed them to join each other. An attempt at an ambush, perhaps? Didn't matter. The first Ursa moved first and lunged at her, but Yang quickly delivered a well placed punch to its stomach and shot it back, and a punch and a kick, in that order, to the second one as it attempted to pounce her, knocking them back to where they started.

"You guys wouldn't happen to have seen a girl in a red hood, would you?"

The Ursai growled at her, and one of them went in with a lunge.

"You could just say 'No'!" Yang quipped as she dodged the swipe from the Ursa, as well as the second swipe by cartwheeling back, letting out a grunt and a laugh as she got up, "Geeeez, you two couldn't hit the broad side of a ba…"

A single strand of sun kissed hair floated to the ground before her.

…Oh hell no.

"You..."

She blinked, her eyes turning a glowing red, flickers coming from her hair. The 2 Grimm looked to each other, and both let out a confused growl.

"YOU MONSTER!"

If there was one lesson that you should learn from Yang Xiao Long, it's this: Don't. Touch. The hair.

The air around her exploded, her gauntlets clocked, and with a huff and a puff, she charged forward, ready to blow the Grimm's houses down. The first Grimm was met with a punch to its head, and then an uppercut, sending it up into the air, after which, she unleased a series of punches and kicks onto the beast. Punch then punch then kick then punch, each on a burst of fire and light for it's own, until a final punch, with a fiery explosion to accompany it, sent the Grimm flying backwards, right through the trees, tearing them from their roots and leaving only stumps and jagged scars, and creating a trail through the forest that went on for what looked like forever.

Yang flipped around, to see the second Ursa right before her, glaring at her. The sound of a tree falling punctuated the background.

"What! You want some, too?!" she yelled, challenging the Grimm to come forth, and try to kill her. Emphasis on try.

The Grimm stood upright, growling as it ascended, but then, came the sound of a burst of air and a slice, and the Grimm flinched, let out the equivalent of a last gasp for life, and then slumped front first to the floor, a bladed pistol embedded in it's back. Connected to it was a long black ribbon, which itself was connected and tied around the arm of a black and white lithe girl with a bow, who then sheathed her bladed pistol to her back, and allowed a comfortable silence to fall over the 2 of them, the Ursa's corpse slowly fading away into a black stream of smoke.

The silence was broken when Yang pouted and went, "I could've taken him."

The girl stayed stoic, "I'm sure that you could've."

"Aw, thank you. It's so nice that someone can see my awesome skills", the lithe girl rolled her eyes, but Yang didn't notice, "Speaking of, I don't think we've met, Miss I don't know who you are", she held out her hand, "Yang Xiao Long's the name, nice to meet ya."

The black and white girl looked at the hand for a few moments, and then walked up to Yang, and took the hand in her own, shaking it, "Blake Belladonna. Good to meet you too."

"Well, then, this looks to be the beginning of a successful partnership", Yang joked, then turned around to where she was originally walking to, "Now all I need to do is find my sister, and kick her partner's butt if they make her sad, or if they're not good enough for her. Spoiler alert: They probably are."

"Actually, I think it would be better if we made our way to the relics", went Blake, making Yang pause, "We're up against hundreds, if not thousands of other people, and there are only so many relics at the ruins to the north, so it would be best to make haste to the ruins as fast as we can."

"Well, I for one am certain that we can get find my sister, and get a relic in time", Yang said as she looked back to her new partner, her face still with the same smile on her face, "And even if we can't find a relic ourselves, we can always find someone who has and beat them up, and take it from them."

"I'm... Pretty sure that that's against the rules... And illegal", Blake paused for a second on that last point, "And as another point, if your sister is, well, I'm going to assume she's a Huntress in training, if she could get into Beacon, then I'm sure that she'll be fine."

"Well, yeah, but what about her partner?"

"'Her partner'?" she asked.

"Yeah, what if her partner is a complete waste of a person? Or a pervert? Or a bully? Or that Jaune guy?" Yang asked, "I'm not about to let my naïve little sister fall into the hands of whatever scumbag her partner may or could be."

"Well, that's another problem that you can deal with later, but for one, I would prefer to get to the ruins and secure my place in Beacon, and then worry about everything else later. I, and now by extension we, don't have time to worry about anything else."

"Is that so?" Yang asked, though there seemed to be an threatening underlying tone in her voice underneath the more prominent bully voice.

Blake didn't pay it any mind, "Yes, I would believe so."

Yang paused, then clapped her hands together, "So, I think it's safe to say that we're at a bit of a crossroads here, right?", Blake paused, tilted her head, and then nodded, "Good to get that out of the air. Okay, how about this: I go this way", Yang pointed to her intended direction of travel, "You go to wherever it is you need to go to-"

"North, Blake said as she pointed north.

"Yeah ,yeah, yeah, whatever. I go my way, you go your way, and we forget this whole interaction never happened. I go find my sister, you go find another partner, and we'll never have to talk to each other again. Sound cool?"

Blake paused, considering her options, and then nodded, "Well, I suppose that works for-"

Their interaction was halted when the ground began to shake, and a crack formed between them.

A clawed hand shot out.

* * *

"It's definitely this way", Weiss went as she walked to the right, before quickly stopping in place and flipping around to the left, " I mean... This way! It's definitely this way", before stopping right in front of the girl in red and black on the floor, and concluding, "Alright, it's official. We passed it."

"Weiss", Ruby began as she stood up, allowing the leaves that she'd allowed to gather on her lap to gently flutter to the floor, the annoyance obvious in her voice, "Why can't you just admit that you have no idea where we're going?"

"Because I know exactly where we're going!" Weiss exclaimed, taking a few steps forward in a random direction, "We're going... To...", she paused, then began again, "The forest temple!"

"Ugh", Ruby exclaimed, followed with an annoyed sigh, turning away from Weiss.

"Oh, stop it!" Weiss yelled, as she then pointed out, "You don't know where we are, either!"

"Well, at least I'm not pretending like I know everything", Ruby argued as she turned back to look her new 'Partner' in her face.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're a big, stupid jerk and I hate you!"

Weiss just groaned and sighed in response, and flipped around on the spot, and began to walk off, "Just keep moving!"

Ruby groaned, and raised her voice to somewhere around the same pitch as Weiss', "'Oh, just keep moving! Hurry up! Waaaah! Watch where you're going!'", before returning to her normal voice and crossing her arms, "Why are you so bossy?"

Weiss, upon hearing this, turned around to face Ruby once more, "I'm not bossy! Don't say things like that!"

"Stop treating me like a kid!"

"Stop acting like a kid!"

"Well, stop acting like you're perfect!"

"I'm. Not. Perfect!", Weiss angrily exclaimed, before lowering her voice once more, "Not yet...", and she then began to back away and turn around, walking away from the Little Red Riding Hood, "But I'm still leagues better than you."

Ruby just looked at her, and then to the floor, "You don't even know me...", she dejectedly said as she stayed in place for a few minutes, before slowly walking in the same direction as Weiss, the both of them considering their options on finding a new partner.

Then, the both of them heard a low shrill of a groan, and looked through the trees to where the noise had originated. The bushes and trees were too thick, and the greenery shrouded any view of the other side of it all.

Ruby began to step forward, towards the bushes that parted the sound and themselves. Weiss was not oblivious to this, "Ruby! What are you-"

She was silenced by a single raised hand, and Ruby looked to her, and then to the bushes, as she parted them, and stepped within.

"Wha… I... Oh unbelievable!" Weiss groaned to herself, as she then marched through the bushes and saw her child for a partner gazing as something between the trees, "I swear to god, Ruby this is just..."

She was then silenced once more, by the sight between the trees. In a wide, rocky opening, surrounded and besieged on all sides by rocks and vines, a massive Nevermore- The most common airborne Grimm variant- Was resting, its head nested between its wings, and its legs tucked away into a fetal position, its beaked mouth once open after a shrill yawn, and now closing.

Weiss slowly began to move back- Didn't want to wake the thing up. If they leave it be, then it won't wake up, and it won't bother them. Better a few Beowolves then a ginormous Nevermore- When she felt Ruby grabbed her skirt, "Ruby, what are- What are you doing!?" she harshly whispered to the other girl, "We need to leave! Immediately! We can't wake that thing up, or it'll kill us!"

"I've got an idea", Ruby said, looking right at Weiss, "Though you may not like it."

"I'm probably going to not like any of your ideas anyways, but I feel that we can discuss it later when we're at a safer-"

"I think we should ride it."

"YOU WHAT!?" Weiss yelled, then froze. The Nevermore twitched, and slightly raised its head, but quickly dropped it down and rested once more. Weiss began again in a quieter voice, "You what?! Ruby, that is probably the stupidest idea I've ever heard, and trust me, I've heard some pretty foolish ideas before!"

"Weiss, please", ruby went, "Think about this-"

"I have thought about it! I am still thinking about it! I'm thinking that that thing will wake up and crush us if we even step into the vicinity of one of its feathers! And you wanna what, exactly?!"

"Ride it."

"That is stupid and you are stupid!"

"Weiss, c'mon, we need to get to the relics faster, and the Nevermore can get us there faster!"

"Oh, and how do you propose that we 'Ride it', as you say? Ask it to take us to the relics like some glorified Taxi?!"

"Well, no, I was gonna stab it with my Crescent Rose and steer it!"

"...That makes... That makes no sense. At all."

"Look, Weiss, just trust me on this, okay?"

"Ruby, you look like the kind of person that I can't even trust to brush their own teeth in the morning! Why should I trust you with this... This... Absolutely terrible idea!"

"Hey, I brush in the morning and in the evening! Floss too!"

"...Ruby, you are avoiding the subject. Cease avoiding the subject, or I shall stab you. Repeatedly."

"Look, we need to get to the ruins quicker, and the Nevermore might be the best way to get there-"

"The worst! The correct phrase you're looking for is the worst! And it will always be the worst!"

"Oh my-", Ruby just grabbed Weiss by her arm and began to drag her off, "Oh c'mon, you! Where's your spirit of adventure?"

"Ruby, get off of me, before I shove my rapier right down your-"

Ruby stopped.

Weiss stopped.

Ruby's hand tightened around her wrist, to the point that it was almost painful.

"...Ruby?" Weiss asked.

Ruby mumbled something, and tried to fidget her other arm, finding resistance in her task.

Weiss looked down to Ruby's other arm.

A black claw had shot up from a crack in the ground, grabbing Ruby's free arm, and was beginning to pull itself up.

The ground shook, and the Nevermore opened an eye.

* * *

"-And then she got her big toe stuck in the tap, that, mind you, was still running, and we ended up having to shut the water to the bar off, just so we could disassemble the bath tap, and pull her big toe out, which at this point had already been burnt severely, and was swollen, and to be honest, it looked like a mutated potato!" Miltia guffawed, as she and Jaune laughed to her story whilst they walked behind Pyrrha and Melanie, trudging through the forest to the northern ruins, and to the relics, "However, what we didn't know at the time, was that we'd shut the water off to about half the city, so they were left without running water for 2 hours!"

"Hahaha, wow Miltia, you guys have some of the craziest people at your bar!" Jaune laughed, "How did you not get the cops around for practically halting an entire part of the kingdom?"

"Oh, we did! We got SWAT teams and everything! They thought that we were House of the White Wolves extremists! Luckily, we were able to explain ourselves, and they actually arrested the senior who'd used our bathtub! Turns out she was a known supplier for Dusties!"

"Wow! Never thought that the old lady would've been a Duster dealer."

"Yeah, that is what I thought!" Miltia guffawed once more, "Let me tell you something, Mister Arc, if you thought that the pretty faces were not the ones that could be trusted, then you haven't seen the seniors! Some of the old gentlemen and gentlewomen that I've come across were the naughtiest little bumblebees that I've ever seen!"

"Oh my god, shut up, the both of you!" Melanie called from up the front to the back, "Can't you see me and Pyrrha are trying to have a conversation?"

"It's 'Pyrrha and I', actually", Miltia pointed out.

"Oh I'm sorry, I was unaware we were in the middle of a grammar class, ya frickin' Wolf!" Melanie called out, before turning back to Pyrrha, "Now, where were we? Ah yes, movie rights!"

Jaune then leaned over to Miltia, and whispered, "One time, me and a few of my friends walked in on our Maths teacher dressed in a gimp suit."

"W-WHAT?!" Miltia laughed, as she and Jaune pretty much fell to the floor in stitches.

"I-I-It's true! It's true!" he went as he rubbed a tear out of his eye, and then tried to stand back up, "W-We wanted him to explain our maths homework t-to us", he tried to explain, as he was still giggling along, "S-So w-we went t-to ask him, and we- We found him- HAHA!- We found him, in a... In a... Oh god I need to breath... We f-found h-him in a gimp suit, w-with the Vacuoan teacher-"

"THE VACUOAN TEACHER!?" Miltia burst out with, laughing even harder than she had before.

Jaune was struggling to keep his own laughter in, himself, "Y-Yeah, they w-were both g-great guys, b-but I never t-thought t-they were that far into their relationship!"

"HAHAHAHA, OH MY GOD, NOW I'M, HAHAHA!" Miltia tried to talk, but she was too busy laughing like it was no tomorrow, "HAHAHAHA, now I-I'm trying t-to imagine our t-team name HAHAHA!"

"W-What've you g-got?!"

"TEAM JMMP!"

"GIMP!?"

"JMMP!"

""AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"" the 2 of them ended up rolling along the floor, clutching their sides as they laughed out loud, staying like that for who knows how long, until they eventually calmed down, and got back up, catching their breath, and giggling to each other.

They then heard a long cough, and looked forward once more, to see that Melanie and Pyrrha were looking right at them, Melanie once again glaring daggers at them both, her arms crossed over her chest, and Pyrrha covering her mouth and turning red, trying not to laugh herself.

Melanie sighed, and she tilted her head and said, "This is getting really annoying, you know? Here we are, me and Pyrrha are trying to have a civil conversation and discussing our future partnership", Pyrrha looked like she was about to roll her eyes, but then decided against it at the last moment, "And here you are, rolling around in the dirt like kids, and Miltia", she then pointed an angry finger to her sister, "You still don't have any dirt on you AT ALL!"

Miltia smiled, "Whatever do you mean, O sister mine?"

"AUGH, INSUFFERABLE, YOU ARE", Melanie angrily yelled, before turning back to Pyrrha, and going, "Let's just keep moving, Pyrrha, we need to discuss merchandising righ- Get to the ruins! We need to get to the ruins", she corrected as she dragged Pyrrha along with her, "Yeah, that's what I was trying to say."

"Um, er, right, right", Pyrrha almost groaned, as she allowed herself to be dragged on her heels by the shorter girl, while Miltia and Jaune collected themselves and began to wipe away their laughter tears as their faces shifted to bright red to less bright red.

Then, a chorus of gunshots was heard from way off into the forest, echoing through the forest, and letting flocks of birds know that it was their time to leave.

"Did you hear that?" Jaune asked, as he saw Pyrrha jump to her feet, out of Melanie's grasp, her spear/sword thingy in one hand, and her rounded shield in the other.

"Gunfire", Pyrrha said, "It seems some of our comrades have encountered the enemy."

"Yeah, thanks for pointing out the obvious, partner", Melanie said as she rolled her eyes.

"You mean the Grimm?" Miltia asked, to which Pyrrha nodded, to which she then looked to the direction of the noise, and asked, "In that case, should we go and help our comrades? Perhaps they are in trouble."

"I doubt it", Melanie muttered, "If they're trying to get into a Hunters school, then they should be able to take care of their own problems."

"W-Well", Jaune began, trying to hide his own fear of the possible situation, "I-I suppose Melanie h-has a point. I mean, e-everyone in the forest is practising to be Hunters as well. M-Maybe we should be focusing on ourselves, and g-get to the relics quicker."

"Well, I think Miltia has a point, in my opinion", Pyrrha said, "We should go and see if our fellow initiates need help. After all, they could be-"

Another chorus of gunshots rang through the forest, and another, and another. A loud cry was heard, as well as an inhuman shrill, and a flash of light was seen, and a loud bang echoed through the forest, shaking the ground slightly.

"-...In... Trouble..."

Then, another explosion went off further out into the forest, and another chorus of gunshots was called out. A black shape ascended to the sky, and let out a loud cry. A red butterfly ascended into the sky.

"Um, okay, that... Doesn't sound good", Jaune nervously said.

"Okay, now I think we should intervene", Miltia said, not sounding entirely genuine, while more sounds of warring and fighting tore through the forest. A trail of gunfire shot up through the sky.

"Yeah, no, we need to look after ourselves", Melanie argued, a pause coming between the 2 sisters, before she began again, "Look, we haven't seen a single Grimm ever since we joined together and started trekking to the ruins, plus we haven't heard any fighting until a few minutes ago. For all we know, the teachers had them all caged up, and just released them into the forest for us to fight."

"Okay, I can understand that part, but if that was the case, then why does the fighting seem so excessive?" Miltia asked as the distant sounds of battle reigned through the forest, orange lights populating the sky.

"Eh, Hunters tend to be show-offs, you know how it is. Plus, ol' Ozzy must've released a hell of a lot of Grimm into the forest. Can't test our mettle if we don't have a-" another explosion ripped through the forest. A few trees were caught alight, "...Okay, now it's getting excessive."

"Maybe we, um, we should keep moving", Jaune hesitantly asked, "If we hurry, we, er, we can miss all of the fighting and grab a relic, and finish the initiation as fast as we-"

"What if they need our help?" Miltia asked her partner, "We can't just leave our fellows to the Grimm."

"Miltia, they can handle themselves", Melanie reassured her, "Jaune's right, we need to worry about ourselves right now", she then looked to Pyrrha, "Right, partner?"

"Um, well, I suppose you have a point", Pyrrha said, "Though I am concerned by the amount of violence on display", another round of fire shot through the forest, followed by several more, "This does seem troubling."

Jaune then looked at Miltia, "Okay, how about this, Miltia: We go to the ruins, grab our relics, and then, we go back and help out the other initiates? We secure our place in Beacon, and then we can go and make sure that everyone else is okay?"

"But what if it's too late?" Miltia asked, looking at Jaune with a concerned look.

"Um, okay, Miltia, I know that you're worried. I'm worried about everyone else as well. I'd rather go out and help out as many people as I can as well", Jaune said truthfully, though he could tell that Miltia wasn't completely buying it, "But right now, we need to prioritise ourselves right now. Now, I don't know the headmaster, or the faculty of Beacon, or anyone like that, but I know for a fact that they wouldn't send us into a forest full of Grimm without taking every precaution and possibility into consideration, and making it as safe as possible."

"You heard what the headmaster said at the beginning of initiation, don't you?" Miltia began, looking more worried as she talked, "'Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path or you will die'."

"Oh, c'mon Miltia, you can't seriously believe that", Melanie smirked, "Those kind of things are motivators and incentives said by teachers and authority figures in order to motivate us into doing stuff. It's not like we're actually going to die. It's an exaggeration."

"Yeah, yeah, she's right", Pyrrha said, after it looked like she had given the situation some thought, "The chances of death in these events would be astronomically low. I doubt that we'll be in too much danger, and if we can secure our place in Beacon, then we'll be able to go back and make sure that our fellows are safe and sound."

"Hell yeah!" cheered Melanie, who interlocked her partner's arm with her own, and began to march off, ignoring the sounds of war around them, "Let's go, partner, we've got a Hunters license to get, and fame to secure!"

"Oh, yay", Pyrrha tried to sound more enthusiastic then she seemed to be.

Jaune began to move with them, "C'mon, Miltia, let's get moving", he didn't get an answer, "Look, Miltia, I know how you feel about all of this, and I don't like it as much as you do, but...", still no answer. In fact, he didn't hear a peep from the girl, "...Miltia?" he nervously asked, slowly turning around, to face his partner.

Miltia stood perfectly still within the clearing, not moving a single muscle, a look of fear plastered on her face.

A large black claw had ripped through the ground, and had wrapped itself around Miltia's right foot and ankle.

"MILTIA!" Jaune yelled, Melanie and Pyrrha quickly flipping around.

The hand clapped down.

Miltia screamed.

"SIS!" Melanie cried out as she and Jaune ran to Miltia's side, the girl clawing, scratching, and stabbing at the blackened hand that squeezed on her foot, a strange glow coming over her but quickly dimming into nothingness.

"GET IT OFF GET OFF GET IT OFF!" Miltia screamed as her clawing and stabbing of the black claw on her foot tore of small chunks of dark flesh off of it, black smoke rupturing out of the cuts and gashes.

"I-I'M TRYING!" Jaune cried as he began to stab his sword repeatedly into the buried being's arm. A muffled cry of pain was heard from the ground.

A crunching sound was heard, and crimson liquid began to weep from in between the fingers of the black hand, and pool on the ground.

Miltia's scream reached fever pitch, "OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH-"

"MILTIA, LOOK AT ME!" Melanie yelled, forcibly grabbing Miltia's hands, and her teary eyed sister complied, "Look at me, look at me, you're gonna be fine, you're gonna be- Arc, what's the holdup!?"

"I'M FUCKING TRYING MY-"

{SLICE}

Pyrrha's shield went right through the wrist of the hand, digging into one of it's stab wounds, and doing the rest of the work from there. The clawed arm went limp and began to fade away, pitch black smoke rising from its fading self, and the injured arm began to swing and sway, the insides of it glowing a royal purple, and a black and purple nub at the wrist where the hand once was.

"Oh thank god, oh thank god", Jaune muttered to himself, then looked at Pyrrha, and said his thanks. She nodded, and they both reached down and uncurled the almost faded claw from Miltia's foot, "Okay Miltia, let's see- Uh... Oh my god..."

Miltia's foot was gone. Well, no, it was still there, but it had been crushed into a puddle of gore, blood, and heel boot fragments and cloth shards on the floor, bone parts, sole fragments, and pieces of flesh gathered up into a pile. Her ankle had been shattered, a bloody shard of bone jutting out of the stump, as well as dangling veins and arteries, a steady torrent of blood pouring into the puddle on the floor, and staining the fabric left on her leg another shade of red.

"Oh god oh god oh god oh god...", Miltia muttered continuously, tears running down her eyes as she cringed at the sight below her and at the pain, trying to collect herself and get over it, as Jaune and Melanie took her arms, and began to pull her away, "That... Hurt... A lot more than I...", her next words were but a mumble, "Thought it... Would..."

"C'mon, l-let's go, let's go", Melanie whispered, as they began to move, Pyrrha keeping her eyes on the waving black and purple arm, while they moved towards the trees, "We'll get to the ruins, and call for help..."

Miltia mumbled something, and then went, "W-W... What about... About the... The relics-"

"Fuck the relics, fuck 'em", Melanie interrupted, "You're more impor-"

The ground before them ruptured and cracked, and a black mass was spat out from the ground, curling inward and then taking shape. It was a almost featureless humanoid figure, it's skin completely black, smoke rupturing from it's body like a fire. Its head was hunched over, and held a single, large, glowing red, bloodshot eye with a sickly yellow pupil in the middle, and 3 horizontal slices going down the front sides of the neck. In its hands, it held a gun. A jet black rifle, with glowing red features, and a red wisp of smoke coming out of the barrel.

The creature looked at the group with its singular eye, ignoring the cries of shock from the group, and let out a loud cry, it's vertical spices moving and opening up as it cried, and a strange pattern of sound, possibly speech, followed, **"Nich'a no kella mar"** , the creature aimed down the scope of its rifle, and aimed for the head of the blond boy.

A single blast from a gun went right through the eye of the creature, and sent it tumbling backwards to the ground, letting out a cry as its head was shattered into bits, and began to dissipate, gun and all. Jaune and Melanie looked back to see Pyrrha behind them, her spear somehow having converted into a rifle of her own (What is it with Hunters and their weird combo sword/gun things?), and aimed where the creature- The Grimm- Once stood.

"T-Thanks", Jaune muttered.

Pyrrha heard, and acknowledged it with a nod, and a, "You're welcome."

"W-What the hell was that thing?" Melanie cried as she looked to the fading body.

"T-T-T... T-The others... W-We have t... T... To find... To help...", Miltia mumbled, delirium coming over her. She then said something about a king, for some reason.

"Shut up, shut up, just... Just shut up", Melanie repeated in an exasperated tone as they all began to move, "Don't be so flippantly selfless. Let's just get out of-"

Then, the ground began to shake, and as a result of instinct, they looked behind them, to see the ground pulling itself apart, and more puncture wounds ripping apart the floor, and trees and bushes shoved to the ground and collapsing in on themselves, as more black shapes dug themselves out from the ground, and glaring at them with eager, and angry eyes and hearts.

There were more of the humanoid figures- The humanoid Grimm- Seven in total, each one identical to each other, a singular, angry eye, and a black rifle with a red wisp for each. With them, more Grimm emerged from the ground, each of them a different shape and variety, surrounding the wide opening. Some of them were short, stubby, with only 2 limbs, legs, not arms, and 4 eyes, white armour plating with red patterns across it. A few of them were like angry, demonic wolves, some of them standing upright, and others on all 4s, with 3 variants for the wolves, the most of them covered with white bone with red patterns, the head of a wolf on each of them, and shards of bone across their bodies, most prominently at their arms and backs, the second variant of these wolf Grimm had more bone like armour scattered across their bodies, and across their chests and elbows, and the 3 variant was completely featureless, with only 2 blood red eyes and a red jaw to distinguish them. With these Grimm, another type burst out of the ground, and took flight over them, hovering in the air, looking like wasps, with 2 pairs of wings, and 3 segmentations in their bodies, with stinger tails aimed at the group as they looked down at them.

Then, the middle of the opening, where the handless arm flung and waved, the ground began to shake and tear itself apart, and a purple light shone through the cracks, and a black and purple mass shot through the ground with a loud roar, towering over everything there.

It was humanoid, like the humanoid Grimm around it, but it was chitinous, hulking, and massive, its jet black body towering over the other Grimm and the humans, and covered in black, chitinous armour, with glowing purple patterns across its body. Its head was pointed, with 3 long spikes going out from the left, right, and top of it's head, covered in black, bony armour, with a long slit going down its head, and a large purple eye resting in the slit, above a salivating, and jagged mouth. The monster, the Grimm, looked to its stub where its hand once was, and began to focus on it, as quickly, in a purple, sickly light, the hand grew back once more, and it flexed its fingers, before using it to pull a large weapon, a sharpened 2 sided cleaver-like axe, off of its back, and allowing it to stare its one, purple glowing eye, at the humans before it.

Jaune's eyes widened, and the fear inside him grew and grew even more than before. He knew this beast, this creature, this horrific imitation of a man, from before. It was one of a pair, a brother to a twin of white, one that he'd encountered before. One he'd encountered a year ago.

It, and its twin, had been the ones to lead the attack on his old home.

It, and its twin, had been the ones who burnt it to the ground.

It, and its twin, had been the ones who'd killed his father.

**"AHAHAHAHA!"** the Brother of Darkness, one of the Brothers Grimm, a grotesque imitation of the gods, the 2 Brothers, laughed, as it looked down at the humans before it, it's minions circling around it, and aiming right at the humans, **"More humans to kill! More humans to tear and slice and carve!"** it then looked to it's followers, and said, **"Come, my disciples and acolytes. Today, the slaughter begins..."**

* * *

Ozpins mug dropped from his one hand to the floor, its contents staining the grass and dirt. In his other hand, his scroll showed him clips and images of the slaughter, of the massacre. Grimm, of different shapes and sizes, were emerging from the forest and the ground in mass, surprising and overwhelming the initiates, and spilling their blood on the ground.

"Ozpin!"

His eyes were wide, his mouth wide open. He was unable to look away, unable to tear his gaze from the violence and slaughter that was taking place on his scroll. Initiates, students, children, all of them with different lives, origins, purposes, different hopes, different dreams and asperations, all of them murdered without hesitance, and without discrimination.

"Ozpin!"

How did this happen? How did all of these Grimm get past them? Salem couldn't have moved this many Grimm towards Vale without Ozpin knowing. He would've been told. He would've noticed. Hell, anyone with a keen eye would've seen it, and they would've taken notice of it, as well as the different variants and strains that he could see in the scroll, in the forest, breeds that weren't native to Vale or even Sanus. Lancers, Manticores, Sphinxes, Seers, Weavers, and others. Others he hadn't ever seen before. Humanoid, featureless soldiers with only one eye, hunting down initiates in packs with rifles and bullets, 4 legged beasts with catapults for tails that looked more like machines then beasts, armoured, turtled up creatures that shot beams of energy from their undersides. It was like these new beasts were no longer made in the image of that which humanity fears, something that the Brother of Darkness and Salem had preferred over the years. It was more like that they were made as soldiers and mechanised war machines within a military, like Atlas' forces.

Was this an indication that Salem was done playing around? That she was finally ready to make her move? If that was the case, then he needed to find the other 3 Maidens, and get the relics, as quickly as possible, before Salem could... Well, whatever she was even going to do with them.

However, something about this seemed... Off. All of these Grimm gathered here, right under his nose all of this time, however Salem and her agents managed that, and these new breeds and variants gathered in the Emerald Forest, and the amount that was there could easily march on Vale, topple its walls, and overrun the kingdom, Hunters present or not. But, if Salem wanted to do that, and was able to sneak all of these Grimm into Vale right under his nose... When why hadn't she done it closer to the city walls? Or in fact, why hadn't she had them moved under the city, around its defences? Why make their move here, under the Emerald Forest?

This could be another part of Salems plans, one part in a strategy that had been moving for hundreds of years, whatever that strategy might be, or it could be the workings of another. A new player on the chessboard.

"OZPIN!"

The headmaster was ripped away from the sight on the scroll- A squad of soldier Grimm, lead by a floating red eye surrounded by tendrils, ambushing a group of initiates and slaughtering them- And was greeted by the face of Glynda Goodwitch, her almost calm expression betraying the obvious panic that she was feeling.

"G-Glynda", the uncharacteristic tone of fear in his voice was not missed, "What is happening down there?"

Glynda paused, and then looked down to her own scroll, counting the numbers, going over the images and the camera views, and assessing the situation, "I don't know. I just- I just don't know. These Grimm- All of them!- They just... Dug themselves up from the ground! All of them at the same time, and... Ozpin, the initiates scroll GPSs... They've halved."

"What?" he asked, already knowing what she meant.

"The number of initiates down there", she went as she flicked through the cameras set up in the Emerald Forest, coming upon either static or bodies, "They've halved. The Grimm... They've killed half of the initiates down there..."

"B-But", Professor Peach began, her mouse tail curling up as a show of her fright, her hands clamped together, "T-There were... There... Oh gods", Peach pressed a hand against her mouth, "A thousand people... A thousand children... Gone...", a tear rolled down her face.

"There's something else", Glynda said, "There are new strains down there. New breeds of Grimm. Humanoids, machines, floating eyeball things... I've never seen any of these before", she looked away from one camera feed showing the remains of a group of initiates after coming across a rabid Deathstalker that had broken out of a cave.

"We must get down there, with haste!" Professor Port called, readying his blunderbuss battle axe and giving it a twirl, "Our students are down there, and are being overwhelmed! We must beat back this dreaded invasion and rescue those we are meant to teach! And perhaps teach them a thing or 2 while we're at it!"

"Professor Port, while I am as fearful for the lives of the initiates as you are, and wish to rescue them from the advancing Grimm as much as you, I must advise caution", Professor Oobleck stated, each word from him no longer in quick secession, and his voice losing the jolly tone, "As skilled as we are, we simply do not have the numbers or the firepower needed to stop a threat this big, or this unique."

"O-Oobleck is right", Peach stammered, "T-The Grimm are organised, a-and seem to h-have a clear objective. W-We haven't ever faced anything like this before! W-We need to get back to B-Beacon and Vale, a-and call as many-"

Peach didn't get to finish her sentence. A harpoon fell to the ground at lightning speed, and shot straight into her head, sending her launching to the ground, and pinning her to the ground. Her tail squirmed and flinched, and then fell flat, her body going limp, as the harpoon had shattered her head, and scattered the blood and gore across the ground and her fellow professors.

There was a long silence between all of the professors, all of them unsure of what to think or say, shocked still by the death of their fellow professor, until it was a broken by a second harpoon landing right near them, followed by another, and then a fireball.

Ozpin, Glynda, and the rest of the professors looked up to the heavens, to see that the sky had blackened. Grimm swarmed the skies, all sorts of shapes and sizes flying and buzzing around, Nevermores, Sphinxes, Manticores, Lancers, Griffons, all of them populated the sky, either on their own or in packs, throwing shards of black and red and orange to the ground below, painting the forest below with blood and flames.

A loud buzzing was heard, and their eyes focused to see a pack of Lancers, led by an Alpha Manticore, charging at them, throwing lancer harpoons and fireballs at the teachers with rapid fire. The teachers were quick to react, Glynda quickly using her semblance to grab the head of the Manticore, and snap it to the side, throwing the corpse into a few Lancers flying next to it, and then using her semblance once more to catch the harpoons that were flying at them, smothering them in a purple glow, then then throwing them back at the Lancers, wiping out the entire pack, and letting their fading bodies fall to the ground and slat either on the floor or on any Grimm that were trying to fly up into the air.

"Ah, thank you, Miss Goodwitch", Ozpin quickly said, trying to hide the shock of the situation.

"It's no problem, Ozpin", Glynda quickly said as well, sparing a glance to Peach's corpse, before looking to the other teachers once more, "We need to call as many people here as possible. Call as many contacts as we can. The initiates can only last for so long, and we need to-"

Her sentence was interrupted by another blast, and they looked up to see an entire swarm of aerial Grimm heading right for them, all of them firing harpoons, feathers, and balls of fire at them. The teachers were forced to scatter across the cliffside, and were being forced back into the forest, dodging whatever was thrown at them, and throwing back as much as they could.

Then, from below the cliffside, a red glow was seen, and growing in size. From beyond the cliffside, a massive floating bloodshot eye, the size of an average human, glowing red with a yellow pupil, with black and red bladed tendrils scattered across it like loose veins, emerged from over the cliffside, and stared at the teachers. It stared and stared, before a cackling of energy was heard, and it began to glow a fiercer red, before, from the yellow pupil, it let out a series of red energy blasts in rapid fire, impacting with trees and bushes, and just barely missing the teachers, as it began to charge up and fire on them once more, spitting red blasts at them, impacting with whatever surface it hit with a fiery red explosion.

"F-FALL BACK! FALL BACK!" Glynda yelled as the teachers began to run back into the forest, unable to fight back against the swarm that was firing upon them, all of them regretful of leaving their students behind, though Port was quick to gift the eye Grimm with a blast into its pupil, sending it floating back, and rocking from side to side, disoriented and blinded from the attack.

Ozpin quickly looked back behind him, and beyond the eye Grimm, as it quickly shook itself out of its delirium, and he saw that the trees of the Emerald Forest were being toppled, and the green of the forest was being replaced by black. He could also see that the trees were being shifted and toppled by a force moving north, to the ruins. The Grimm were corralling the initiates into a killing field.

Ozpin grabbed his scroll, and began to dial Qrow's number, nodding to Glynda to do the same for Ironwood, to Oobleck the council, and to Port the chiefs of the Valerian military and police forces. They were going to need everything that they could muster if they were to combat this threat. Hunters to be and ares, soldiers, police officers, everything. To fight this army, as much as he hated it, they would need an army of their own. He'd deal with the obvious haranguing from Ironwood and the council later.

Ozpin looked back once more to the forest, to see if he could count how many Grimm were there. To his horror, he couldn't.

1000...

2000...

10,000...

An endless tide, sweeping away everything in its path...


	4. The Long Day part 1: Go To War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Grimm are rising from the ground, and swallowing the Emerald Forest whole. It's now a race against time for the Initiates to gather together, or die alone.
> 
> The Battle of Vale begins here.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Arc theme:**[ _Last Stand from the Destiny: The Taken King Soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntdQR50il8o) _  
_ **Theme:**[ _Mists of Memory from the Destiny 2 Forsaken Soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h1vh2MDbrc)

* * *

_"We interrupt this public broadcast for a breaking news report. A massive gathering of Grimm has been spotted in the Emerald Forest, where it is reported that the initiation of students into Beacon was taking place. This gathering of Grimm has been reported to number in the tens of thousands. We go now live to our live reporter Cyril Ian, who is reporting from the scene. Cyril, do we have eyes on the scene? Do we have any idea of what's happening?"_

_"Lisa, I'm reporting from a Bullhead currently observing the Emerald Forest, and- Oh gods, there's so many... Lisa, the reported estimates... They're way off, there's a hell of a lot more than 10,000 down there, it looks like there's millions down there. It's an endless sea of Grimm-"_

_{KA-BOOM}_

_"Oh god, I just... I just watched a pack of Grimm swarm a nearby Bullhead. They just- They brought it down, and they're- Oh god, they're killing- They're slaughtering the survivors!"_

_{SHUDDER}_

_"Oh- The Grimm see us- Ted, bug out, bug out! We're leaving!"_

_"Roger that!"_

_"Okay, Cyril, get out of there, get yourself to safety. Cyril, do you have any idea what's happening down there?"_

_"I don't know, oh god, I don't know, we're getting out of range of the Emerald Forest, but it- What? It doesn't look like the Grimm are following us. They're staying in the proximity of the forest. I think they're focusing on the initiates."_

_"Alright then, Cyril, keep yourself safe, contact us when you're in a safe place... This just in, we've received word that the council has just declared martial law until the crisis has passed, and the Grimm threat has been dealt with. We've just received reports of Valerian military and police forces gathering as much firepower as they can, and we've gotten word that the entirety of Beacon Academy is mobilising and moving out. The Council has been proposing that this law be passed for about 4 months because of the increase in dust robberies carried out by Roman Torthwick, and the increased rumours of White Wolf activity within Valerian walls, but has always been contested on the action until now. All citizens are to remain indoors and off of the streets until further notice. However we at Vale News Network advise anyone who does not have to stay in the city to consider and begin evacuating. All other citizens are to stay indoors and comply with military and police forces until the martial law has been lifted. We at VNN will be sure to keep you updated on further developments."_

**_Recovered audio footage from the Vale News Network, hosted by Lisa Lavendar_ **

* * *

Another blast came at them. The ground began to crack and crumble underneath their feet. Trees began to fall hither and to, and were swallowed whole. It was like the ground was collapsing in on itself, and the planet was sucking itself up, and taking everything with it.

Another Grimm popped out from behind a bush on a sideways slab of ground, another soldier Grimm, from the looks of it. Its one eye looked at her, and levelled its guns sights to her.

Blake aimed the sights of her Gambol Shroud at it in turn, and fired one shot, cartwheeling across the cracked moving floors as she dodged the rounds from the Grimm, and allowing her shot to impact with the one eyed Grimm right in its eye, and send it flying back into a nearby shard of ground that'd popped up with the moving ground, impaling itself, and going limp. Another cartwheel, and she separated her Gambol Shroud, now in its katana form, from its cleaver sheath, and began to use the 2 weapons to slice up a Beowolf with no armour, and only 2 red eyes and a red jaw to distinguish itself- She was been taught that this was commonly referred to as an Ascendant Beowolf, whatever that even meant- And one of these new eyeball Grimm, landing a large slice across the length of it with her cleaver sheath, and sending glowing thick red gunk across the nearby trees as the Grimm began to deflate and die in a red fire.

Next to her, her new partner, Yang Xiao Long- They were originally going to split up, and allow the blonde girl to find her sibling, but now, they had been forced together under circumstances- Landed another explosive punch into the head of a new Grimm type- A four legged machine that resembled a dog (Of all things...), with a barbed tail that flung flaming red balls of fire, a boxy body with 2 large front legs and large boxy shoulders, with 2 smaller, slimmer hind legs at the back, a large boxy body with a slim, circular waist, and a body, rectangular head with a single glowing red optic in it, and glowing red details and patterns that shone across its smoking black body- Shattering the organic machines head and splattering black, oily goo across her arm and clothes, though it began to quickly fade, as well as the Grimm machine as it slammed into a shattered, uprooted slab of ground and was cut in 2 by the force of the impact.

Blake then watched the blonde dragon for a girl grab 2 soldier Grimm by their heads with both of her fists, and then slamming then together with another force to shatter them completely, and then cartwheel and slam her feet against the head of a Boarbatusk, tearing the tusks out of the dead Grimm and jamming them into the eyes of an Ursa Major and connecting them together, and then throwing them, and by extension the Ursa Major, into a nearby pack of Beowolves, crushing them under the Major's weight.

 _She's strong_ , Blake thought, aware of how much of an understatement this was, but she didn't let the thought distract her, as she summersaulted over a Manticore Grimm and landed 2 shots from her Gambol Shroud right in its eyes, blinding the beast, and sending it charging forward into a nearby Ursa, and launching fireballs everywhere as it tried to hit the 2 initiates. No such luck, "Yang, we need to move, now!" she yelled, running up a slab of grassy ground that was being flipped over by the shifting and collapsing ground, and jumping onto A Beowolf's head, quickly slicing off its head and summersaulting onto a stable piece of ground as her partner continued to punch and slam the black beasts of death that were coming for them.

"No! I can't-", Yang paused, quickly slamming a Creep into the air and punching it again, turning it into a cannonball that obliterated a Beowolf Alpha, before continuing, "I can't abandon my sister!"

"Yang, we are surrounded!" Blake yelled, dodging a swipe from a Manticore Grimm, and taking a swipe of her own at its wing, but barely scraped it, "And we can't fight these Grimm forever!"

"LET THEM ALL COME!" Yang screamed, the blonde brawler firing rounds and rounds from her gauntlets at the Grimm around her, red eyes filled with rage, and hair practically on fire, "I'LL KILL THEM AL-"

The ground near them pulsated, and trees were forced down and uprooted as a Sphinx- A massive Grimm with wings and a slender feline body and a white snake for a tail- Roared as it dug itself up from the ground, pushing away dirt and rock. The nearby body of a dead initiate was buried in the shifting and shaking ground, buried away in a freshly prepared grave.

"We can't find your sister if we're dead, Yang!" Blake yelled in response, a clearing between the trees up ahead in sight, "Just move already, we'll get to the ruins, find a safe way out of the forest, and then we can go and find your sister!"

"But-"

"Yang, she's applying for Beacon, for gods sake! She can handle herself!"

Yang relented, considering her words, and then let out a yell of frustration, quickly grabbing an Ursa by its head and snapping it neck, and then charging forward to where Blake was heading, "If you're wrong about this, I'll kill you. Just letting you know."

"I'm not wrong, she'll be fine", Blake lied, not having any actual confidence in her words. As long as it got Yang moving, that was fine by her.

The ground beneath them was cracking and crumbling hither and thither, moving and shifting like an ocean, but the 2 huntresses to be paid it little heed, only caring to jump and leap from step and rock to step and rock, moving closer and closer to the clearing and the light that shone between the trees and bushes, away from the dark shadows that haunted them, reaching for the clearing with both of their hands, pushing it apart, until...

They saw the ruins.

Well, the ruined ruins.

The ruins were being pulled apart and disassembled like toy building blocks, the old walls pushed to the side, the pillars on the sides of the round circle plucked from the ground, and tossed aside like broken toys, and the central circle itself was cracked and dug up, filled with newly made cracks and holes. Golden chest pieces were scattered across the ground. Nearby, the body of an initiate coloured the ground red.

Soldier Grimm occupied the ruins, numbering to about 60 or more, accompanied by several of those eyeball Grimm, as well as a new Grimm type, similar to the Soldier Grimm, but larger, over a third of the size of normal humans, and more muscular and bulkier compared to their lithe brethren, with jet black capes across their backs and shoulders, and a large cannon nested in their arms, all of them gathering around the centre of the ruins. In the centre, a massive, chitinous like humanoid knelt, its massive sword, which looked to be made entirely out of bone, was impaled in the ground, the creature's hands grasping the handle, its head down as if it were praying. It's chitinous armour and body underneath it were pure white, with a large, singular purple eye sitting right in the middle of its 3 pointed head, and glowing purple patterns across its body, giving it an ethereal shine. On it's right shoulder, a pure white cape, that only just covered its arm, was nested, and flapped in the wind.

The massive white Grimm then looked up, and stared right at the 2 initiates in the clearing, its Grimm following suit, turning their gaze towards the beauty and the beast.

The creature showed its white, sharpened, jagged, salivating teeth, and smiled.

_**"Ah, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long. I have only heard of you in name and picture alone, but to see you in person... A pleasure, truly."** _

The 2 initiates froze, stunned, too much so to move.

This beast... This creature... This Grimm other from Grimm... It knew them. It knew their names, and their faces. How did it know this? How did it know who they were?

 _ **"My master has spoke much about you 2"**_ , the beast spoke, rising to its feet, its sword in one hand, its purple eye staring deep into their souls, _**"Positive things, I assure you... Well, mostly, I admit. There were... A few moments. But nothing so bad, I assure you."**_

It had a master? Who? Whom controlled this beast, who seemed to control the Grimm around it?

 _ **"Have you nothing to say?"**_ the beast asked.

It was right in its question, for the 2 initiates said nothing, only capable of staring in shock.

The beast sighed, and then let out a chuckle, and said, _**"Alas, now, I must kill you"**_ , the beast took a step forward, its bone blade shimmering in the sunlight that hadn't been blocked out by the Grimm of the sky, _**"Fear not, for I shall make your ends quick, and surely, as the Brother of Light, that is all that I can give to you."**_

It was here that the 2 finally recovered from their shock, and saw the beast- The Brother of Light? Like the old tales of the Brother Gods?- And its Grimm minions marching and/or floating towards them, and began to look around for an exit over the flat plane surrounding the ruins, overrun with Grimm of all shapes and sizes, tossing and throwing the mangled red remains of whatever initiates had come upon this land before. Behind them, a Sphinx- The same from before- Let out a shrill roar. Loud stomping echoed through the land around them. Where were they to go? There was nowhere to-

Orange lights and loud booms echoed from their side. They looked in the direction of the sounds, to see flashes of light, all colours of the rainbow, illuminating the sky beyond the trees, and flashes of gunfire and rockets flying into the sky.

Fighting. There must still be students that were still alive. And if they are still alive, then there must be hope for them as well.

Blake grabbed Yang's arm, and began to drag her along, Yang herself immediately understanding her point, and removing her hand from Blake's grasp, as she began to run ahead of them, and slam and shove the Grimm before them out of the way, throwing them around like ragdolls and broken toys.

Their plan, in case it was not obvious, was simple: Link up with the initiates fighting past the trees, and make their stand there. With any luck, if they hunkered down and held their ground, they'd be able to wait for a pickup out of the forest, and allow any other initiates to join them and get out of-

{KA-BOOM}

A purple flash shored right next to them, and a loud, bright, purple coloured explosion went off right next to them, knocking them off their feet for a second, their aura taking the worst of the damage, but still leaving them winded and bruised. Yang looked up, her eyes still red and her hair still blazing, her semblance allowing her to absorb the kinetic energy of the blast, to see the pale white beast from before- The Brother of Light- Marching up to them with his posse in tow, a purple smoke bellowing from its one eye.

 _ **"Barons, take your Disciples, and corral them like the rats they are!"**_ the Brother of Light ordered to its entourage, the Grimm soldiers larger contemporaries- Barons, if that was there name- Nodding in response, the Soldier Grimm- The Disciples- Forming and circling around them, _**"Life-Givers, go with them! Gift to them your love and life! Protect them as you were birthed to do!"**_ the eyeball Grimm- The Life-Givers- Floating high into the air, a beam of red shooting down into the Barons, coating them in a bubble of red light, the Barons letting out a gurgle that sounded like a chuckle at the Brother of Light and its personal guard charged forward, dozens of Grimm hearing their shouts and cries, and forming up around them, a dark horde of monsters on their tale.

Yang stood up, armed and ready, intent of sending her fist right into the Brother of Light's eye, and took a step forward, but Blake caught her arm once more as she herself groaned her way off of the ground, and the blonde brawler was immediately reminded of their objective, the both of them turning tail and running once more to the gathering of war and violence. Behind them, the Brother of Light let out a series of bursts of energy from its one eye, and its minions followed suit, the Disciples throwing rounds of red bullets from their rifles at them, the shielded Barons launching balls of fire from their cannons, setting the nearby trees and shrubs ablaze with its flames and explosive blast radius.

The 2 girls ran and ran, summersaulting and cartwheeling through and past the bullets and fireballs and blasts from all sides as they made their way to the clearing. Eventually, at the clearing between the one plane and the other, a horde of Grimm- Disciples, Barons, Ascendant Beowolves, and a single representative of another Grimm variant that neither of the initiates had seen before, a head below he Brother of Light, and looking like the Disciples and Barons, but instead, they welded a large staff with a red dust crystal at the tip that cracked with black electricity, with a black ceremonial chitin headdress covering its head and singular eye, and black ceremonial robes covering parts of its body, making it look like a twisted priest- Blocked the passing, firing their rounds and swiping their claws at them, the Priest Grimm aiming its staff at them, and allowing a bolt of black energy fly off of the tip and fly right past them, hitting the ground and illuminating the patch with a black crackle and a horrid smell.

Yang shot a glare at the Priest, annoyed at the Grimm obfuscating them from their objective, and threw her arms back, letting a round from both of her gauntlets propel her forward, another purple blast flying past them as Yang charged forward, releasing round after round from her gauntlets, the momentum of the blast allowing her to sprint faster and faster as she charged towards the blockade ahead of them.

"YANG!" Blake cried as she too ran forward, falling behind the blonde girl as she became a flaming gold burn, "WHAT ARE YOU-"

She didn't finish her sentence, as Yang through her arm back, and roared at the Priest and its gathering, her hair on fire and burning as bright as the sun, her eyes leaving a glowing red trail as she ran. Her closed fist, slammed shut so tight that the nails pierced the skin and let the blood flow from her palm, shot forward, she launched herself into the air, allowing her closed hand to impact with the Priest's abdomen and-

{KA-BOOM}

-The waist of the Priest Grimm was torn apart, sawing the creature in half. All of her aura and kinetic energy was released from the punch, creating a fiery explosion that ripped apart all of the Grimm nearby that had made the blockade, and creating a crater from the impact, the nearby bushes and trees singed and aflame from the blast, and the Grimm that were once nearby were flung across the ground and burning, dead and dying.

Yang looked back to Blake, her hair no longer on fire, and her eyes returned to lilac, the girl trying to catch her breath, panting heavily as she found it hard to stand up, her legs trembling, and a wounded smirk on her face, "That's what", she paused to catch her breath a bit more, "That's what I was doing, in case you", a pause for breath, "In case you didn't know."

"Oh, for god's sake, Yang", Blake paused, as she ran into the still hot crater, the stones smouldering under her feet. She stood next to Yang, seeing the bruises on her hands, and sighing, "How did you... You used up all of your aura in that punch, how did you-"

**"RRRRAAAAUUUGGHHH!"**

They barely had any time to turn around before a Disciple, steam pouring off of it from the blast, and armed with a black bone sword, jumped down into the pit and-

{STAB}

Yang let out a gurgled scream as she felt the blade pierce her spinal column and jut out of her from her lower abdomen, spraying blood onto her stomach and back. She stumbled to the ground as soon as Blake had finished pulling her cleaver sheath from the head of the Disciple, the blade imbedded in the blonde brawler fading away into smoke, leaving a mangled mess of flesh and blood in the wound where it once made its home.

"YANG!" Blake cried out once more, as the lithe girl quickly dropped to the ground, and rolled Yang onto her back. Not the smartest move on her part, as it only served to muddy her wound more and allow the blood to dress her in a crimson dress, and pool on the floor and mix with the dirt.

"L-Legs...", Yang muttered, a trail of blood emerging from her mouth, "I-I can't feel my legs..."

"Oh god", Blake muttered, allowing herself to swear once, "Oh fuck", pulling off the loose black scarf that she held over her neck and wrapping it around Yang's waist, and then trying to pull her up to her feet, but failing as the girl slumped to the ground, "C'mon, c'mon", she went as she changed position, and grabbed Yang by the shoulders, intent on dragging her out of the crater and to the other students.

An organic click caught her 4 ears, and she looked up to see several Disciples and a Baron, lead by a new Grimm variant- The body of a Disciple, with a large sniper barrel where its eye should be, sharpened claws where its hands and feet should be, and dressed in a black hood and cloak, with red electrical sparks hopping across its body- Aiming their sights down at them, fingers curling around their triggers.

The Baron then looked up from them and let out a harsh yelp, pointing forward as it began to hop back and then-

{KA-BOOM}

-A trail of smoke flew over the pit and impacted with the Baron with a fiery bang, turning the Grimm (Could these creatures even be called that anymore) Into a fine black paste.

{KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM}{KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM}

Blake covered her bow cloaked ears as the loud bangs and shrill cries felt like they'd burst her eardrums, and deafening her for a second, black smoke coming over the girl and her bleeding partner, blinding them.

After a series of coughs, the both of them looked up through the dissipating smoke, to see a rainbow of bullets and blasts going from one direction to the other filling the air above the pit, filling the air with an oxidised smell.

"Whoever's in the hole, you need to move!" a feminine voice called out from above the gunfire, "We've got you covered, now fall back into the circle!"

"I-I've got wounded here!" Blake yelled back, as she began to drag Yang to the top of the crater.

"What?!"

"I'VE GOT WOUNDED! I NEED HELP!"

A red bullet- Now revealed to be a burning shard of Grimm bone, from what Blake could see- Impacted with the crater next to her, and another bullet whizzed between her hidden ears and went right into a Disciple's eye, flipping it back into the ground.

A warm hand grabbed Blake's shoulder, and she flipped around, Gambol Shroud pressing against the neck of that which had grabbed her, only to see a... Colourfully dressed, to say the least, girl with bright red and orange twin tailed hair, a cat tail on a darker to brighter gradient, swaying side to side in panic. A Faunus, it seemed. Blake felt more at ease with that fact.

"Hey hey hey, calm down lady, put the gun/sword/thingy down, I'm a goodie, I'm a goodie, not a Grimmie", she snickered and let her eyes drift to the side, "Heh, a Grimmie, heh, that was awesome, I'm amazing at thi-"

{BOOM}

A bright purple blast detonated right next to them, shook the colourful girl from her moment of mirth.

"-Ssssssssssss alright then time to go!" she grabbed Blake by her shoulders, Gambol Shroud no longer at her neck, "Hey, hi, I'm Neon, that's my name, don't wear it out! Listen, we got to go! Grab your friend, I'll pull you 2 out!" she then flipped her head around to out of the crater, towards the friendly fire, "CIEL! VERA! I GOT THEM, I NEED COVER!"

An affirmative call was her answer, and a few seconds later, a rush of bullets and missiles flew over them, tearing apart any Grimm that got in its path, save for the Brother of Light, who, as Blake could see, had picked up the Sphinx from earlier, and was using it as a shield against the incoming fire.

"THANK YOU!" 'Neon' called out once more, and then looked to Blake, "You got your friend?"

Sheathing her Gambol Shroud and her, er, sheath, Blake placed her hands under Yang's armpits, and responded with a, "Yeah, yeah I've got her."

"Oh, good!" Neon went, placing her own hands under Blake's armpits in turn, "Hope you're not ticklish!"

"Er", Yang slurred, "I might be a little bit-"

Then, with a {SWISH}, Blake and Yang began to speed out of the crater and onto the flat ground, as Neon pulled them away from the Grimm lines and towards their own, a rainbow trail erupting from the girl's back as she skated (She had rollerblades, it seemed) Towards the rest of the students, swishing and swaying left and right as she dodged bullets and missiles and Grimm projectiles with a speed that Yang could only compare to her siblings. As she ran, Neon continuously chanted "Never miss a beat, never miss a beat, never miss a-"

"COULD YOU NOT PLEASE!?" Blake yelled as she was dragged across the field, feeling like she was going to hurl.

"DO YOU MIND!? I'M TRYING NOT TO MISS A BEAT HERE!" Neon yelled back as she continued to pull them to the other initiates, letting out a loud groan as she did, "Gods, what do you 2 eat, entire fruitcakes whole! You 2 weigh a tack of bricks!"

"Are you trying to say we're fat?!" Yang angrily slurred as she found the strength to lift her arms and begin firing back at the Grimm, blindly releasing shotgun blast after shotgun blast from her gauntlets, and then hearing not blasts but clicks, realising that she'd bled them dry of ammo.

"No, I'm saying that you should go on a diet!" Neon grunted, "Actually, you know what, I'm not saying that you should go on a diet honey, I'm saying that you really need to go on a diet!"

"OH GO FUCK YOUR-" Yang then began to cough and hack, a trail of blood forming out of her mouth.

Then, before they realised it, they had reached the rest of the initiates, and with a heave-ho, Neon slung them both behind a hastily dug up mound of dirt, and jumped down herself, letting out an annoyed and tired sigh, and muttering, "You know what, you're right, I did call you fat", only Blake heard this, and she responded with a slug to the face, "OW, WHAT THE FUCK!?"

"Neon, new girl, shut up!" yelled an initiate near them, a boy fully dressed up in forest coloured military gear, knelling down in a thin, hastily built trench, and unloading a military grade rifle into the Grimm ahead of them. The boy then shouted, "Lavender, we've got wounded over here!"

"Tell me something I don't know!" yelled a girl with long, bright green hair and glowing green eyes, dressed up as a stereotypical witch, with a black robe and pointed hat (Now torn and ruined by the fighting against the Grimm), and a wooden staff with a black ball at the end that gave off a green flame and glow. With a tilt of a staff, a green bust of light shot out of the black ball, and impacted with a Disciple, which then burst into green flame and disintegrated with a pained cry. 'Lavender' then approached Yang and began to drag her back away from the frontline, turning to Blake, and going, "Mind giving me a hand here?"

"Er, yes, of course", Blake went, as she took hold of Yang's arm, while Lavender took a hold of her other, and began to drag her away, allowing Blake to get a good view of the area around her.

There had to be over 500 initiates here, as the area where they had dug themselves into was wide and expansive, yet still small and crowded to the brim. Around the area, a hastily built barrier of trenches had been built, and mounts of dirt had been dug up to act as cover. Initiates- Or at least, the ones able to hold a gun- Had been made into a wall in the trenches and cover mounts, and were laying fire into the Grimm lines. Behind them, other initiates had been made into a second line, acting as heavy artillery, a third one after that fired up into the air, bringing down many airborne Grimm one by one. Air cover, it would seem. Behind that line, multiple initiates, around 50 or so, the wounded of the battle, had been made into files and lines of their own, other healthy initiates tending and nursing to them, behind that line, the dead laid, some of them in a perfect file, the rest having been hastily tossed there, as fi they didn't have time to order them, the corpses now kicking up a foul smell. Behind the perimeter that the students had made, a wide, deep chasm boxed them in, and beyond the perimeter, across the Grimm infested plains beyond friendly reach, a series of ruins- No longer abandoned- Acting as a bridge between the 2 sides of the massive chasm, though it was now populated with Weavers and Barons, the Weavers spinning webs and covering up the walls and pathways, and the Barons spitting fire from their cannons at the initiates, forcing another line of initiates to form and exchange fire with them.

Around them, Blake could see all sorts of initiates, of all shapes and sizes. The biggest one of them all loomed right over her, a mech suit standing at about 3 times the size of an average person (How on Remnant had she missed that?!), with 2 massive missile pods over its shoulders, coated in white and red paint, and firing missiles from its pods into the crowds of Grimm in the sky and on the ground. The rest of the initiates were of all shapes and sizes, firing and slicing away at the hordes before them.

One initiate- A cyborg with robotic arms and legs (Blake remembered hearing his name in a conversation back in the ballroom last night as Curia Query)- Shot his arm up and summoned a living firewall- A hardlight wall that disintegrated anything that got in its way- And sent it forward and turned all of the Grimm in its way to ash, though a blast from a Baron quickly took his summoning arm and caused the firewall to dissipate and fade. However, from the firewall, humanoid machines spawned from the light of the walls, from nothing into something, and began to fire into the Grimm crowds. Blake suspected that this action cost him a lot of aura, as he then slumped down, tired and weary.

Another initiate in Mistralian traditional robes, armed with a bow and arrow- Blake remembered his name to be Hasapiko Noora) Fired bows brimming with electricity into that same Baron, right into its eye, the electricity then spreading to the other Grimm near it, chaining them together with a stream of electricity, disintegrating them immediately. A headshot from one of the cloaked barrel head Grimm put an end to that, making the head of the Mistralian pop into a burst of viscera.

2 initiates- Both of them Faunus- Fired into the crowds of Grimm. One of them, a dragon Faunus, dressed up in armour made of scales, let out a blast of blue fire from her mouth that erupted against a Manticore Grimm, ruining its head, and the other Faunus initiate- A squid Faunus with tentacles for arms, and 4 tentacles protruding from is back- Firing off bolts of electricity from the tips of his tentacle arms. Behind them, a Walrus Faunus, large and lumbering, giant axe in hand, dressed up in mechanised body armour, called forth his semblance, a spherical shield, and pulled them closer, allowing them to fire through the shield, while also blocking the shots and blasts from the Grimm, as well as any unfortunate cases of friendly fire.

One initiate, a human with chocolate skin, and dressed in a fedora, sunglasses, and a black vest over an untucked shirt, with a loose blue tie over it, with dark dress trousers and silver shoes, put his trumpet to his lips, and summoned 3 phantoms of himself forth, the first with a yellow tie and fedora trim, the second green, and the third red (Or pink, it was hard to tell), and then, in a symphony of noise, each one let out a burst of music from their trumpets, as well as a blast of a dust element. Blue ice, green wind, yellow fire, red/pink/? electricity.

2 more initiates, one dressed in military grade juggernaut armour, and welding a heavy machine gun, the other in a more advanced armoured suit, red lights covering his body, and a chaingun covering his arm, fired into the crowds of Grimm, hardly missing thanks to the target saturation, and casually soaking up all of the damage that the Grimm could offer them. Behind them, an initiate was guarded by their hulking presence, and a mechanical fixture formed around his head, becoming a cannon (Blake would've made the obvious pun if she didn't have any sense of dignity and/or shame) That then pointed to the sky, and fired at the Grimm, getting a headshot on a Nevermore Grimm, and sending it falling to the ground, fading away before it hit the floor.

Another Faunus initiate- A wolf Faunus, by the looks of it, dressed up in red and grey mechanical armour with purple lights shining across the metal and between the joints, the back part of the initiate exposed so that his mane wouldn't be confined by the armour (Surprisingly to Blake, he didn't have the Techion symbol on him. It was probably just a suit, then, nothing more)- Knelt down beside the initiate in forest camo in the thin trench with the Savage MSR10 precision rifle, firing off purple blasts from his automatic rifle, and lobbing a grenade across the wide plain, destroying part of a herd of Boarbatusks, and disorienting the rest, allowing the initiates to pick them off.

Another student, a human with cocoa coloured skin, short navy blue hair and eyes, gold marking on her forehead, and a blue beret on her head, and white shirt and long blue combat skirt- Blake recognised her as the Schnee's bodyguard- Welded 2 pistols and crouched behind a cover mount, peaking around and firing off rounds into the Grimm, and calling out targets to other initiates, though a lot of them didn't understand the military speak that she was using.

"-Might never... Hey, you still with me?" it took Blake a second to realise that Lavender was talking to her, and looked up to see that she'd tightened the scarf that she'd wrapped around Yang's abdomen, and had started shining a green light from the tip of her staff onto her wound, and was now looking at her.

"Um, right, yes, I'm still here", Blake went, nodding while a round of Grimm bullets flew over them, "What were you saying?"

Lavender let out a frustrated sigh, and went, "I said that I'm healing up her wound as best as I can-"

"Wow, by pointing a glowing stick at it, such effort you're putting in."

"Shut up", Lavender said, "You think that I can't do more, I've used up all of my medical stuff- The little that I had on me- On everyone else", she pointed to the rows of wounded around them, "You wanna go bitch about it, fine, but don't expect me to heal you when you get yourself shot", Blake was about to say something else, but she was cut off, "Shut up, and listen. I've healed her wound as best I could, but her aura will have to do the best that it can when it recharges", Lavender paused, "Though I doubt that it'll do much."

"Pardon?"

Lavender took another sigh, and explained, "Whatever went through her-"

"A blade. A Grimm blade."

Lavender groaned, muttering something about the Grimm, and then said, "Fine, the Grimm blade, then. It pierced her spinal column. Severed and frayed her nerves Even if she had her aura up at full charge, it wouldn't be able to heal and repair the damage done to her spine. Not fully. Not entirely", she paused again, "Aura can only repair superficial and simple wounds. Cuts, skin punctures, damaged bones, that kind of stuff, though it can't fully repair the more serious stuff."

"I know, I know all of this", Blake said, "Why are you telling me this?"

"So you can grasp what I'm trying to say. Her spinal column has been cut in half, and her nerves are damaged. If she doesn't get to a hospital soon, she'll never be able to walk again."

* * *

Vera Vermillion was having a great time.

"IS THAT GIRL RIDING AN URSA!?"

"YEHAW!"

"NORA!"

Case in point.

"Vera, a pack of Creeps are trying to outflank us!" yelled the girl in the blue beret, 2 pistols in hand taking out 2 of those humanoid Grimm in session, a bullet from each going into the eyeball of each.

"On it!" Vera yelled from inside her 3 person tall mech suit, a wide smile on her face as she primed the missiles in her shoulder pods, and twisted her suit around, her HUD reading the Creeps that were coming up around them. Targets were locked, and she fired.

{KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM} {KA-BOOM}

Oh, how she loved that sound so much~! It was almost orgasmic, to say the least. She loved the sounds of her missile pods letting out barrages of missiles. She felt bliss at the sound of her wrist guns on her mech's arms rattling away, tearing everything in it's range to shreds. And she was absolutely joyous at the sight of everything that stood against her fall to the floor, either filled with bullet holes, or torn apart by explosions.

"AHAHAHAHA!" she guffawed as she adjusted the controls in her cockpit within the Apex Perfected- Her mech suit, a prototype developed by the Starhead Industrial Company, a technology firm that her family had a personal stake in (And occasionally raided), And a suit that had been a birthday gift (She says gift, more like, um... A borrowed gift, yeah) From Iona Rockshow, a young official within the firm- Raising the mech's arms up, and pulled the triggers on the controls, allowing the wrist cannons on the arms to let rip, and tear apart the Grimm ahead of her and the rest of the initiates within the entrenched perimeter. She laughed some more as she saw Grimm of all shapes and sizes falling to her guns.

At the sight of that, she almost... Well, best not say.

Ah, this was the life, tearing apart Grimm, or Wolves, or bandits, or anyone else that stood against her. The sounds of battle, the smell of gunfire, oxidising metal, and burning flesh, the sights of missiles and fireballs flying hither and thither, soldiers and warriors rising and falling. The sounds and sights of the battlefield! It was her passion, her dream to find herself in the heat of a war, to see the blood pool on the floor, to see bullets fly here and there, and to fight within the greatest battles of her life, and right now, she was right in the middle of possibly one of the greatest battles of Remnant's history!

And it was glorious!

Her love for battle and war had been a constant throughout all of her life. Back in the deserts of Vacuo, in the Desert Walker tribe, her family and her home, she'd been told tales of her tribe's efforts back in the Great War, when they'd helped to push the Mantle and Mistral alliance out of their kingdom's territory, and had been part of the forces that had joined with Vale under it's king and marched onto Mistral, and then laid siege to Mantle and brought the old Empire to its knees. She'd been told of their bloody crusades against the Faunus House of Sundancers back during the Rights Revolution, and the House's subsequent extinction at their hands. She'd bared witness to her tribe's bloody raids against settlements and other tribes, baiting Grimm, like Ravagers, Dromedons, Jackalopes, Ziraphes, and even a Blind Worm or 2, into attacking settlements like Tuff, Feldspar, Gossan, and even Coquina, and going to war with Oscuro Academy, as well as raiding and destroying rival tribes, softening them up with the Grimm so that the Desert Walkers could finish them off, while also tearing apart Techions for salvage, and leaving whatever desecrated bodies or organs that were left for the Grimm and the desert to have. She'd trained in fighting against mole crabs and fellow tribesmen, and bested them one after the other. She even once rode on the back of a flatback slider once, which was an absolute blast. Before she killed it, of course, which was even more fun~!

So, when she said that she was going to Beacon Academy in Vale, there had definitely been some complaints against that. She had to fight for the approval of the Elder tribesman, which she won, of course. Not many people can 1V1 a 3 person tall mech suit. However, while she did agree with her fellows that Ozpin was indeed a senile, stupid old fossil of a man (How do you think that she even got this far to begin with? Falsified transcripts, oh how she adored them), She disagreed on the point that it was a waste of time. 1, she could learn brand new skills from Beacon, as well as the weaknesses of those who go into it, and the school itself, and 2, new location, new things to fight. Vale was a positively delightful boxing ring of warriors and beasts to kill, as today has proven!

Ah, wait, what was that up in the sky? Amongst the hordes of aerial Grimm? She raised her and the mech's heads, her HUD lighting up with targets, until one came into view.

A Nevermore! And not just that, a giant one! One of the biggest Nevermores she'd ever seen! Such a kill like that would grant her so much glory back home in Vacuo!

She turned on her built in camcorder, intending to catch the moment for posterity and proof of her kill, and primed her missile pods, arching them back, and locking on to the Nevermore, and with a loud guffaw, she let her missiles lose.

Many of the projectiles- A full barrage of the things- Unfortunately ended up impacting with several different Grimm, but it hardly mattered, as most of her missiles impacted with the Nevermore, the beast letting out a loud cry, and a massive red gash forming in its belly. AHAHA! Glorious! One more salvo, and it'll be done for!

It's a shame that Vera wasn't paying attention to anything else, because if she did, then perhaps she would've seen the bright purple beam of light heading to her mech.

The blast impacted with the chest of Vera's mech, where her cockpit was, melting the armour, and burning right through the mech, creating a good sized hole in the armoured machine, and killing Vera immediately, the mech dropping to the ground, and creating a fine explosion as the missile pods ruptured, and the explosives inside detonating into a fireball.

Her last thought before her mind faded away to nothingness, was how inglorious her death was.

* * *

The Disciple did not have a name.

The Disciple did not have anything of its own, save for ambition. It was but a lowly Disciple, one of many, a grunt within the new Grimm war machine, and just a mere cog in the machine. It was not a leader like a Baron, it was not a god messenger like the Priests, it was not a space shifter like the Long-Shots, and it was not like the Named. Oh, it was not like the Named.

It was not like those of the Ascendant Court. It was not like the Mother Eternal, or the Daughter and her fabled Architects, or Persephone, or the Brothers Grimm, or the Primeval Thrice (Axis the Greater Invasive, Nexus the Greater Overmind, and Oxus the Greater Corrective), Or even the Soul Twice (The Beloved Soul, and the Desired Soul). It was not like them at all. They were named because they were the most important members of the Grimm hierarchy. Only those of critical importance could receive a name. And the Disciple did not have a name.

But like it said, it had one thing that most other Grimm didn't. Ambition. Oh, did it have ambition. It wished to soar to the ranks of the Ascendant Court, to live amongst the Primeval Thrice, and the Soul Twice, and to be part of the great plans that the Mother and the Daughter had made and are making. It would see that it would become one of the great members of the Ascendant Court, and spread it's hand across all of Remnant. And then, it would have a name. It would have a glorious name.

And it would start the road to its ascension by killing the silver eyed Little Red Riding Hood.

The lizard woman back in the Crimson Keep had spoke- Had boasted- About how easy of a kill it was when she herself had taken the life of the silver eyed one who called themselves the Grimm Reaper. How she'd used a Nevermore- This very Nevermore that it clung onto- To corner the silver eyed, and then plucked their eyes from their skull, and presented them to the Mother Eternal as a gift. If it was that easy to kill one of the silver eyed, a veteran Grimm killer, no less, then to kill a silver eyed child? Like thieving human made confectionary treats from a human made offspring.

"Ruby! I told you this was a terrible idea!" yelled the white haired child over the sounds of battle and war and flight, as the Nevermore swam through the sky, weaving and threading through Grimm pockets and packs like a needle. The silver eyed girl and her clung on for dear life to the feathers of the Nevermore as the wind whistled past them, as did the Disciple, though it would not save the 2 of them. Not until it got its blackened claws on them, plucked their eyes from their skulls, and wore them as trophies.

"We're fine! Stop worrying!" shrilled the silver eyed girl. Oh, what an annoying, whiny voice it was. Perhaps it would rip out the child's tongue after it took her eyes. Yes, that would be a wonderful idea.

"I am so far beyond worrying!" the Disciple crawled forward, digging its claws into the Nevermore's skin, and clinging onto the feathers. The children could not hear it over the wind whistles and their whining.

"In a good way?" the Disciple creeped more and more forward.

"In a bad way! In a very bad way!" forward more and more.

"We- Hey, look, I can see the other initiates!" the silver eyed child called, pointing to the ground, "They've gathered near the relics and some big ol' canyon!"

The Disciple looked down to where the child was pointing, and saw that indeed, the rest of the Grimm killers to be had been hurdled into a killing ground by its fellow Grimm, boxing them into a deep chasm, and preparing them for the final slaughter. The Disciple needn't be there. It would find all of its glory here, in the skies, with the silver eyes as its trophies.

"Well, yes, I can see that, Ruby!" the white haired girl whined, "Here's what I can't see: A way down there!"

"Well, why don't we just jump? " the Disciple paused for a second, and allowed itself to chuckle inwardly for a second at that suggestion, but only for that second.

"What are you? Insane?!" the white haired cried out in the most annoying tone. As the Disciple crawled forward, it concluded that it would take that child's tongue as well, "We can't jump off at this height! We'll be killed instantly!"

"Well, what's your plan, Miss Perfect?! We wait for the Grimm to land so it can get the munchies and eat us!?" humorous. Grimm don't need to eat, though they do sometimes consume corpses to lower the humans' morale.

"Well, if you give me a minute to-"

The Nevermore suddenly, and violently, shook, over and over again, rocking from side to side, as mighty strikes of what sounded like thunder echoed from it's underside. The Nevermore let out a shrill, pained cry as it lurched and swayed, swinging its passengers from side to side, the air whistling between their teeth and hairs.

"Ah, I'm- I'm slipping!" called out the white haired girl, the pointed sword at her waist swaying, coming more and more lose from it's holster.

A nearby Lancer saw the children on the Nevermore, and fired its harpoon at them, missing them, but still hitting the Nevermore, the Grimm letting out another cry of pain. A Manticore then spat a fireball at the Nevermore, and then 2 smaller Nevermores launched their feather quills at their larger sibling, and soon, many of the Grimm that swarmed the sky were firing upon the Nevermore, emptying their rounds and releasing full salvos on the kaiju of a beast, all of them aiming for the 2 children clinging to its hide.

The Disciple narrowed its one eye and glared at them all. This was it's kill! It's glory! It's chance at ascension! It would not have this taken from it.

"We need to jump, now!" the silver eyed child cried out, a Sphinx's fireball landing right next to her and singing her cape and clothes, her soul shield protecting her from any burns or skin damage, "If we go now, we can-"

The Disciple finally got up to them, wrapped it's arm around the back of the silver eyed girl's neck, and twisted her around, looked her right in the eyes, and then placed it's clawed fingers right under her eyes, digging under the eyeballs.

 **"Going somewhere?"** it asked in its own language, undaunted by the knowledge that the silver eyed girl would not be able to understand it in the slightest, as it began to push under her eyeballs, digging them out, nor did it undaunted by the fact that its skin and nails were burning and dissolving under the hidden power of the false Light God. It wished to savour this moment. To cherish it. To burn it into it's memory.

It was its last moment of life, as the pointed sword of the white haired girl finally slipped out of its holster, and shot right past the Disciple, distracting it long enough for the silver eyed girl to, in a panic, shove her fist into it's single red, bloodshot eye, popping it with a wet squishing noise, thick red goo trickling down the silver eyed girl's arm.

The Disciple screamed out in pain, tearing its hands to its head, the slit vents on it's neck widening and letting out a shrill cry from each, lurching back, just as the silver eyed witch had, inadvertently or otherwise, wrapped her fingers around the nerves and cords of its body and brain, tearing them as it pulled its head back from the silver eyed girl, and felt the tearing and ripping in its head.

Those were the last ever sensations that it felt, as the soulless creature felt the life drain from it, and as such, so did its great ambitions, going limp, and allowing itself to loosen its grip on the dying Nevermore, and fall to the ground below, its last conscious thought about how when it became a fine black paste upon impact, then at least people would see it and wonder about it, gifting the Grimm some sort of recognition.

It dissolved before it hit the floor.

* * *

Ruby didn't let go of the Nevermore, her right hand refusing to let go of the enlarged feather that kept her attached to the winged beast. Her left hand flapped uselessly in the wind, the red goo from the humanoid Grimm's eye (How did it get up here with them? Did it spawn from the Nevermore? No, it must've been the one that'd grabbed her back on the ground when it had dug itself up, and must've hitched a ride on the Nevermore with them so that it could try and kill them) Burning away in a red fire into nothing, turning her skin red and peeling it away.

She let out a cry of pain, and resisted the urge to let go of the Nevermore and sooth her now burnt hand. Instead, she brought it closer to her, and began to blow on it, trying to blow the pain away and sooth the skin. However, each time, it was only a temporary relief, and the pain came back seemingly twice as worse. She let out a moan of pain, a tear or 2 rolling down her cheeks, and she flexed her burnt fingers, an uncomfortable groan coming from her, before the sound of her partner (Unwilling, of course) Pierced through her.

"RUBY!" Weiss yelled as she grasped the Nevermore's feathers with both hands, her rapier/revolver combo weapon no longer at her hip, and her fancy clothes now ripped and torn, her ponytail having come loose, and her hair now flowing down her shoulders, or in this case now, flapping about in the wind.

"Y-Yeah, I-I'm okay, don't worry!" Ruby yelled, not sure if the lie was for herself or for Weiss.

"Oh thank th- I-I- Never mind, who cares, my Myrtenaster is gone!"

"What?"

"Some foul Grimm has it!" she pointed to a Griffon Grimm that was flying nearby with them, Weiss' weapon between its toothed beak, "Give that back, you ruffian-"

The Griffon bit down on Myrtenaster, cocked its head to the side, and then exploded, the dust inside the weapon reacting violently and detonating, sending the headless Grimm tumbling and falling to the ground, the melted husk of a weapon still lodged in the remains of it's beak.

"What the- You oversized peacock!" Weiss yelled at the dead Grimm, not noticing the black wisps of smoke now coming from the Nevermore that she rode on, "How dare you-"

"Weiss! The Nevermore!" Ruby yelled, catching Weiss' attention, "It's dead! It's dying!"

"Those are 2 different things!"

"NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR SEMANTICS!"

Weiss was about to loudly retort something, but then she felt the feather that she had a hold of... Begin to fade away. She looked to the feather, to see black smoke flowing out between her fingers, and then found her vision being clouded in darkness, smoke clouding her vision, her hands looking to grasp anything that could keep her from becoming a splat on the ground.

"Ah, I'm slipping!" she cried, the feathers and Grimm skin that she tried to hold on to turning to smoke in her hands, a nearby aerial Grimm- A bat like Grimm known as a Ravager- Let out a shrill cry, before lunging at the 2 on the Nevermore, but missing due to not being able to judge the wind velocity and momentum of the Grimm, and sinking it's teeth into the fading beast, the Nevermore letting out a dying groan.

"Weiss, grab my hand!" Ruby cried as she summoned forth her scythe (Rifle? Scyfle?), And stabbed it into the Grimm, then holding out her hand for Weiss to take.

"What? What are you talking about?!" Weiss cried out.

"Please! Just trust me!"

Weiss slipped around a bit, constantly trying to get a good hold of the Grimm, now 3 quarters it's original size, relented, and took Ruby's free hand, the Grimm flesh that she was holding before now dissipated to smoke, the Nevermore dipping down, gravity taking it's course, and aiming for the deep chasm below.

Ruby took a deep breath, and muttered, "Never done this before. Hope this works..."

"Wait, what? What are you-"

The matter around her scythe faded away, and the Ravager from before lunged again.

Then, Weiss' vision was filled with rose petals, and the sensations of wind going at mach something against her. Her vision was filled with flower petals coloured in red and white, and wisps of red and white flowed from here to there, and in the space of 1 to 2 moments, it all faded, and her sight returned to normal, the Ravager from before now having sunk its teeth into the Nevermore once more, and allowing itself to come loose from the fading flesh of the beast.

Ruby's scythe dug itself deep into the neck of the Nevermore, and began to tilt it to the side, whilst also throwing Weiss onto the Grimm bone (Or chitin, as some Grimm specialists thought), Allowing her to grab hold of the large fin that pierced the Grimm's bony head (Grimm bone tended to fade away slower than the rest of a Grimm, and since the beast was massive, it meant that the bone would take much longer to dissolve), And then, thanks to all of the sudden motion and momentum and the sudden feeling of gravity taking its course on the Grimm, she went head and expelled her breakfast over her chin, her dress, and the Grimm. And a little bit on Ruby as well.

"Ah, Weiss! What the fondant!?"

"Ruby what the hell are you doing!?" Weiss screamed back, not bothering to wipe the sick away from herself. She had too much on her mind and hands to worry about.

"I'm driving a Nevermore!"

"WHAT?!"

The Nevermore lurched down and to the side, its head aimed to the battlefield below, the lights and flashes of the fighting acting as beacons, a trail of black smoke left in the Nevermore's wake as it descended. A few flashes of gunfire flew past the winged beast, most likely the other initiates, either unable to see the 2 on the Grimm, or shooting at the Ravager that was still tailing them.

As the sounds of gunfire and chaos became louder and louder, Ruby spotted a purple light flash in the trees, and honed her eyes further, trying to see who was there for a split second through the clouds of smoke and Grimm. As a dust charged energy blast flew right past her, hitting the Ravager behind the Nevermore in one of it's eyes, blinding it and sending a black streak of smoke pluming out of it's wound, Ruby could make out a familiar glint of metal, and her silver shaded eyes widened in shock.

"JAUNE?!"

* * *

 **"AHAHAHAHAHA! GLORIOUS! GLORIOUS!"** the Brother of Darkness laughed and cried out as it swung it's cleaver axe to the side, cutting trees in half as it swung, **"WHERE ARE YOU GOING BOYS AND GIRLS! I JUST WANNA HAVE SOME FUN!"**

It let out another blast of purple light from it's eyes, detonating next to the fleeing group and lighting the trees on fire, purple and orange flames dancing at them as they burned.

Pyrrha let out another 2 rounds from her rifle as the group ran through the crumbling forest, one each for the humanoid Grimm that had been firing on them, the bullets going through their singular eyes. She then did a cartwheel over a bear like Grimm whilst her rifle shifted to it's sword form, before launching it into the air and kicking it's hilt, sending it flying through the air like a missile into a winged lion like Grimm, killing it instantly as it tore through it's head.

Pyrrha then grabbed a strange bauble like Grimm by it's barbed tentacles and slung it like a flail, and slammed it into the head of one of the caped humanoid Grimm, the bauble cracking and imbedding itself into the Grimm's head like a helmet. Grabbing her sword from the previous dying Grimm, she used the humanoid Grimm's body as a springboard, launching herself up and arching around, shifting her sword to a spear, and impaling it into another cape wearing humanoid Grimm as she landed on it, the blade piercing it's neck, severing its head.

"Jaune, Melanie, hurry up! We need to move!" Pyrrha yelled over the carnage and madness as her weapon shifted to it's sword form, and sliced off the heads off of a hooded Grimm with a rifle for a face and one of the caped Grimm. She would've gotten another of the hooded Grimm, but it blinked away in a red light.

"WE'RE TRYING OUR BEST HERE, WOMAN!" Melanie yelled back.

Jaune ignored it. Or maybe he was unaware of the exchange as he and Melanie, Miltia sandwiched between them as they charged through the shifting forest, ran as fast as they could, running forward and forward through the trees and bushes and Grimm and fire and gunfire, the ground below them cracking and shifting like an ocean's tumbling waves, Grimm of all types, new and old, emerging through the cracks like dark beings from the deepest bowels of Hell, condemning the surface world and all that lived in it to damnation.

They were running ragged, their clothes singed and torn from close calls and sword slashes and burn marks, their skin cut and bruised, their legs and feet bruised and bleeding from running and vaulting so much (Though the wounds of Melanie and Pyrrha seemed to heal quicker than Jaune and Miltia's. He doubted that Miltia's wounds could be healed anymore). And yet, they still kept running. They kept running and running despite their wounds and their enemies around them, running and sprinting to... To somewhere other than where they were right at the moment. Miltia slung around uselessly between them, going into shock from the pain and loss of blood from the loss of her foot, her eyes half lidded and glazed over, mumblings words that neither her sister nor partner could hear over the sounds of carnage and madness.

There, a light between the trees. An opening. Jaune saw this, and from the looks of it, so did Melanie, as she looked at Jaune, as he looked at her, and then, blinded by tunnel vision, charged forward once more, faster than ever, vaulting over fallen trees and shards of ground that rose up from the ground. Pyrrha charged behind them, swinging and slashing and shooting at the Grimm around them, carving a path through the hordes of darkness like a knife through warm butter. The Brother of Darkness guffawed behind them, and let out a series of purple blasts at them, singing and burning their clothes and skin, it's followers partaking in the hunt as well and following suit.

They parted the bushes, and ran between the trees, and came to and through the opening, to the plain beyond the forest, and the battlefield that awaited them. Hundreds of initiates had crowded together at the edge of a chasm, far away from a stone bridge and ruins that connected the 2 sides of the chasm together. Around them, they had dug up a series of trenches, of holes and mountains, and had taken cover in them to avoid walls of fire. Beyond the trenches, the Grimm advanced, slow and steady, like a flood, a surge of black ambrosia devouring everything in it's wake. Creatures of Grimm, new and old, marched forward in a massive horde, throwing bullets and fire and the like into the initiates' ranks.

They had to get into the initiates' lines. It was the safest place to be right now. The only problem was as such: How were they going to get there?

"How the fuck are we going to get through all of this?!" Melanie implored, waving a hand to the hordes of Grimm before them, not a single gap or path through them, "We'll be killed before we even get a tenth of the way there!"

"L-L... L-Leave m-me here...", Miltia weakly said, trying to loosen herself from Jaune and Melanie's grip, "I-I-I'll on-only hold you back... Get you killed... Let me... Let me die here... Save yourse-"

"Shut up, shut up, shut the fuck up", Melanie ordered, "We're not leaving you. Never. Not today, not tomorrow. Never. Get over it", Jaune nodded to it, silently stating his approval, and Miltia just sighed in resignation.

A purple blast flew over them, and they looked behind them to see the Brother of Darkness parting the trees with it's blade, it's cracked and scabbed lips salivating at the thought of killing them.

The group began to run and skirt the side of the horde, trying to avoid the blasts and claws of the Grimm around them as they ran for their lives, "Where the hell are we going!?" yelled Melanie, dodging a red bullet and a Grimm wolf claw, all the while never letting go of her crippled sister.

"We need to find some sort of opening- A-A weakness in the Grimm! Something! Anything! I DON'T KNOW!" Jaune yelled, as multiple Grimm noticed them and began to converge on them.

"Well where the hell are we gonna-"

"JAUNE?!"

The 4 of them, and even a few Grimm, in surprise, looked up, to see a giant, smoking Grimm- _A Nevermore_ , Jaune thought, as he remembered the type back from the attack on his old farm home, the First Arcadia- Gliding down to the battlefield below it, letting out shrill groans as it flew down, smoke pouring from it's body, whilst a bat like Grimm behind it, black smoke pouring out of one of it's eyes as it flew after the Grimm. On top of the Nevermore, scythe/rifle/scyfle jammed into it's neck, stood-

"RUBY?!" Jaune screeched out in surprise.

"Is that Weiss up there?!" Pyrrha yelled as she pointed to a whitish blue figure clinging onto the Nevermore's bone white chitin.

Melanie then yelled, "What the hell are they doing up-"

She was interrupted by the sound of the Nevermore hitting the ground.

"DOWN!" Jaune yelled as they jumped to the ground whilst the Nevermore slid across the battlefield, it's wide form taking out many of the Grimm that populated the battlefield, spreading mass confusion as it swept across the killing grounds. The massive wing swept across Jaune and the rest of the group, wiping away all of the Grimm near them, save for the Brother of Darkness, as the part of the wing that hit it faded away into smoke almost instantly. However, the bat Grimm that'd been tailing the Nevermore, blinded in one of it's eyes, ended up slamming into the Brother of Darkness, sending it flying onto it's back. In anger, it grabbed the Grimm's head and effortlessly crushed it into a black and red smoking mess with a throaty snarl.

The Nevermore began to fade away, the chitin taking less than the rest, bouncing around the battlefield and smashing into Grimm after Grimm. From what Jaune could see as he got up, Weiss and Ruby had taken hold of the chitin, and used them as fading cushions against the impact of hitting the ground, or at least something like that. Regardless, their efforts had helped to sweep away much of the Grimm from the battlefield and creating mass chaos and confusion in the ranks of the rest, and allowing the initiates to pick off the confused Grimm. More importantly, at least to Jaune and his group, it had allowed them a clear opening to the circle of initiates, unimpeded by anything but the fading bodies of monsters.

As they ran to the initiates' position, they spotted Ruby and Weiss sprinting towards them, followed by Ruby bursting into a fury of rose petals, only to appear right next to Jaune (!?) So that she could be in glomping range.

"Jaune! You're okay!" Ruby went as she tightened her hug on him, "Oh god, I though you were hurt! I thought you were gonna die, but then we flew down and smacked that big... Whatever that thing was- Is- Whatever!"

"Pyrrha, you're okay!" Weiss went as she looked Pyrrha up and down and then hugged her herself.

"Oh, er, thank you, Weiss, I'm fine, but-"

"Do you have a partner yet?" she asked.

"Er-"

"MY PARTNER, FUCK OFF!" Melanie yelled from right next to her, "THOSE MOVIE RIGHTS ARE MINE!"

Weiss looked at Melanie, stopped hugging Pyrrha, and then looked to the side, "Tsk..."

Tsk?! Pyrrha thought to herself.

"W-What was that thing?" Ruby exclaimed as she jumped back from Jaune and became more panicked, "T-That black and purple thing! That wasn't like any other Grimm that I've seen before!"

"That was the brother of Darkness", Jaune went, bringing together the attention of all that were present, "One of the Brothers Grimm. That thing and the Brother of Light attacked my first home a year ago. Led a horde of Nevermores and Chimeras and burnt my home to the ground."

"W-Wait, the Brothers of Light and Dark?!" Weiss stuttered, "As in the gods?!"

"I don't know. They could just be some sick Grimm creation, they could be the actual gods, I don't know", Jaune went, "Last time I saw them, back in my old home, the First Arcadia, they said something about a court. I don't know what kind of court, though, I can't remember."

"Y-Y-Yeah, I'm still alive, by the way", Miltia spoke up, "G-Good to know you all care, now can we please get a move on, I'm starting to get a little drowsy..."

"Oh god, Miltia, I'm so sorry", Jaune went, as he and Melanie began to move once more, rocking and rolling out to the bunker that the initiates had made, "We need to move, now. I'm guessing it won't take long for the Grimm to reorganise and-"

A purple bolt of energy flew past them, followed by another soaring over them and impacting with the chest of a far away initiate, killing him instantly. The group looked back behind them to see the Brother of Darkness and the Brother of Light standing side by side with each other. However, parting the trees, 5 new figures joined them in staring down the initiates with dead, hateful eyes.

3 of the figures were nearly identical, being the cape wearing humanoid Grimm that Jaune had seen throughout their sprint in the Emerald Forest- The Brother of Darkness, when he was giving out orders through their chase, had referred to this type of Grimm as a Baron- However, these Barons were different. Where every other Baron, or Grimm for that matter, had jet black skin, these Barons had grey, almost silver skin, with their eye being coloured a deep ocean blue with a burning white pupil, and their capes being a pure silver with a golden fur trim. On their chests, they had a differently coloured symbol- One red, one green, and one golden- That looked much like his own, but upside down, and with a sharp diamond stabbed through it. Above each symbol, was a name and a title carved into their skin. 'Axis the Greater Invasive' for red,' Nexus the Greater Overmind' for green, and 'Oxus the Greater Corrective' for gold.

The other 2 were also humanoid Grimm as well, a head smaller than the Brothers Grimm, covered in ceremonial robes, and wearing ceremonial chitin headdresses, and welding staffs with what looked like dust crystals- The Brother of Darkness had also called them Priests- However, like the Barons before them, these Priests were different to the rest of their ilk. They had nails jutted and hammered into random parts of their bodies, and shards of wood covering their chest, shoulders, knees, and elbows, acting as armour. Their headdresses elicited a white flame, and their eyes were, instead of red, a shining white, with glowing white boils and scabs covering their body, looking like they were ready to burst open, whilst their skin remained pitch black. Their robes were 2 different colours, one of them with blue robes, the other with red robes, the crystals at the end of their staffs were blue and red respectively, and on their headdresses, that same imitation of Jaune's family symbol was there, one red, and the other blue. Above their eyes, titles had been chiselled into their skin. The 'Beloved Soul' was the one with the blue robes, and the 'Desired Soul' was the one with red.

The group did not wait for anything, nor did the initiates in the bunker, or the others that had just arrived and were sprinting towards the bunker as well. Jaune and Melanie began to carry Miltia to the bunker, Weiss- Without her weapon, it would seem- Travelling with them, whilst Ruby and Pyrrha provided covering fire with their weapons, aiming for the 7 Grimm figures that stared down at them, as well as anymore Grimm that were starting to pour out of the forest.

Suddenly, before anyone could say anything, their attention was taken by a black dot, surrounded by a white flame, that just appeared out of nowhere, floating above the ground. Before any of them could enquire about it, the black dot began to expand and expand, until, in a bright burst of light, it had taken shape, having grown arms, legs, a chest, a head, and a weapon, growing larger by the second, and changing colour and shade in an instant, before settling on its size, and looking down at the group.

It was like the Brothers Grimm. Almost identical in size and shape, save for a few glaring differences. Where it's face should be, it's helmet was now covering all of it's face, it's way of seeing now confined to a glowing blue version of the same symbol that the other Grimm wore, gentle blue flames licking from it. It's body and chitin was a pure bright white, with glowing blue details and patterns across it's body, and a blue/white glow coming off of it, giving it an ethereal like glow. In one of it's hands, it held a curved great sword carved out of bone with a wooden hilt and hand guard, while in the other, it held a shield made out of pure white chitin, the same glowing blue symbol spitting out flames from it.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!" yelled an initiate from the other side of the battlefield, asking the question for them, and when they looked to him, they saw that that initiate was staring down another one of the Brothers Grimm imitations, though this one had a cleaver instead of a great sword, and no shield.

As they looked around, they could see that more of these hulking figures- These gigantic knights of the Grimm- Had started to pop up across the battlefield, welding either great swords and shields made of bone and flesh, or mighty cleavers and axes that looked to be stained red against their white glean. With them, some of the humanoid Grimm grunts from before- The Brother of Darkness had called them Disciples- Had spawned with them, some in 2s, others in 3s, but there was a difference between them and the rest of the Disciples, in that they had shards of bone stained purple across parts of their bodies, on their chests, shoulders, knees, and elbows, making them look somewhat like royal warriors.

Jaune looked up at one of them, and saw something scribbled on the chests of the Brothers Grimm lookalikes. A single word.

'Architects'.

 _ **"Ah, so the Daughter has sent her beloved Architects to aid us in this royal hunt"**_ , boomed the Brother of Light over the battlefield, as a second wave of Grimm erupted and poured from the forests, charging forward, _**"She has sent her most beloved Grimm to aid us in our righteous slaughter! And who are we to disappoint!"**_

The Grimm roared, and charged forward, whilst The Brothers Grimm and it's associates stayed where they were, watching the second battle erupting around them. The Architects moved forward too, blue flashes of light shooting forward from their glowing helmets, flying forward into the bunker of Initiates, and killing many, whilst the Royal Disciples began to dig holes and hunker down, shooting off purple rounds from their rifles into the initiates as they knelt down into their holes and bayed for cover.

The Brother of Light roared once more, it's purple eye and patterns lighting up as the Grimm around it roared in turn, _**"RISE, BROTHERS AND SISTERS GRIMM! RISE AND HUNT! TAKE THEIR LIVES AS TRIBUTE! AS TREASURE AND REWARD! TAKE THEM IN THE NAME OF THE MOTHER ETERNAL! TAKE THEM IN THE NAME OF THE DAUGHTER! TAKE THEM IN THE NAME OF THE ASCENDANT COURT!"**_

The Grimm's charge speed up twice fold, firing blasts of red and blue and orange and purple into the lines of scared Hunters to be, killing many in the first salvo, their blasts ripping apart heads, arms, legs, and torsos, painting the ground and their comrades in arms red like roses. The initiates fired back as much as they could, unleashing an entire salvo of missiles, bullets, aura blasts, energy rounds, acid throws, fireballs and whatever exotic weapon they had into the crowds and hordes of Grimm, forcing them to stop and slow, and after a few moments, halt their advance, walking instead of sprinting, throwing their animal Grimm out first, the wolves and the bears and wing lions and even a giant scorpion, using them as mobile cover and cannon fodder against the initiates' fire, with a few of them, the humanoids like the Barons and the Disciples and the Priests and the gun face hooded Grimm riding them like steeds, placing artillery and ordnance on their backs, turning them into mobile artillery platforms.

Whilst the air was once more lit up with the madness of war, Jaune and the rest of the group ran back against the tide of Grimm, and soon found themselves at the edge of the initiates' bunker. Tossing Miltia in, and letting a male initiate in full body armour, with 2 cannons stretching over his head and 2 shields each on his arms, the name 'Mixer' scribbled onto his armoured chest, and a glowing purple gearwheel insignia just above it-

( _Part of the Techions_ , Jaune thought, having recognised the symbol from when a caravan of them had passed through Jewel, the town that sat next to the Second Arcadia, both farm and manor, and one that was governed by the House of the Golden Sun (Jaune remembered his mother, Laeticia Arc, as well as Viola sitting in the town council, governed by Apollo Amar, when they were discussing wherever to accommodate for the caravan, and invite the attention of an entire global faction onto their little town. Of course, they agreed to do so). The Techions were a global faction that had it's roots in all 4 kingdoms, and was made up of many people that had suffered horrific injuries, from terrible burns, severe loss of limbs, and even just being left as a set of organs in a jar, and had surrendered themselves to cybernetics and augmentations, completely remaking themselves with mechanical limbs and bodies, granting them a new leash on life. It's said that in accordance with this, they've made it a habit of surrendering their old names, and adopting new ones to go with their new mechanical existence.

Well, in all honesty, they were less of a unified faction, and more like several chapters that bore the same name and insignia, and loosely communicated with each other, and even then, each chapter was very loosely unified, and members were just members in name only, as they were free to do whatever they wished.

Jaune looked around. Now that he thought about it, a good chunk of the survivors right now were Techions, most of them in cybernetic body armour, each one identifiable by the glowing purple gearwheel insignia on them. He had seen a lot of Techions yesterday when everyone was gathering in Beacon. An entire chapter's worth, to be honest, which is over 2 or 300. Huh, go figure.)

-Carry her off, with Melanie running with them, the rest of them jumped down into the bunker, and Jaune looked to the initiate carrying Miltia, and ordered, "Get her patched up! Now!"

"Gonna have ta get in line, fella!" 'Mixer' yelled back, "We've got over 50 wounded back here!"

"I'll be fine, Jaune!" Miltia tried to yell, but coughed and spluttered, "As your partner, I order you to stay up there and help them!"

"I-I'll try my best!" Jaune yelled back, before muttering, "Not much I can do anyways..."

"I'll stay with her", Melanie yelled back, "Keep her safe and-"

"Melanie, stay with him", Miltia countermanded.

"No, no, I'm staying with you. I'm not leaving you-"

"That wasn't a suggestion", Melanie froze in place as Miltia, despite her weakened state, glared at her, "Go. Now."

"Er, um, right, right", Melanie went, as she ran back to the front, picking up a discarded rifle and taking a place in the front, "Stay safe, okay?"

"I-I'll try my best... No promises..."

"Where's Yang!?" Ruby yelled into the crowd of initiates. Most of them responded with a queered eyebrow, so Ruby went, "Blond! Lilac eyes which turn to red when she's angry! Long hair! Like, tons of it! Hasn't had it cut in years!"

"Yeah, I've seen her!" yelled another initiate, a blond haired rabbit Faunus in sand coloured mechanical armour, with 2 pronged claws at the end of his arms, with an orange glowing cannon between the arms and whips attached to his wrists, his legs formed into a single limb by his mechanical armour, a glowing purple gearwheel insignia on his chest, signifying him as part of the Techions, "She's with the wounded, but she isn't looking-"

"YANG!" Ruby yelled as she burst into a flurry of rose petals, whizzing through the initiates like a bullet towards the wounded.

"Good...", the rabbit Faunus initiate went, "Well that was rude..."

An artillery blast from the Grimm flew in and detonated right near them, killing 3 initiates and sending their corpses flying, leaving a gap in the lines. A mechanical Grimm, like a robotic dog with a barbed tail and a boxed head with a single optic, leapt through the line, and launched a red fireball from it's barbed tail like a medieval catapult, impacting with the head of an initiate and causing it to detonate into a red mess. The Grimm was then brought down by over a dozen initiates firing off dozens of rounds into it.

Jaune froze at the sight of the initiate dying, part of the red mess that'd been her head splattering on him, leaving him frozen for a few moments. The sudden movement of Weiss shoving past him to pick up a bow and arrow pair that'd been laying next to a dead, headless initiate in Mistralian robes brought him out of his stupor, and he looked to the rabbit Faunus and another initiate next to him- An initiate in green and purple armour that covered his head to toes, with black and yellow construction markings on his chest and legs, glaring red optical visors on his head, a glowing purple circle on his chest shaped like the Techion's gearwheel insignia, 2 pairs of large wheels, one pair on his hips, and the other on his shoulders, and where his arms should be, were 2 spindly mechanical arms that ended with a 4 pronged circular claw with a glowing purple cannon in the middle, and shovels from a construction vehicle where his feet should be. On his chest, in fancy calligraphy, was the name 'Scrapster'- And went, "Y-You 2! Go sure up that hole in the line over there!"

"Er, excuse me, what's the magic word?" the rabbit Faunus asked. The initiate next to him- 'Scrapster'- Looked at him incredulously.

"...Please?"

"Thank you", he went, before looking at his fellow, and going, "C'mon, Scrapster, we've got a war to win!" before his mechanical tail/leg converted into 4 legs, and began to scuttle to the hole in the line.

As they ran off, Scrapster looked at the rabbit Faunus, and went, "Was that really necessary, Skipjack?"

"Hey, to not point it out would be rude, and I don't like rudeness."

Jaune paid no mind to the exchange, and then turned to everyone else that had gathered, and went, "We need to hold here for now, let anyone else out there come to us! Hopefully, if we hold out long enough, someone will break through the lines and pick us up!" after a nervous round of nods and affirmatives from the rest of the group, Jaune then went, "Good luck, everyone, let's show these godless monsters what we're made of!"

* * *

An hour into the unforgiving siege, and the godless monsters that were the Grimm were showing the army of initiates what they were made of.

"Can I just say that I am having a bloody fantastic time right now!" 'Skipjack' yelled as he fired a round of ionised dust into the Grimm hordes, dodging a blue bolt of electricity that one of the Architects launched at him, and converting his 4 legs into one and using it to jump up high into the air, and slam down on a wolf Grimm's head, crushing it to pieces, and then using his whips to ensnare a Disciple, and swing it into a Baron, who accidently shot off it's cannon and hit another Baron in it's face, "Seriously, this-"

He wrapped his claw around a Disciple's head and fired off his cannon

"-Is-"

He slid to the ground and tripped up a Baron, shooting it right in it's eye.

"-The-"

Jumping back up, he spring jumped into the air and slammed into a bear Grimm, wrapping his claws around it's head.

"-LIFE!"

He pulled upwards, ripping off the bear Grimm's head with a harsh {RIIIIP}, black and red guts and blood going all over him, before throwing the head into the maw of the black head of a double headed snake Grimm with enough force to throw the black head back and disorientate the Grimm, allowing a missile to impact with the white head and blow it to kingdom come.

"Skipjack, get back here!" Jaune yelled over the carnage and madness, his bruised and now greying shield- The paint now melting off and the metal now burnt and twisting in the heat of the Grimm's blasts- Deflecting another blast of white hot energy, sending it flying into the Grimm crowd, though he doubted that he hit anything at all.

Looking around, he surveyed the battlefield around him, taking in the utter madness of war, and the sheer level of destruction that it had brought and was bringing.

900\. That's how many people had been at the bunker in total.

700\. That's how many people that were still alive now.

200\. That's how many people had died in the bunker up until now.

200\. That's how many people he'd failed to save.

That's how many people he could've kept alive.

That's how many people he's murdered because of the Grimm.

And that's not even going into the 1100 people who'd died in the Emerald Forest.

About 45 minutes ago, no more initiates had been trying to cross the battlefield to the bunker. It seemed safe to assume that all the other initiates that had been sent into the Emerald Forest were either in the bunker now, or were all dead...

So many... So many people... So many people have died, today...

By the hands of the Grimm...

By the hands of the Brothers Grimm...

By the hands of whatever the fuck this Ascendant Court thing even was...

And so many people dead, by his hands as well...

He tried to shake off his guilt for now (Keyword: Try), And tried to focus himself on the task at hand, looking to 2 initiates that had been near him for a while in the battle, "Sun Dance, Emerald, get Skipjack back in here!"

"On it!" went Sun Dance, a pale skinned human man with bright red mechanical wings, as well as crimson robes outlines by drawings of flowers and thorns, his hair short and brown, his eyes a deep brown.

"Oh sure, let's go risk our lives for the idiot, that seems like a great use of my time", went Emerald, a dark skinned human woman with red eyes and mint green hair that was mostly short, save for the 2 long locks at the back of her head. On her chest she wore a white and green crop top, and on her bottom were a pair of white trousers that were mostly covered by brown chaps that ended at her calves. In her hands, were a pair of revolvers that could shift into a pair of sickles.

"Em…", Sun Dance went as they ran off into the Grimm crowd to rescue Skipjack from his own adrenaline fuelled suicide run.

"Don't call me Em. I hate being called Em", Emerald chastised as they reached Skipjack just as he was ripping the cannon from a Baron and using it as a club to smash an eyeball Grimm into mush, "Skipjack!- Which is a stupid name, by the way!- Get back into the bunker! Now!"

"Aw, what?! Why?!" Skipjack called out as he hurled what was left of the eyeball Grimm into the nearby scorpion Grimm, covering it in fading red fiery sludge, "I'm having fun! Haven't been in a battle like this since I was at the Fall of Patch! Now lemme tell you something; That, was a helluva good time!"

"Skipjack, you will die out here!" Sun Dance exclaimed as he used his mechanical wings to sever the head of a tiger/bird Grimm, and then throw the head at a Priest, forcing the Grimm down to the floor.

Nearby, Oxus the Greater Corrective raised his white and blue fire cannon and took aim.

"Oh, for god's... Ugh!" Emerald went as she raised her hands, a brief phantom ushering out from her, which quickly jumped into Skipjack while he was hopping about on his battle high.

Suddenly, his eyes widened, and his smile faded to an open mouthed frown. He fell to his knees (Or knee, considering that his 4 mechanical legs were currently combined into the single drill like spring limb), And began to blubber something as his rabbit ears curled, and tears started to flow out of his eyes.

"Skipjack?" Sun Dance asked, before turning to Emerald and going, "What was that? What did you-"

"I can cast illusions. It's my semblance", Emerald exposited, "Individual Mental Hallucinations. That's what the guys on top at Signal called it. That's what they classified it as. Now shut up and grab the idiot", Emerald went as she fired off a round each from her guns into the eyes of a camel like Grimm that spat out acid, and rolled to the side to avoid being stomped on by a 5 story tall 3 headed giraffe Grimm.

"Ugh", Sun Dance groaned as he picked up Skipjack, his mechanical wings lifting him up into the air, a glowing red trail flowing off of them, "Oh god, woman, what did you show him?"

"I don't know, his worst fear", Emerald went as she dodged the kick from a huge rabbit like Grimm with red and white antlers.

"So you do know", Sun Dance sassed as he began to float back to the bunker.

Oxus steadied his aim.

"Oh shut up, don't sass me! Not in the mood!" Emerald cried as she began to run back into the bunker, leaping over a Royal Disciple and another camel like Grimm, it's acid spit barely missing her skin, and catching her clothing on her legs, "Ah, damnit!"

"What was his fear, by the way? Asking for a friend!" Sundance went as she came within feet of the bunker.

"I don't know, who cares?!"

"My friend does, apparent-"

A loud blast of blue fire ripped through the air, and hit Sun Dance right in his back. He let out a loud scream as he dropped Skipjack outside of the bunker, right before the blue fire ripped through his chest, and tore him to pieces, the blood drying up and turning to steam, his wounds and flesh cauterising in the heat, sending flaming chunks of flesh here and there as what remained of him burnt and melted away.

""SUN DANCE!"" Jaune and Emerald yelled out, as Skipjack finally recovered from his hallucination, and began to wipe away the remnants of Sun Dance- The burning blue chunks of flesh and the smears of crispy blood- Off of him, crawling back to the bunker as he did so.

"Sun Dance, you... You absolute idiot", Emerald muttered, as she got Skipjack by the shoulders and tossed him into the bunker, the Faunus landing right next to Jaune before getting up, to which she then ordered, "Move", to him.

Skipjack rapidly nodded, and began to bounce away to another part of the bunker, joining up with Scrapster and 2 other Faunus- A female Faunus with crab arms and claws, and a spider Faunus with 4 arms ( _Just like_ _Apollo_ , Jaune thought)- While Emerald reached the edge of the bunker, above the trench, and Jaune looked up at her and said, "Thank yo-"

"Shut up, Arc", she said, "I'm not in the mood for-"

Another blue blast of fire shot at her, searing her left arm, and burning away the flesh to reveal the bone underneath, the veins shrivelled up and snapped, the flesh cauterising and evaporating the blood into steam.

Emerald was flipped around by the force of the blast, the back of her body becoming visible, showing the just burnt and peeled flesh of her back, her spinal column, ribcage, and internal organs visible, blood pouring down her. She only had a single second to let out a croaked gasp of a breath before another round of blue fire hit the side of her body, ripping it apart, and burning her arm off in a horrid explosion, the smell of burnt flesh filling the air as the fire spread to her head, burning off her left ear and setting her hair alight until it had almost all burnt off.

The blast came to an end, and as the blue flames continued to lick at her, Emerald was sent falling into the bunker's trench, with Jaune only just able to catch her, "E-Emerald! Emerald, are you... Oh..."

It was all Jaune could say, as he observed the damage done to Emerald. The left part of her body was damaged beyond repair, her left arm and shoulder were gone, burnt to a crisp, and her internal organs- Past her melted and burnt up breast, skin, and blackened ribcage- Had been burnt up and peeled away, her insides- That weren't punctured by holes- Clogging up with blood, some of them escaping through the holes in her body, turning her into a blood sieve. Her face was hardly any better, the left side of her head burnt up and fractured, her skin completely melted off and burnt up, her skull visible, her eye shrivelled up, her skull so cracked and broken that part of her brain was visible. Her jaw was broken, and blood was beginning to clog up her throat.

"I... Ah... I... I...", Emerald tried to say something, but the blood pooling in her mouth was preventing her from doing anything.

"Emerald? Emerald!" Jaune yelled, ignorant now of everything around him, save for him and the dying girl in his arms, "Emerald, stay with me!" he'd slumped to his knees now, trying to keep her alive, and moving his hand across the floor to try and find some scrap of fabric to cover up her wounds and keep her alive. He refused to let her die! Not now! Not ever!

"I-I...", she slumped her head to the side, and allowed the blood to flow out of her mouth, letting it pool on the floor, and staining Jaune's jeans red, "I... I didn't... Even want... To be here...", she began, "O-Ozpin found me... Sent me to Signal... To Beacon... I... I owe him... Owe him every... Everything...", her eyes began to roll back. The blood was pooling in her lungs, drowning her.

"Emerald, stay with me! Stay with me, Emerald!" Jaune said, shaking her body uselessly, tears forming in his eyes, "Do not- Do not die on me! Emerald, I am ordering you! Do not! Die! On me!... Please..."

Emerald began to chock, "I... Don't...", she reached out the hand of her still intact arm to his face, "Don't wanna... Die", that last word was nothing more than a pathetic whisper as her eyes rolled back, and her head slumped, her body went limp, her hand, drenched in red, grasped his face, and fell, sliding across his face and covering it in blood. Emerald Sustrai was dead.

The word around Jaune collapsed, nothing existed save for him and the dead girl in his arms. Tears fell down his face, staining red as they travelled down the blood drenched patterns. His mind went blank, and his body went stiff. He didn't move. He couldn't move. He couldn't think. He couldn't comprehend the idea of someone dying. Of seeing death in the eye. Of knowing that someone was dead because of him. He'd given the order. He'd told her to go out there. He alone was to blame.

"...Hey", he tried to form some sort of smile on his face. Nothing, "Hey Em… You're still alive, right?" no answer, "This is a... This is a joke, isn't it? Is that what you do?... Heh... Heheh... Well, okay... You can stop now... You can get up... And..."

He stopped himself. What was the point? She was dead. He failed her. She was dead.

He didn't notice Oxus marching up to the bunker.

Nor did he notice the white claw reaching out for him.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

Jaune looked up, to see Nora charging through the air with an angry snarl on her face, and smashing her hammer into Oxus' head, sending the white and blue Baron ricocheting and stumbling back, rubbing it's head, and looking back, blue blood like slime sludging out pouring out of it's eye and throat slits, levelling it's cannon with one hand and shooting at Nora, who charged forward, dodging the blast, and slamming the butt of her hammer in Oxus' groin, and then slamming her hammer into it's stomach, sending blue sludge flying out of it's throat slits.

However, Oxus quickly retaliated, throwing it's clawed hand forward and grabbing Nora by her head, picking her up and slamming her into the ground with a mighty crack, kicking up dirt and grass, and sending bloodied mud flying.

However, Nora's body began to surge with electricity, as she began to loudly scream under Oxus' grasp. The electricity travelled up the Grimm's arm, and Oxus let out a loud, shrill cry as the electricity surged around it, charring it's skin. It loosened it's grip on Nora's head, and she grabbed it's wrist, and twisted it, allowing her to grab her hammer as it recoiled, grabbing and nursing it's wrist, failing to notice Nora taking her hammer, only until she'd smashed it into it's waist, and sent it flying across the battlefield into another 3 head, 5 story tall Giraffe Grimm, toppling it over with a satisfying {THUD}.

Nora looked to Jaune, her wounds healing almost immediately in a strange pink glow, though there was still blood on her face, and saliva dribbling down her face, "Jaune-Jaune, we've gotta… Gotta…"

She spotted the frozen boy on his knees, cradling the burnt up corpse in his hand, his face frozen, expressionless, bloody prints and tears staining his face, blood staining and ruining his clothes, mouth sputtering quiet, almost silent, madness induced rambling and spluttering as he tried to look into the eyes of the dead woman in his arms.

Jaune looked up, his eyes dull and wet. He looked at her, confused. He didn't let go of the corpse in hand.

Nora jumped down into the trench and knelt down in front of him, placing her hammer down next to her, "Fearless Leader... Hey, Jaune…", she took his hand, and tugged it, a sympathetic look on her, "Hey, c'mon, we...", she looked down to the body in his hands, and then back to him, "We need to move. Need to go."

"I let her die...", Jaune muttered hopelessly, as if it would change anything, "I killed her... I let her die..."

"Don't. Don't say that", Nora put her other hand on his cheek, "Never say that", she looked down, and took the body from his arms, placing it gently on the ground, and then standing up and taking Jaune's hand with her, pulling him up to his feet, before kicking her own hammer up and catching it with her spare hand, "C'mon", she went, pulling him along down the trench, "We've gotta go. This area isn't safe."

As if to punctuate her point, a round of Grimm artillery strikes slammed into the trenches behind them, killing multiple initiates immediately. Overhead, new Grimm crafts-

2 variants, one a short, bulbous, stubby body with 2 wings on the side of it that reached all the way around in a circle to the end of the craft like scythe blades, with 2 engines at the tips of the bladed circular wings that were so close to each other, save for a small gap between them, making the ship look almost circular, evidently acting as the Grimm's fighter craft (Jaune was gonna call these one's Vetols). The other, a long, thick craft with engines on the back of it, and multiple legs on the side of it with engines in them that made it look like a floating caterpillar, gun emplacements dotting it's sides, and 2 massive tank like turrets on top of it, the underside of it looking like a pool of liquid, that would drop new Grimm every now and then onto the battlefield, looking like the Grimm's gunship type. Some of them dropped to the ground, and underwent a conversion procedure, joint popping up over it's body, and it's legs crawling around the ground, becoming a sort of caterpillar tank (he was gonna call these ones Carriers).

-Conducted a bombing run down the trench, sending multiple initiates flying.

"Fall back! Fall back now!" yelled an initiate in once pure white armour, now stained brown and red. He let out a series of blue blasts from his rifle into the Grimm crowd, hitting a few, and then grabbing a grenade from his side and throwing it into the horde, the grenade letting off a magnetic pulse that turned the nearby Grimm to ash. He then began to run with about 50 other initiates that were evacuating that side of the bunker, as it was overtaken by the Grimm.

Jaune was pulled along by Nora, away from the madness and chaos that was engulfing the breached side of the bunker. He spared one last glance at Emerald's body, before running with Nora, trying to put the trauma down and down, as he was forced to take note of the madness around him.

They were loosing. The initiates were loosing the battle. They had been cornered against a chasm deep enough to flatten them if they fell down into it, they were completely surrounded, utterly outgunned, there was no help coming, and they were being picked off one by one.

As bullets and missiles and the like whizzed past and over him, going left, right, up, down, hither, and thither, he looked around him, trying to see if there was a way- Any way!- Out of this horror, out of this situation, out of this hopeless fight, save for eating a bullet. He looked around, and saw nothing. Nothing to help them. Nothing to-

Wait, something. In the distance, the ruins. The bridges and towers that went from one side of the chasm to the other. On the opposite side of the chasm was a cliff face, sure, but there was also a cave in the cliff face. A wide cave, enough to fit them all in.

Surely, if they could get over the ruins, they'd have a chance at survival.

He was broken out of his thoughts by a cry from a familiar voice, he looked to the side, to see Pyrrha looking at him, her armour tired and dirtied, her body covered in dirt and grime. She looked him over, seeing him covered in blood, and brought him in for a tight hug, inadvertently getting blood on her as well. She quickly let go, and asked, "Oh my god, Jaune! Are you okay?! Are you-"

"I-I'm fine", he lied, ignoring Nora's frown, before asking, "How's Miltia? How's Melanie?"

"They're doing fine", Pyrrha assured, "Melanie hasn't- She hasn't left her sister's side. Not for anything", she turned to the site where the wounded were placed, "Miltia's… She's... Her aura's healing her wounds. Cauterising it", Jaune paused. Aura? What's that? "But... She's lost a lot of... She's lost a lot of blood...", Pyrrha paused, "Jaune, I don't... Miltia… I don't think she's gonna make it."

Jaune's eyes widened. No. Not her. No. He pushed past her and those around him, as he rushed to wear the wounded laid, positioned less to be healed, but more to be put to rest. He hated how they were placed. It looked too much like a graveyard of the living.

He saw Miltia on the ground, her head tilted to the side, her eyes half lidded, but her chest still lifting up and down. She was still alive. Thank the gods. Melanie sat next to her, her one hand holding her knees before her, the blades in her heels digging into her thigh skin, her other hand holding Miltia's for dear life, her gaze never once leaving her sister.

"Melanie!" he called out, to which Melanie didn't look up, but gave him a short, lazy wave with her free hand. He then looked down, to the footless woman who's hand she held, "Miltia…", he went as he got down to his knees, and took her other hand, "Hey, partner... How you holding up?"

"It... It's 'How are you holding up'...", Miltia groaned out, her voice disoriented and far away, harsh, but deep breaths coming from her, slowly weakening, "I won't... Won't be having my king... Practicing poor grammar..."

"Heheh", he didn't know where the chuckle came from, or why she called him king. Must be the shock and delirium, "Well, I'll try my best. Arc promise."

Miltia weakly giggled, "...Team JMMN..."

"Huh?"

"'Jamming'... J-M-M-N... Team JMMN... Better name than JMMP..."

"Oh", was all that Jaune could reply with.

Miltia looked up at him, her eyes seemingly a little more renewed, "...You have a plan."

"What?" Jaune asked.

"You have a plan", Miltia said, saying it more as a statement rather than a question. Melanie broke her relentless gaze from her sister, to look up at Jaune, a questioning look upon her.

Jaune did not know what she meant by it, or how she knew he had somewhat of a rough outline of a plan (Not much of one, and it was a hopeless longshot, but still, it was better than nothing), But he did not communicate it to her, "Um, it's a, er, it's a rough outline of one, but... Yeah, I sorta do."

Miltia's hand squeezed around his, her smile became softer, her face more firm, "These people, Jaune… They need you..."

"They don't need me", Jaune argued. He didn't know why Miltia was putting so much faith in him. He didn't deserve it.

"They need hope", Miltia went, "Be that hope", she looked right into his eyes, something within them burning deep within him, "Lead them, my King of Remnant."

King... Why was she... Didn't matter. Doesn't matter. He looked at her, and with a firm nod, he whispered, "Okay", he took a deep breath, and repeated, "Okay", squeezing her hand, and going, "I will", he then looked up at Melanie, and went, "Watch over her. Don't let her go."

"...Wouldn't dream of it", Melanie firmly said with a nod, and then proceeded to chew on her lower lip.

Jaune got up, letting go of Miltia's hand, and spared one last glance at her, before running back to the trenches, and calling out, "Has anyone tried to call for help?!"

"What?!" called out one initiate, a Techion in large, bulky body armour, coloured in grey and teal, with a full helmet with a white faceplate and glowing red visor, his armour covered in purple glowing patterns, and a glowing purple Techion insignia on each of his shoulders. In his left hand, he held a mace, while in his right hand, he held a large repeating rifle with glowing purple highlights all over it, the barrel letting off a purple smoke trail. On his left shoulder, just below his insignia, was the scribbled name of 'Flashback'.

"On your scrolls!" Jaune reaffirmed, pulling out his for show, "Has anyone tried to call for help on their scrolls?"

"Tried to, can't", yelled a wolf Faunus in black and red body armour, his back unshielded as to let his mane flow out, "Something's blocking the signal! I can't call the school, Vale, or anyone at all!"

"What are you talking about, Kay Nin?!" yelled another armour Faunus, this one tall and lumbering, and with 2 large tusks protruding from his mouth, "I just called Esper and Sora just fine!"

"Well where the hell are they, Faunus?!" called out a familiar voice. Cardin, if Jaune was not mistaken, "Did you tell them to send us help?! Get us out of this fucking forest?!"

"Can't, they're in the same mess as we are! They're on the other side of the bunker!"

Cardin scoffed, and looked to the side, "Typical. Leave it to a freak to mess everything up...", he muttered.

"Wanna say that again?" went the large Faunus, walking forward with large steps as he levelled his massive axe, "Start talking crap and I'll save the Grimm the trouble."

"You can't take me, freak", went Cardin.

Before either of them could kill each other, Jaune got between them, and went, "Both of you, shut up, okay? You can settle your differences once we're out of here", he turned to Cardin, "You got anything useful to say?"

"...", Cardin didn't say anything.

"No? Then step back and shut up", Jaune then turned to the Faunus in front of him, "Sorry about that", the Faunus replied with his affirmatives, and Jaune continued, "Erm, what was your name again?"

"Matera Teale, but everyone just calls me Tusks."

"Right, Tusks, you said that you could call your friends from across the bunker?" 'Tusks' replied with a yes, "But Kay Nin-", is that a pun? "-Said that he'd tried to call Vale and Beacon, but it didn't work."

"Same here", went the soldier initiate human in green camo from before, holding out his scroll while a red bullet flew by, "Tried calling Beacon, Vale and the police station, the news centre, my parents, nada. Nothing but white noise. But I can call Curia Query, Rancor Nera, and Omega Tora just fine."

"Same here", went Skipjack, as he bounced into the group, pulling his scroll out and giving it a quick twirl, before pocketing it, "Can't call anyone outside of the bunker."

"Then it must be a range thing", Jaune concluded, the group now gathering around him, "As long as we're all in this range, we can call each other, but anything beyond that is screwed."

"The Grimm've gotta have some sort of jammer up", went Ruby Rose, who'd now joined the group, "Blocking any long distance communications. I know it sounds weird, but considering the Grimm today, I wouldn't put it against them", near them, an Architect was felled by a mass of bullets and dust blasts, and immediately collapsed in on itself, it's body shining in a blue light, and it's entire body collapsing into it's eye, turning into a wormhole that absorbed it's entire body and then disappeared into a blue flash.

"So, that's it. No way to call for help, which means that no one's coming for us", Cardin went, levelling his mace on his shoulder, "Well that's another way of saying that we're all gonna die. Yay."

"Well, no, maybe not", Jaune went, "I've got an idea."

"You got a plan?" Kay asked, the rest of the group now focused on the Arc Scion.

"Well, less of a plan, more of an idea", Jaune muttered.

"Well, I doubt that anyone else has got anything better, so screw it, let's roll with it", went the forest camo solder initiate, "What's the play, bossman?"

"'Bossman'?" Jaune muttered to himself.

"First thing that came to mind."

"Ah, right", Jaune muttered, and then pointed to the ruins that stretched across the chasm, Grimm crawling over them, "See the ruins over there?" the group nodded, "On the other side of the chasm, in the cliff face, there's a cave. If the Grimm are coming out of it, that must mean-"

"That there's an exit on the other side, yeah, we figured", 'Flashback' went, "Here's the thing though, boss, we've got no way of getting over there. The Grimm'll cut us down once we leave this bunker."

"Not if we play it smart", Jaune went, "Okay, screw it, here's my analysis: We're boxed into a killing ground. We'll die if we stay here. The Grimm'll cut us down from ground and air, and help isn't coming. Not that we can see. However, thanks to Ruby crashing that Nevermore into the battleground, it's allowed a pretty big gap from the north side of the bunker to the edge of the ruins to form up, since we've been pelting the Grimm with enough rounds to keep them at bay across that side of the bunker. So, before I continue, does anyone else have any plans, or ideas, or anything?"

No one raised their hands.

"No, okay then, here's my idea: Firstly, we send the initiates with any semblances-"

He remembered Emerald saying that she had a semblance, and seeing that for the last hour, he'd seen his fellow initiates using all sorts of fancy smancy magical powers, such as Ruby's petal burst thing and Nora's lightning charge, he just assumed that he should roll with that term.

"-That increases speed in any way out, through the battlefield, from the bunker, to the ruins, cutting a path through the Grimm, and securing an entrance to the bunker. Speed will be essential here, and in every other part of the plan, I suppose. Once the fast runners are at and have secured the entrance to the bridge ruins, then we'll send out everyone else. We'll move in formation, and have our shields and tankiest initiates along the sides of the formation so that they can deflect incoming fire, and we'll carry our wounded in the middle. We'll charge through the battlefield, and we'll make it to the ruins, and we won't stop for nothing. Fast runners will have to run back and forth for stragglers. After that, once we get to the ruins, we run down them, through the gauntlet. We'll sent the hardest hitting initiates in first to clear out the Grimm, and then we'll move through and cross the ruins. It'll be tight, and there won't be a lot of cover, so again, we will not stop for anything. If we reach any gaps in the ruins, then we'll have any initiates who can fly or hover or anything that can cross gaps helping to get as many of us over. After that, we surge through, into the caves, and then... I don't know, we'll figure it out from there."

He looked around to the rest of the group around him, who'd been standing still to listen to him. They looked to one another, nervous, and jittery, unsure of what to say.

Then, it was Cardin that spoke up, "Screw that, I say we stay here and fight. We're hunkered down, and we're in a defensible position. We just need to hold out here until the Grimm either run out of things to throw at us, or they decide to cut their losses and run like the little pussies that they are!"

"Okay, whatever your name is, I'm gonna throw 'We'll be dead by the time that happens' on the very long list of reasons why that plan is stupid", Kay Nin spoke up with.

"It's Cardin", he sneered, "And watch your mouth, Faunus."

"Cardin, shut up", the forest camo soldier initiate went, "Sod it, I say we put it to a vote. All in favour of doing the exact opposite of what mister Cardiny-Boy just said", everyone else save for Cardin put up their hands, though Jaune's was more hesitant, "All opposed?" Cardin sneered, "Everyone else to 1. Gods, I love democracy."

Jaune then turned to the soldier initiate, "Thanks, er, what was..."

"Razor. Razor Azure."

"Hm", Jaune nodded, "My name's Jaune. Jaune Arc."

"Nice to meet you Jaune-Jaune Arc."

Jaune just sighed, then turned to the rest of the group, "How quickly can we move out?"

"I'd say about 5 minutes, more or less", Ruby went, clutching her Crescent Rose to her chest, "I'll grab Neon, and we'll inform everyone else with a speed semblance. We'll be able to move out in a moment's notice."

"Good, get to it Ruby", Jaune went, to which Ruby nodded and burst into a flurry of rose petals across the bunker.

"We'll inform the rest, boss", Skipjack went, "Just give us a few minutes to let the troops know, and we'll be good to go."

"Good. Spread the word. Let's get everything in place", before they all split up, he let them know that, "We've only got one shot at this, team. Let's try not to screw it up", he tried to hold himself to his own words.

As the shouts from the others in the group started to fill the air, organising everyone into groups and sections, Jaune ran back to Miltia and Melanie and the rest of the wounded, and then turned to another group.

"Hey, you guys!" he yelled to a group of initiates, "Start grabbing the wounded, we're moving out in a few minutes!" he then turned to the improv medics that had been treating and taking care of them, still intermingled with the lines of injured, "That goes for you lot as well, start prepping them to move as fast as you can!" he then turned to another group of students that'd been passing by, "You lot, I need you here! Help these guys in moving the wounded, we've got about 50 injured here!"

"Roger that!" yelled an initiate- The same white armoured initiate from before- As he directed his group to the injured, and began to help pick them up.

Jaune then turned to another group of initiates, "Hey, you guys, I need you here with these guys helping to carry the wounded, got it?" the initiates nodded, and then moved to help them out, "Have any of you got one of those weird semblance thingies that can keep these guys calm when we're moving them? Don't wanna stress them out or scare them when we're moving out by agitating an injury or something."

"I do", went a familiar voice. Ren briskly walked up to him, Nora in tow, both of them with torn clothes and dry and wet blood patches over them, but otherwise fine (Must be that fancy pants aura stuff that Pyrrha mentioned). Ren continued, "My semblance, I can block negative emotions. It calms people down, and soothes their negative emotions, and makes them invisible to Grimm."

"Oh", Jaune went, "...Awesome", he then paused again, "So, er, any chance that you can use that on everyone here? Go and use your magical powers on everyone here? Please?"

"It's not magic", Ren went, and then explained, "And no, I can't mask all of the initiates here. My aura will be drained immediately if I try to do so. I can use it on the wounded to keep them calm, as well as the people carrying them, but it'll still drain my aura quickly."

 _Oh, so aura is like a fuel source, or a battery, or whatever. Gods, I really need to read a freaking manual about all of this aura Hunter stuff_ , Jaune thought to himself, before nodding and going, "Okay then, do what you can, but don't overexert yourself", Ren nodded, and ran to the wounded, going to help the amber eyed girl from the locker rooms in helping pick Yang up (What? What happened to Yang?), Nora trailing behind him, before Jaune stopped her, and went, "Not you, Nora. You can tank shots and stuff like that, right?"

Nora nodded, hefting her hammer over her shoulder, "You're looking at the best out there!" she cheered.

"Okay, good, I need you to stay on the outside of the crowd, and dishing out as much to the Grimm as you can while we run."

"What?" Nora went, then objecting with, "But I can't leave Renny! He could get hurt without me!"

"Nora, please", Jaune went, "When we're charging forward to the ruins, I'm certain that where the wounded will be- That's the middle- Is gonna be the safest place in the crowd as we rush", immediately upon hearing this, several initiates immediately volunteered to help carry the wounded, "But, I need you and the other heavy hitters and tankers to help protect us from the Grimm and keep them off of us. You'll be protecting the wounded, Ren, and everyone else, as well as the others who will be joining you, and I've seen that you can take care of yourself, and can dish out even more than you can take", Nora seemed hesitant, and Jaune then went, "Ren'll be fine, Arc's promise."

Nora paused, then hesitantly nodded, and went, "If Renny gets so much as a scratch on him, Jaune-Jaune, then I'll be collecting on that debt", she then launched her free hand in the air and pointed a finger up, "Punishment pancakes for a year!"

Jaune patted her shoulder and chuckled, "Yeah, sure thing, Nora", he went, before going, "Are you going to be okay on the outside? The Grimm'll be throwing everything at us as we run."

"Bit too late to be worrying about that now, eh, Fearless Leader?" Nora chirped.

"Yeah, I suppose", Jaune muttered, looking away for a second, and then back to Nora, and going, "Stay safe, okay?"

"Don't you worry about me, Fearless Leader!" Nora went as she skipped to the crowd in the north, turning back to Jaune, and going, "You should be worrying about all of the pancakes that you'll be making me if Ren gets hurt in any way, shape, or form!" before bouncing away, sparing one last, "Don't go dying on me, Fearless Leader!"

As Nora skipped away, Jaune sighed, then pushed his worries out of his mind, before spotting another familiar face, and going, "Pyrrha, over here!" to which she came over, stopping next to him, and he went, "Hey, Pyrrha, when we're charging up to the ruins, I'll need you-"

"I'm sorry, but, um, what's going on?" Pyrrha asked, confusion writ on her, "I, er, I heard yelling, and then everyone started running to the north, and I just joined the crowd."

"We're making a run for the ruins over on the other side of the battlefield", Jaune explained, "From there, we'll be crossing the ruins of the chasm to the cliffside, where there's a cave that'll head into the cliffside. After that, I don't know, we'll figure it out from there, but for the most part, we'll be out of the line of fire, and safe, again, for the most part."

"Oh, of course", Pyrrha went, nodding as she said, "Alright, well, what do you want with me?"

"Okay, you're gonna be with me at the front of the crowd once the fast runners have secured the entrance to the ruins", Pyrrha raised an eyebrow, and Jaune then said, "Look, you seem to be a source of inspiration for these guys, judging by what Weiss said about you last night, and a few of the reactions from people in the ballroom as well. Is that correct?"

"Ah, yes, it is embarrassing, but people do look up to me like that as some sort of- Oh", Pyrrha paused, "Oh, so you wish for me to be up front as a source of inspiration for everyone else?"

"Yep, pretty much", Jaune shrugged, "If they see you up there, running at the front with the rest of us, then everyone else will be motivated to run as well, and not just stay here where they might think it's safest", he then rubbed the back of his head, "At least, I think, I don't know. Of course, if you don't want to go up front, then it's fine, you can stay with the wounded or go in the middle or-"

"Don't worry, Jaune, I'm up for it", Pyrrha encouraged, patting his shoulder, "I won't let you down."

Jaune smiled, "I very much doubt that you could."

Pyrrha chuckled, and then ran off, "See you at the front!" she went, with several other initiates- Fans, by the looks of it- Following after her.

"What is he doing?" he heard a harsh whisper behind him. Melanie was doing a good job of asking the same question as he was. Just what the hell was he doing?

"He's doing what any good king does, O sister mine", Miltia weakly replied, "Leading his kingdom, and his people, to victory."

"You keep calling him king", Melanie went with an annoyed tone, "He's not a king. I very much doubt he's royalty-"

"I'm not royalty", Jaune quickly piped up as he looked back to them.

"-Exactly, so why do you keep calling him that?" and wasn't that the right question? Why was she calling him king?"

Miltia didn't answer. She just called out, "Jaune", and beckoned him towards her.

"Oh, what are you-" Miltia silenced Melanie by placing her finger on her lips, whilst Jaune knelt down to her side.

"Um, yeah, what is it?" Jaune asked.

"Your aura", Miltia weakly replied with, making Jaune and Melanie both raise eyebrows.

"Um, y-yeah?" Jaune nervously asked, unsure of what to say, or how to reveal the fact that he'd never unlocked it, nor heard anything about it until the faint whispers that he had gotten from the previous few hours, "W-What about-"

She pressed her hand against his cheek, the boy blushing at the embrace, "Yours is still unlocked", she said it more like a statement then a question, like an already known fact. Melanie looked up from her sister to him, an eyebrow cocked and a look of confusion on her, but before she could say anything, Miltia pressed her fingers against her sister's lips once more, quietening her down.

"Um, well, er", Jaune tried to stammer out, "Well, you see, I, er, I never, hm, I never... Got it, er-"

Miltia giggled and then shushed him, caressing his cheek for a moment, before chanting something.

_"For it is in the darkest nights that we find the light"_

"Er, Miltia", she pressed her thumb against the corner of his lips, shushing him again.

_"Through this, we become the fairy tales that cast away the dark"_   
_"An beacon of hope to all of those in fear"_   
_"Selfless in heart, and infinite in hope"  
"With stories that will fuel generations"  
_

She looked to Melanie, and then back to Jaune.

 _"I release your soul"  
_ _"And by my hand, become legends."_

It was a strange process, to have one's aura unlocked. To have his soul laid bare for all others to see. To feel all of his wounds heal themselves almost instantly, the pained graze and cut quickly vanishing as if they were never there, the instant, almost blinding white light that shone off of his skin, that simmered into a steady glow that slightly obscured his vision. He looked to his arm, the harsh white glow coming off it, gentle white licks of what looked like fire licking off of his skin, _AH! How do I get it to stop!?_ Jaune thought in a panic.

And with that thought, his aura vanished almost instantly.

 _…Huh_ , he thought, before looking back down to Miltia, an unhealthy crimson glow coming off of her, before fading away in a flicker, like a faulty lightbulb. She coughed and groaned, making Jaune react by waving his hands and then placing them on Miltia's arm, which had let go of it's grasp on him and fallen to the ground, "M-Miltia! What's- What did you do?!"

"Mil, talk to me!" Melanie cried, before going, "Damnit, why didn't you tell us that your aura was still locked? Why didn't you say?"

"Melanie, don't", Miltia weakly chastised, before looking at Jaune, and weakly going, "Heheh, so it is true what they say about Arcs. They really do... Pack big ones..."

"Is now really the time for euphemisms?!" Jaune panicked, as he tried to pick her up, but Melanie stopped him and picked her up herself.

"Heheheh, oh come on, Mister Arc", Miltia went as she was pulled up by her sister, who slung her arm over her shoulders, and began to pull her along, "With an aura level that high, you will surely do Nicholas Arc, bless his soul, proud", she paused, before sighing out, "May he rest in peace..."

Jaune did a double take at that. How did she- How did she know about his dad? Did she... Did she know that he was dead? "Miltia, you're starting to scare me."

"You needn't be, Jaune", Miltia replied with, but before she could say anything, a distant call cut them off.

"Yo, Arc, we're ready to move out!" called out a familiar voice. Razor, if Jaune was not mistaken, "Just need your word!"

"We've got Grimm coming in behind us!" yelled out an initiate who's dress looked like it was made purely out of flower petals. All of the initiates looked to the south, to see that the Grimm had overrun the bunker behind them, and were now converging on their position, some of the Disciples and Barons scavenging the weapons and tools of the dead for their own, as either replacements or trophies.

Jaune then turned back to Miltia, and then quickly turned to Melanie, and said, "J-Just keep her safe, okay?... Just keep her safe..."

Melanie nodded, and made her way to the rest of the wounded, taking Miltia with her. Weakly, Miltia waved her free hand and went, "See you in a bit, Mister Arc."

 _I'm starting to hope that we don't_ , thought Jaune, wondering how she knew about his father, thoughts of thanking her for unlocking his aura no longer in his mind, before he remembered his task, and began to run through the crowds of students, several of who had been providing covering fire for the rest of the initiates against the Grimm.

Once he got to the front of the main crowd, seeing the fastest runners gathered at the edge of the bunker before them, facing the ruins. About 50 or so had gathered, including Neon, who was twirling around on the spot, her arms stretched out, like one of those old helicopter machines from the Great War, Ruby, who had her Crescent Rose slung over her shoulder, and was now, for some reason, wearing Yang's bracelets, Scrapster, who's wheels that once sat on his waist now replacing his shovel feet, Skipjack, who was bouncing up and down in excitement and anticipation, a squid Faunus with tentacles for arms, with 4 more protruding from his back- Jaune asked the rest of his group (Many initiates around them had begun to address their group as 'High Command') As to what his name was, to which Tusks said that it was Sora Auburn- As well as the amber eyed girl from before, now having moved away from the wounded, most likely handing Yang off to someone else, her gun/sword thingy in one hand, her weird sheath/cleaver sword thingy in the other.

Jaune then looked to the rest of his group, consisting of Flashback, Razor, Tusks -Who was now edging to the outside of the crowd, where he would be leading the heavy barricade of initiates that would be protecting the rest of them, alongside Mixer and Nora- Cardin (Reluctantly), and now Pyrrha and a blue beret wearing girl with chocolate skin, and armed with 2 blue coloured pistols- Jaune asked of her name, to hear that it was Ciel Soleil- And then back to the fast runners, and yelled, "Are you guys ready?" a chorus of yesses and confirmations followed, "Do you guys know what to do?" another chorus of yesses followed, "Good! Once you get to the entrance to the ruins, hold it as hard as you can, but if you see any stragglers, don't hesitate to help them along! No man, woman, human, Faunus, whatever! No one gets left behind! Not today! Got it?" a cheer came from the fast runners, "Right then, your good to go! Go, go go!"

"Roger that, Jaune!" yelled Ruby as she burst into rose petals and dashed away.

"Copy that", coolly said the amber eyed girl, who was the next to sprint off.

"You owe me 2 favours now, Jauney-Boy!" went Neon, who then sped off at high speeds, a rainbow trail following behind her.

C'mon, fella, you wanna live forever!" called out Skipjack as he bounced away.

"Yeah, lets get 'em!" called out Scrapster as he sped away, his wheels speeding him away.

"We're all gonna fucking die!" cried out Sora as he reluctantly ran.

Soon enough, all 50 of the fast runners had sped away, sprinting across the battlefield, charging through the Grimm before them, and dodging gunfire and explosives launched from the Grimm.

"They're gonna need help!" Jaune called out to the initiates behind him, "Give them some support, guys!"

"You heard him, Huntsmen and Huntresses!" called out Pyrrha, gathering the attention of all of the initiates around them, "Provide them covering fire! Don't let the Grimm take them down!"

And so the order was given. Any initiates that weren't already providing air cover for the massive group of initiates against the airborne Grimm, or firing at the Grimm around them to keep them off of the Grimm and intercepting missiles and bullets, then opened fire on the Grimm that were hounding the fast runners, sending dust blasts of blue, purple, and orange, missiles, acid, fire, and all range of exotic rounds into the Grimm hoards, all sorts of rounds going past and over the heads of the fast runners as they sprinted all the way through hell.

The fast runners were getting their own kills in as well. The amber eyed girl jumped from one Disciple to another, and then used a third Disciple as a springboard, landing on the head of a bear Grimm, and then used her sword and cleaver as scissors that cut the bear Grimm's head off, before kicking it into the head of a Priest, knocking it over into a Baron.

Neon had pulled out her blue glowstick like nunchakus, and, on her rollerblades, she spun herself around to become like that of a saw, smashing her nunchaku into any Grimm around her, the impact creating a large shard of ice upon impact that killed the Grimm instantly.

Skipjack grabbed 2 wolf Grimm by their necks, and threw them up into the air, allowing Scrapster to fire off a large purple blast from the circle on his chest into the 2 Grimm, as well as any airborne Grimm behind them and within the path of the laser.

Sora let off several rounds of electricity, like bullet or laser rounds, into the hordes of Grimm, wounding a few and killing others. Wasn't as flashy as the others, but if it worked, it worked.

Ruby twirled her Crescent Rose around, killing a boar Grimm and 3 wolf Grimm, and then digging the blade of it into the ground, firing it off and letting the recoil dig up a 6 foot long worm Grimm, catching it on her blade, then severing it in 2, and stepping on the 2 wriggling ends, sending acidic blood splattering over the floor, and melting the bottom of her shoes. Then, stepping before her, the Beloved Soul- The white eyed Priest Grimm with blue robes and white boils covering them- Caught her Crescent Rose in it's bare hand, and crushed it, the blade going through it's hand, the giant cut in it leaking out a harsh glowing white substance. Ruby faltered at the sight of her weapon being crushed in Beloved's hand, and then looked like she wanted to throw up at the sight of the glowing white blood, but then composed herself, and then pulled back what was left of her weapon from Beloved's grasp, now just a useless stick, and then slung it over her back, the bracelets on her wrists transforming and shifting into gauntlets, and from it, they let out several shotgun rounds that impacted with the thick wooden armour on Beloved's chest. Beloved responded by letting out a blue chain of lightning from the crystal on it's spear, which Ruby dodged by cartwheeling to the side, and then bursting into rose petals and sprinting away, dodging a white blast of light which erupted from the Beloved Soul's eye, which then hit a nearby initiate, burning his clothing, melting his skin, organs, and flesh into a puddle, and then solidifying his skeleton, leaving it as a gothic statue.

Soon, in the heat of battle, one of the fast runners reached the entrance to the bridge ruins, waving to the other initiates, and then to the group back in the bunker.

Ciel, with a pair of binoculars in hand, turned to Jaune, and said, "The first runner's made it to the ruins entrance, and the rest are still making their way there as well. So far, looks like casualties are at... 14%", she paused, "That's 7 down, sir."

"Damnit", Jaune muttered to himself, promising to himself that he'd find out the names of those that'd fallen this day, before going, "Alright then, we'll wait for them to send the all clear, and-"

The ground began to rumble, and a cracking sound came from behind them. The initiates dared not look behind them, but look behind them they did, to see the ground in the bunker splitting apart, and then a big black and white object burst from the ground, sending any Grimm around it flying, impacting with the ground and falling into the chasm. A massive monster erupted from the ground, covered in spiked white plating and painted with glowing red patterns. It looked down to them, to reveal a round maw spiked with 4 hooked teeth, 4 sharp talons protruding from its sides, and a wide red eye in the middle of its maw, glaring down at them, angry, and hungry.

"What...", Jaune muttered, "Wha… What the hell?..."

"Blind worm", Pyrrha quietly whispered.

"What?"

"BLIND WORM!"

The worm Grimm- a Blind Worm- Roared, and surged down.

"J-J-JUST RUN!" Jaune yelled, "RUN NOW! RUN!"

And so they did.

* * *

A scowl on his face was all Mercury Black needed to explain how he felt about the situation right now.

"J-J-JUST RUN!" that whiny blond kid had yelled, "RUN NOW! RUN!" don't need to yell it right into his ear.

And yet, everyone did as they were told, most likely because it was the most obvious plan of action ever. He had to push past about 6 people just to get to the front of the crowd as they ran, the Blind Worm behind them ramming and digging into the ground, tearing apart the floor as it went, swallowing several initiates whole, and pushing several others into the chasm, sending them falling into the abyss, save for one, who was a winged Faunus, who just flew out, carrying 2 other initiates with him as he flew up back to the rest of the crowd.

 _Oh well, sucks to be the rest of them_ , Mercury thought as he smirked and sprinted, using his robotic shotgun implements in his legs as boosters as he ran, _Better them than me, I suppo-_

A shot from one of those damned Grimm people things hit him in the chest. His aura took the brunt of the blow, shattering the bullet as it impacted with it (Thanks the gods that aura was basically a forcefield), But it was enough of a blow to knock him onto his back, leaving him to be trampled by over a hundred of the other morons who were running like cattle.

"AUGH- STOP IT!" he yelled out, before another asshole stomped on his head, "AH YOU ASSHOLE!" he screamed out as he got up, _Gods, this is humiliating_ , he thought, before deciding to get a little payback on the last initiate that had trampled him, running up right behind the guy, and then sending an explosive round assisted kick to his head. Instead of splattering like he'd hoped it'd do, the initiate instead went flying into a pack of Ascendant Beowolves, who then torn him to bloody pieces as he screamed. Mercury looked at the sight, then shrugged, Ah well, better than nothing, smirking at the sight before running off.

In all honesty, he didn't really care about any of the initiates around him. They very well amounted to at least half decent fodder for the Grimm, he supposed, though he figured that that was at least an exaggeration. Truth be told, he didn't really care much about anything. As long as he was still alive and kicking, and doing what he loved best (Which was killing people, in case you couldn't tell), Then he couldn't really give a flying fuck about anyone else. They could die by all counts, and the only way that one'd get him to care was fi he'd been the one to kill him, and if he'd gotten anything on his boot.

Ugh, he hated his past self for thinking of this idea, _'Come to Beacon'_ , he'd said, _'It'd be great fun. You'll learn how to kill people in more fun and creative ways'_ , he'd said. Ugh. Double ugh. The only reason he'd enrolled for that stupid school was because he'd figured that it'd help him find better way to kill people. He couldn't give a flog about teams, or having to socialise with people, or any of that crap. Just get in there, learn some stuff, drop out if things get a bit dicey, if you get to graduation, graduate, probably go eat a celebration burger or something, and then go become an assassin or a hitman or whatever and go kill people. Simple plan, superb plan in his head, and yet here he was, running for his life against a giant worm the size of 6 Goliaths, and a horde of Grimm new and old on his ass. Well, as they say, hindsight is 20/20 after all.

'Hindsight is 20/20'? What's that even mean?

Augh, he turned down a contract with the House of the White Wolves for this? Great job Mercury, one hell of a genius, you are.

Then again, maybe all of this was just another test by that old creepy guy in charge of the school. Ozzy or something? Whatever. Didn't care about the name. Yeah, maybe all of this was jut some test by that old guy. Weeding out the herd, and all that. Well, for his information, he was fine with tons of people getting thrown into a death pit and killed in the most violent and visceral ways possible (Now that's a TV show he'd watch), But not when he was in it!

Ugh, his dad (Bastard of a man that he was. Oh, how he'd relished killing him) Was at least right about one thing: Hunters schools were a load of bullshit.

And so were all schools, from what he'd been able to figure out. His dad was really into home schooling.

His dad was also really into stealing his aura- And his legs. And replacing them with robotic ones- And also beating him half to death everyday with a beer bottle or a knife, but eh, that was just details.

"Oi, hurry up!" called out a female initiate dressed in armour made from scales, and with a blue glow coming from her throat, "No man left behind, and all that!"

Mercury snarled- Her voice was annoying- And ran up to her, the both of sprinting side by side now as they ran for their lives, the Blind Worm behind them tearing up the ground and anything, Grimm or initiate, mostly Grimm, in it's path. There was something to admire about that, honestly, but for right now, Mercury chose to ignore it.

"Esper Fyre", said the scaled girl.

"Huh?"

"My name's Esper Fyre", she looked to him, "Yours?"

Mercury smirked, "Don't wanna say."

"Ah, so hush hush. I get you", she said as they both vaulted over an Ursa Major and slid under a Dromedon, "Look, the ruins!" she yelled as they both saw the ruins getting closer and closer, the first members of the army of initiates reaching the entrance to it and beginning the crossing over, shooting and stabbing at the Weavers- Giant Spider Grimm, in case anyone was unaware- And cape wearing Grimm people that occupied it.

"Hah, almost there", Mercury went, as he grabbed and twisted the neck of an Alpha Beowolf while cartwheeling (Hunters have gotta have that flash, eh?), And slammed his mechanical foot against the neck of a Grimm person, an explosive round turning the neck into mush.

"Yep, and once we're over, and into the cave, we'll be home free!" Esper yelled as she continued to sprint, the 2 of them now some of the last in the field as the rest of the initiates continued to gather and cross over the bridge ruins, the ruins themselves now the targets of the Grimm as they realised their plan, "Better hurry, they're getting hit hard!"

"Hah, yeah", he had experience, trust him. He then heard a chorus of growls, and looked behind him to see a large pack of Beowolves chasing after them. The same Beowolves that he'd fed that other initiate to. Aw, c'mon, they're still hungry after that? Do Grimm even eat? Questions for later, "You see the pack behind us?" he called out.

"Yeah, I do", she went, "But we've got a good amount of distance between them and us!" they reached the entrance to the bridge ruins, the Beowolves' and other Grimm's calls of anger and hatred behind them, and closing in, "We just need to outrun them, and we'll be in the clear!"

"Heh", Mercury chuckled as they crossed the entrance onto the bridge over the chasm. He knew a way to buy him a few seconds, "Well, you know how the saying goes. I don't need to outrun them-"

Esper looked down to his legs and let out a hot, massive breath of blue flames from her mouth. The heat burnt away his clothes, and began to twist the metal that was his legs.

Mercury let out a cry as he fell to the ground, the fire burning at his legs, and melting his skin, his metal legs twisting and bending, the heat melting the bolts together. He'd run out of most of his aura when he was being trampled- Being run over by over a hundred people would do that to you- And it'd been slowly recharging, but that blast had reduced it to zero, and left him severely weakened.

"I just need to outrun you, idiot", Esper growled as she looked down at him, before grabbing him by his shirt collar, and lifting him up, "I saw you kill that initiate, you know. I saw you murder him."

"Technically, the Grimm killed him", Mercury blurted out.

"Eh, details, details", Esper shrugged, and then smiled a devilish smile, "You know, when you killed him, you forgot the most crucial rule", she looked behind her, to see if anyone was watching. None were. She looked back to him, "Don't leave room for witnesses."

He then felt her move, positioning herself for a throw, "Hey, wait, what are you doing?!"

"Don't worry, your sacrifice in buying us just a few more seconds more to survive will be remembered", Esper chuckled darkly, "I'll make sure of it."

Mercury tried to punch her. Tried to kick her. But, it didn't matter. She threw him into the horde of Beowolves that'd just arrived at the entrance to the bridge ruins before running off herself, and let them tear him, by tooth and claw, from chunk to bloody chunk, until all that was left was a bloody mess of organs and burnt metal legs.

Esper was indeed right. Mercury's 'Sacrifice' had given them another 10 to 20 seconds, enough to get more than 50 initiates over the ruins. When asked what happened to Mercury, Esper would pontificate about his bravery and heroic sacrifice.

* * *

"C"mon, move it people!" Jaune called out from the opposite entrance of the bridge ruins, hurrying along everyone that made it over, as well as the rest of his group, who'd been the first to cross over, and were now hurrying people along as they crossed over the exit of the bridge ruins and over the small plain that lead to the cave in the cliffside. The first few people that had gone into the caves had been held up by the Grimm that'd been coming out of it, but soon enough they'd been able to barge through the Grimm and into the caves, allowing the rest to follow them in.

He clapped people along on the shoulder as they passed. First the trumpet guy, and Sora, then Weiss (Who looked at him as if he'd committed a great sin, which, in all fairness, he had done by coming here and leading these people to possibly certain death), Then Mixer, then Kay Nin, then a guy with a top hat, steampunk wear, and a mechanical bird that turned into a hammer (Skipjack had decided to nickname him 'Steam', and his mechanical bird 'Hammer'. 'Steam' seemed to like it), Then Yang and the mohawk guy from earlier who was carrying her, then Cardin.

He looked back to the bridge, to see that the Blind Worm from before was now worming its way around and through the bridge, destroying it, as well as the ruins around it. It launched a spit of acid into the pillars that held their bridge up, the force of the blast knocking over some of the pillars and melting the others. The bridge began to collapse, and part of it gave way, with multiple initiates- The last ones- Still on there. But then, the amber eyed girl with the bow, as well as several other initiates, either Faunus with wings or humans with flight semblances, leaped down to grab them, the amber eyed girl using a string or ribbon or whatever from her weapon to grab one of the falling initiates, and when she was launched by the momentum into the air, dropping the initiate onto the stable part of the bridge, she then, whilst still in mid air, wrapped her ribbon and weapon around another initiate, and when she'd landed on a good part of the bridge, she used all of her strength to swing him up onto the bridge. Meanwhile, Pyrrha used some weird telekinesis magic semblance to grab hold of as many initiates as possible, and then throw them onto the plain leading up to the cliff, while the rest of the flying initiates grabbed the rest that she couldn't get, and brought them back onto the plain as well.

"Outstanding work from everyone, truly!" Jaune yelled to the group on the plains, before going, "Really guys, that was amazing! Now move, into the cave people! Go go go!" and with that, they ran off, and he turned to the rest of his group, now consisting of Razor, Ciel, Flashback, and Tusks, "You guys get in the caves as well! I'll meet you in there once the last people've gotten in. Once we"re all in, we'll collapse the cave. Should buy us a few extra seconds."

"You sure you wanna be out here on your own?" Razor asked, concern in him, though Jaune wasn't sure wherever it was genuine or not.

"It's okay, I'll be fine", Jaune reassured, and then went, "Now move!"

And with that, they left and went into the caves, with Jaune as the only one of the leadership group still outside clapping the last few people in. Nora, then Ren, then Neon, then Scrapster, then Ruby, then one of the medics called Lavendar, then Esper, and finally, Melanie came trudging through the exit of the bridge ruins, Miltia still slung over her as she marched across.

Behind them, the Blind Worm had almost enraptured the entire bridge, sending it's remains tumbling into the abyss below. On the other side of the chasm, the end of the Blind Worm had dug into the side of the chasm, and Grimm had started to climb onto the body, taking the hooks and shards of bone that jutted off of the Worm's armoured plating as rungs.

Jaune quickly ran up to them, slinging Miltia's other arm over his shoulder, and wriggled his hand under her other shoulder, while Melanie had done the same, sprinting across the plain toward the cave.

A shockwave stopped their progress, knocking them to the ground. As they wobbled and stumbled back onto their feet, they looked behind them, to see that the Blind Worm had now consumed all of the bridge, and had dug it's head into the edge of the plain. On the other side of the chasm, the Grimm began to run and cross over it. They were using the Blind Worm as a bridge. The Brothers Grimm and the rest of their Ascendant Court was leading them, and the rest of the Grimm that was crossing the Blind Worm to the other side were entirely made up of Architects and Royal Disciples. Like a royal, or a personal guard. Or a private army, in this case.

"Don't stop", Jaune muttered as he and Melanie got up, grabbing the weak Miltia by her arms and simply just dragging her along now, "Don't stop for-"

A purple blast interrupted them, sending all 3 of them flying. Then a blue blast. Then a red. Then an orange.

Then another blast.

Then another.

Then another and another and another.

The plains had become a shooting ground, a rainbow of fire and violence. Fire etched and licked at the grass and trees, smoke chocking the air, soot smothering them and painting them grey.

Jaune didn't know how he was still alive. He didn't know how Melanie was still alive. He didn't know where Miltia was. He didn't know why the Grimm had stopped shooting. He didn't know why his and Melanie's bodies were glowing white and cyan respectively. He didn't know why Flashback's corpse was sitting right next to him, mechanical oil dripping down and out of the giant hole in his chest and head, his brain, lungs, and heart- The only organic parts of his body left, it seemed, the rest steel, wires, and tubes- Spilling out and dangling around, dripping red blood and black oil, the lights on his body going out cold.

Jaune stopped himself from vomiting, and tried to see through the smoke around him. The only way that he could see Melanie's outline through the rainbow of smoke was because of the cyan glow coming from her. Everything else was chocking. Mixtures of red and blue and grey and orange and black and purple wormed and mixed into his eyes. He tried to blink it away, but it only mixed with his tears, and made his eyes sore, obscuring his vision.

He felt 2 hands grab him. He jerked and thrashed in panic, before a panicked voice called out, "Calm down, you idiot! It's me!" Mixer. Oh thank god, "That Nora girl's grabbing that Melanie chick", he went as he felt the light that was able to shine through the smoke dim, and his voice become more echoed. They were in the cave, "We're about to collapse the cave entrance-"

"Wait, where's Miltia?" he interrupted as he wriggled his way out of Mixer's grasp, seeing Melanie being dropped off next to him, his vision becoming less and less obscure as the tears washed the soot and dirt away. At the cave entrance, Sora and Cardin stood guard, the ginger jock giving the Faunus looks of distain.

"The other one?" Cardin went, mace over shoulder, "Dead, probabl-"

"Shut up", Melanie snarled as she tried to get up, clothing more singed then before, "Whoever you are, shut up. She's not dead. I'll-"

"Oh, be realistic", Cardin snapped, "You saw that volley. You're lucky that your aura was able to absorb the blasts, but that lady didn't have any aura left! Plus, she was missing a foot for gods sake! How the hell would she have-"

A cry of pain interrupted the jock, proving him wrong. Through the dissipating smoke, they could see a moving body, wriggling on the floor. Miltia Malachite. Or what was left of her. Her clothes had been burnt off, leaving her naked, her skin boiling and bubbling, her wounds cauterising in the heat, licks of flame on what was left of her hair and clothes the rest of her hair having been burnt off, as well as a few of her fingers, eyelids, and parts of her lips. Parts of her skeleton were visible, blood pouring down on her, marking her as some kind of angel of death. She stumbled onto her only foot, her other foot now just a cauterised stump, leaving her leaning heavily to the right.

Behind her, the first of the Grimm were so close to crossing the chasm.

"Miltia!" Jaune called out, rushing to the entrance, Cardin grabbing his arm and stopping him from getting out, "What are you- Get off of me!"

"We have to go, now!" Cardin yelled back.

Let go of me!"

"If we stay here any longer we'll all-"

"Milita!" Jaune called out again, "Get in here, now!"

Miltia looked over, with eyes that, somehow, were now as clear as anything, and filled with knowing, and acceptance. She was accepting the fact that she was going to die, "When I was younger, Mister Arc, I was touched by knowledge."

"Miltia what the hell are you- Get off me!" Melanie cried out as 2 other initiates- 2 boys, one of them the same boy with the mohawk from before, and the other a boy with light brown hair combed left and tan coloured armour- Grabbed onto her arms and held her back.

Cardin let go of Jaune, but then immediately slammed his foot against the back of his knee, sending him down and keeping him there, pressing his foot against the back of his leg. Nora tried to say something, but Cardin silenced her by swiping her grenade launcher from her and beginning to fiddle with it.

"I saw the nothing and everything, a library of wisdom, composed and written from pure knowledge and intelligence, and it showed me all that is", Miltia's voice was no longer weak. It was as clear as day, and sounded like it was booming across not just the plains, or the Emerald Forests, but the whole world, "It showed me the truth of everything. Of what was has happened, what will happen. And, it showed me what can be unhappened. It showed me Ozma, and Salem, and the Cataclysm, and all that will and may come soon. But most of all", she smiled, "It showed me you, my king. It showed me you, your ancestors, your journey, all that you are, and all that you can be."

Cardin got Nora's launcher to shift into it's hammer, and held it in one hand, and his mace in the other. Sora shifted all 6 of his appendages, electricity crackling off of them.

Behind them, the Brothers Grimm jumped off of the Blind Worm, and touched the plains.

"When the chains of fate and destiny try to wrap around you, pull you away into the darkest corners of the universe and tie you down to the tides of destiny", she stopped, looked right into his eyes, and smiled once more, "Show them your strength, chainbreaker, and rip them asunder", she turned around, sparing one last glance at her partner, before saying, "I hope that I will see you again, my king of kings. Perhaps together, we can stop the darkness to come", and she looked forward, to see the Grimm encroaching on her.

She opened her arms and accepted her death.

"Wait! MILTIA WAIT!" Jaune called out. Please, to many people had died today. Not her too.

Besides him, Melanie had stopped struggling, and was now looking into the ruined plains, at her equally ruined sister, eyes wide, and tears streaking down her.

"Collapse the tunnel!" Cardin yelled to Sora, who charged his appendages, and fired at the cave entrance, at it's ceiling and walls.

Outside, the Brother of Light impaled Miltia with it's bone blade, almost cleaving the girl in twain. Blood splattered over the grounds, and the girl let out one last splutter before the light left her eyes, and she went limp.

"NO!" Jaune cried over and over again and Cardin through him back, before slamming his mace and hammer into the walls and ceiling, rocks and boulders coming down, ceiling the entrance, and blocking out the sun.

The last that Jaune saw of Miltia, was of her corpse being taken apart into chunks of burnt, bloody flesh and bones by the Brothers Grimm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are. The first part of the first Arc, The Long Day. Let's hope all of our heroes can see it through till the end.
> 
> Before we end this, I want to first talk about something. Namely, my inspiration, and how they have affected and impacted this story.
> 
> Now, see, I have had a lot of inspirations for my story, and when each arc or specific chapter ends with any specific inspiration in it, I'll be sure to let you know in the author's notes. However, I am pointing these out, because there are a lot of inspirations in my work, or well, a specific set of places where I have drawn lots of inspirations from, and I wish to point this out, because I don't want to be accused of plagiarism, and to point out the different sources that I have used and taken inspiration from.
> 
> Firstly, for the Grimm, or more specifically, all of the new breeds that I have introduced into my story have been influenced and inspired by the enemies of Destiny 1 and 2, or more specifically, the Taken, Hive, and Scorn, which one would be able to tell the influences if they looked hard enough. I was also inspired by different elements of the Vex from both Destiny 1 and 2 when making Curia Query, so I feel that I should point this out.
> 
> (Well, actually, that's not entirely true. The new breed of Grimm war droid that I've called the Puma was influenced by the Bloodhound robot from the Surge, so that's a thing.)
> 
> Another major inspiration for the characters was Transformers. More specifically, the Techions were inspired by the Transformers themselves, which is obvious by their designs and names, such as Flashback, Skipjack, Sprapster, and Mixer. The other characters that were inspired by Transformers characters were Tusks (Who was inspired by Tuskmaster), Sora (Claw Jaw), Kay Nin (K-9), and Steam and Hammer (Steam Hammer).
> 
> Another major inspiration was the Star Wars the Clone Wars cartoon. One of the initiates that I mentioned, in my mind, is based on the phase 2 clone trooper. Also, Call of Duty, specifically Modern and Advanced Warfare, had inspired me to make the juggernaut initiates that had featured in this chapter and the 2nd as well. Specifically, the futuristic juggernaut initiate is from Advanced, and the more modern juggernaut initiate from Modern.
> 
> Both Transformers and Star Wars the Clone Wars have served as massive story inspirations as well. It was the Transformers IDW run which has inspired me to make this story itself, and over the course of this story, you'll be seeing story elements of Beast Wars Uprising, IDW, Clone Wars, Destiny, Call of Duty, and so and so, and when it comes to it, I'll be sure to point them out when that story bit is over and concluded. In fact, much of my dialogue cues, and even just my dialogue in general was inspired by James Robert's work on the Transformers comics in IDW (As well as the comic Giant Days, BTW).
> 
> (Fun fact: Late into the production of this chapter, I actually thought about introducing the concept of the Purgemen, which would basically be an expy of the D.J.D (Decepticon Justice Division) From James Robert's run of Transformers comics, in which they would track down Hunters that have gone bad or rogue, or in general have strayed away from the path of protecting humanity, and brutally murder them in the most violent and spectacularly over the top fashion. However, I decided to cut the concept out, as that would've been way too on the nose and a complete ripoff, and I just plain didn't like it in this story. I might add in the concept into a different story, maybe, but for this story, I just didn't like it.)
> 
> The reason that I point this all out, and make an author's note this sized about it, are because of 2 things:
> 
> To avoid accusations of plagiarism, and to give proper acknowledgement to the proper sources.
> 
> I do this because then, if I give proper acknowledgement to the different sources that I have used, and show them that I have just been using the plots and ideas in the stories and plots that their creators have weaved as just inspiration, and also it shows the proper creators the respect that they deserve for making those stories, and allowing others to find their work, and watch, read, or play it for themselves, so that they may experience the same emotions that I, and many others, have felt when taking in their works, both good and bad. But mostly good.
> 
> Anyways, I just wanted to get all of that out of the way. Sorry if this AN is a bit long winded, I just wanted to get all of that out of the way with, and I'll be sure to give the creators and created pieces that have inspired me to make this the proper credit that they deserve.
> 
> But anyways, that's all from me. And with that, I'll see you next time.
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	5. The Long Day part 2: March of the 600

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the Ascendant Court tightening their grip over the Emerald Forest, it's now up to the armies of Vale to break through and rescue the Initiates below.
> 
> Unless the Initiates can escape first.
> 
> However, as all of these plans move into place, the true objective of the Ascendant Court come to light...

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Arc theme:**[ _Last Stand from the Destiny: The Taken King Soundtrack_ ** _  
_**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntdQR50il8o) **Theme:**[ _Inside Autobot City ~ Silverbolt's Predicament from the Transformers: Fall of Cybertron soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct3ZddDEn3A)

* * *

Today was the worst day of my life.

**_Journal extract from Hei Xiong ('Junior')_ **

* * *

Above and around Beacon, the Hunters were mobilising.

Second years, third, fourth, qualified, didn't matter. Anyone who could pick up a gun, or sword, a combo-weapon of the 2, whatever, were being packed into Bullheads, Airships, and Airbuses, and sent off to above the uniform buildings of Vale. Hunters from across the kingdom of Vale, and from across the entire continent of Sanus stretching all the way to Vacuo, were being called back to Vale, so that they may gather up with the rest of the Huntsmen and Huntresses in Vale that had gathered above the city, and combat the Grimm that were at their door. However, the chances of those Hunters coming back in time to fight the monsters that threaten them was extremely low. The battle would most likely be full on or over when they arrived. Who would win such a battle, well, wasn't that the question?

Still though, above Vale, in the Bullheads and airships and airbuses, it was still one of the largest gatherings of Hunters in Remnant's history since the beginning of the Hunters' system back at the end of the Great War, when armies were largely abolished, roughly 2000 already. Such a gathering would be largely considered impossible by modern and general consensus, due to the independent nature of Hunters.

Hunters were largely independent creatures of war, acting by their own accord once they got their Hunters' licenses, meaning that once they were officially recognised as Hunters, they could effectively do whatever they wished, and as one man armies themselves, there was little that anyone could do to stop them, also meaning that people had to rely on their natural good will and sense of altruism to defend them against the Grimm. For a price, of course. It was a hopelessly naïve system that, at the time of it's creation, seemed like such a good idea at the time, the concept of the Hunters being hopelessly romanticised as true to life demigods and superhumans that would protect them from the hordes of darkness that stood at their doorsteps. Yet now, with the rise of Semblism (Discrimination based on one's semblance) and aura-elitism (Discrimination and persecution of those without aura by Hunters and anyone like them), As well as the rise of Hunters acting as warlords and tyrants over settlements in the Grimmlands (The authorities of the kingdoms were careful to make sure that that little titbit of information never made it to the news), And now, the growingly popular view of the life of a Hunter as one of privilege and easy fame through little action, and simply raw power and intimidation (A view which, unfortunately, wasn't that untrue), It seemed like the Hunters' system was now falling apart at the seems.

The evidence was present with a lot of their interactions with the volunteer civilian militia and official Valerian military and police forces, few as there were individually, who'd now joined up with them, making the total of armed combatants ready to move out to fight the Grimm around, ooh, maybe around 30 to 40,000. While these 3 groups were now key parts of the taskforce that had now, and was still, being assembled above Vale, arming and weaponizing the airships and airbuses with whatever turrets or missiles or the like they could muster, as well as the very few proper military and police airships and Bullheads that Vale had, plus the fact that they were mostly auraless individuals who were putting their lives on the line to defend their kingdom and bring their children home, there were still a large group of Hunters who were vexing and antagonising these groups with little consequence. While the rest of the Hunters were working with and in tandem with the rest of the taskforce (Albeit reluctantly for a good majority of them), The other Hunters were openly defying and arguing against military leaders and members, brushing them aside and doing whatever and positioning themselves wherever they wished, lording themselves over brave people they viewed as their lessers, shoving them around without fear for consequences, and bullying them for their lack of aura or semblance.

Hunters were prideful people, this was true, but this was all just a poor display of tact or professionalism by those Hunters. It didn't help that a lot of Hunter teams tended to go tribal and relied solely on themselves, in which their influences would then spread to the rest of the group, meaning that when one was discriminatory towards others, or were extremely egotistical, they had a tendency to spread that same pride to the rest of their team.

This was going to create problems in the future, that much was clear. No doubt that once the battle was over (And hopefully won), Those soldiers would write their reports, and go home, and in both cases, they would complain about the Hunters and their pride and egos, and the like, and those words and reports would reach the ears of the council, who would start pushing down heavily on the Hunters and Beacon, and if so, then they may have the foundations to build a case against Ozpin to have him removed from his position on the council and also from his job as Headmaster of Beacon (He knew for a fact that Morado Nikos was beginning to get chummy with the Valerian Council, no doubt because his daughter was trying out for Beacon, and he'd obviously begin pulling strings to get her either removed from the school to go attend Haven where he could keep a closer eye on her, or to keep her in so that he could start amassing more fame and power for himself, his family, and their name).

But, that was for another day. Today was come, and battle was to be joined.

Soon, after maybe an hour or so, the fleet of airships, numbering now in the hundreds, (Though most of them were small craft like lightly armoured and armed cargo haulers and transports piloted or on loan from volunteers), moved out, the patterns and ship assignments now having been filled out, sent out, and memorised. From just over the houses and buildings and train rails of Vale, to above its walls, to high in the sky the fleet moved, going against the sun like a flock of birds.

Near the backburner of the fleet, adjacent to a repurposed cargo hauler, a Bullhead flew. Piloted by Professors Ann Greene and Harold Mulbery, inside the sealed off hold of the Bullhead, where they couldn't hear, the 2 most important minds in Beacon, Headmaster Ozpin and Professor Glynda Goodwitch were on conference call with General James Ironwood of the Atlesian Military, and also Headmaster of Atlas Academy, who was now about to report on the situation in Atlas.

{THUD} went the sound at the hull of the Bullhead. Before anyone could panic (Not that they were going to. Obviously), A curt "Ow", could be heard, before Goodwitch sighed and used her semblance to open the door to the hull. Before the air pressure could suck them out, a crow quickly flew in, allowing Goodwitch to quickly close the door again. In a puff of smoke, the crow transformed into the ironically named Qrow, who just sat against the wall of the Bullhead, out of breath, and with a deep red gash going down his face, which he quickly placed a hand over, and groaned, "Ah, gods, that hurts", before taking a swing from his beer can.

"Qrow, you're okay", Ozpin said, relieved.

"Barely", Qrow replied, "One of those creeps almost took my eye out. Was almost skewered on a quill. They ain't letting anything through there. Not even birds, unfortunately."

"But you're okay. That's all that matters."

"Hardly all", Goodwitch muttered under her breath, looking back to her scroll to view the last few reports and camera feeds from the camera network in the Emerald Forest before it went down.

Ironwood, his blue holographic depiction lighting up the hull, skipped the pleasantries with, _"How many?"_

"Hm?" went Qrow.

_"How many Grimm are in the Emerald Forest?"_

Qrow sighed, "You know, it's really great to know that you care so much about me, Jimmy. Really know how to make a guy feel appreciated."

 _"Qrow, we both know for a fact that you'd've survived all of that despite anything. We've known each other long enough for me to figure out that the only thing that'll kill you in the future is alcohol poisoning and no that was not a compliment. Merely a statement of facts"_ , Ironwood said as he sighed, muttered his apologies for his harsh tone, and then said, _"Now, how many Grimm are there down there?"_

Qrow muttered something, a harsh swear probably, as he nursed the gash on his face, and then, standing up, he matter-of-factly said, "Honestly Jimmy, I lost count at 'There are way too many to count'", he paused, most likely for dramatic affect, before going, "The Grimm have completely locked down the airspace around the Emerald Forest. There's a giant dome of flying Grimm that're shielding the forest, and they're killing anything that tries to get in. The birds, the bugs, everything", he pointed to his gashed face, "If you couldn't tell."

"What about the initiates?" Goodwitch asked, eager to get the conversation moving to the most important topic.

"Under 3/4s of them are dead", Qrow bluntly said. Goodwitch visibly recoiled from the thought of children (Ones who would've been under her care) Dying in the masses. Qrow noticed this, and sighed, "That wasn't- That wasn't meant to count callous. I just-", he caught himself, "Sorry", he paused again, "But over half of the kids down there are gone. Under 1400, I'd say. The rest've gone into a cave, which is probably connected to a cave system or something, and are, well, I-I don't know. I don't know what they're doing now, but hey, my nieces are with them and aren't dead, so, you know, 2 points to us."

"Don't. Even think. About making light of this, Qrow Branwen", Goodwitch growled out at him as she scowled, "Don't even think about joking about the deaths of children, because we both know that in a straight fight, I can dismantle you piece by piece, semblance be damned."

"Glynda", Ozpin firmly said, and Glynda backed down upon hearing him, though her frown didn't fade.

Qrow then looked to her, "Sorry."

"No you're not. And neither am I."

"Glynda", Ozpin was more firm this time, and the both of them stepped down. He could tell that there was still bitterness in the air, though. Ozpin looked back to Qrow, "What about the Grimm types? The new ones?"

"The soldiers?" Qrow muttered out, "Couldn't get a good look at them, but it was good enough. They've got soldier Grimm down, as well as captains, and weird priest looking fuckers, giant knights in white and blue, 2 of them in different colours, dog Grimm. In the air, they've got fighter Grimm, and weird flying Grimm that turn into caterpillar tanks", he looked to Ozpin with a grave look on him, "Oz, these Grimm... The dumb ones, the animal like ones, we've got strains from all over the planet, Sphinxes, Blind Worms, Dromedons, the like, and they're being thrown at their enemies and any obstacles as cannon fodder, but the new ones... They're organised. These new types are militaristic. They're armed to the teeth, and they're moving in formation, in squads, and companies and the like. They've got ranks, tactics, and a command structure. These Grimm aren't a horde. They're an army. And they've got the firepower to back it up."

 _"Damnit"_ , Ironwood muttered, before going, _"How did we miss this? How did we miss the largest congregation of Grimm ever seen since the Cataclysm in the Great War?"_

"Salem", Goodwitch went, "This has to be her. What else could it be?"

"I'm not sure", Ozpin went, "Salem hasn't had this level of control over the Grimm since the Cataclysm, and even if she was able to exert so much control over the Grimm that has been evidenced down there, why with all of the breeds from around the world, and why the new Grimm as well?"

 _"Perhaps the new breeds are Salem's way of saying that she's done playing around. That's she's ready to make her final moves"_ , Ironwood theorised, _"Previously, her Grimm breeds were made in the eyes of humanitiy's fears. Rabid animals, unstoppable, unthinking, and uncaring, and she used this to pick us apart slowly and surely. This could be a change in strategy. If Salem's abandoning the animal forms for the Grimm, and changing them into more militaristic forms, changing them into an army, then it could mean that she's had enough with toying with us, and is making her final moves to get the relics as of now."_

It was a disheartening though, and even more so with the casualties that have already been inflicted on them. Not even Ozpin had anything to say to lighten the mood, shaking the contents of the cup in his hand before taking a quiet sip.

It was Goodwitch that spoke next, "Then why bring all of these different breeds together?" she asked, "Is there really any point in it, or is it all just one last bravado for the old Grimm? A nostalgic last conquest, or whatever is going on in that witch's mind, and yes, I am aware of the joke."

Ozpin flinched only for a second at Goodwitch's outburst, but then came out with, "I don't know. This attack doesn't make sense. Why the Emerald Forest, why are the Grimm staying there? Why the new breeds?"

Qrow raised an eyebrow, "You think someone else is calling the shots now?"

It was a dangerous thought, and a terrifying one for Ozpin, though he didn't let it show. All his life, he'd been fighting against Salem, and only Salem, minions aside. The idea of someone being in command of the Grimm, with an entirely different plan, and with seemingly different tactics and motivations... Ozpin wasn't sure if he would be able to counter something like that.

Ironwood then cut in, _"Or, perhaps there's something in the Emerald Forest that Salem wants? Something... Or someone?"_

They looked to him- Well, the hologram of him- And it was Goodwitch who asked, "You think she's after the initiates?"

Despite himself, Ironwood shrugged, _"I can't think of any other reason behind this attack, and why the Grimm- In this level of quantity- Hasn't made a move against Vale, unless Ozpin and Qrow are correct (God forbit Qrow ever being right)-"_

"I heard that, ya tin can!"

_"-And someone else has control of the Grimm. If Salem had control of this vast amount of Grimm, and had seeded them into the Emerald Forest-"_

"It was under, actually. The Grimm'd dug themselves from under the Emerald Forest", Qrow added in.

_"-Without any of us, or any Hunters in the area noticing, then why hasn't she seeded them under Vale if she had the resources to do so? And now that they've revealed themselves, why haven't they made a move on Vale at all? Why are they content to stay in the Emerald Forest, instead of going on the attack? Unless they're building some sort of nest or staging ground there, then there's no point of them trying to occupy the forests and stay there."_

"Unless the Grimm are after the initiates", Ozpin concluded, _Ruby. She has silver eyes..._

"Exactly", Ironwood said, looking at Ozpin with a stern eye, and going, "Ozpin, is there anyone in the initiates rooster who could potentially attract Salem's eye? Anyone in particular?"

Opzin paused, before going, "Yes, actually. Ruby Rose. Her mother is Summer Rose, and like her, she has silver eyes", this got a surprised look from Ironwood, and the knowing nods of Qrow and Goodwitch, "As well as another-"

The door to the cockpit opened up, and Professor Ann Greene looked through to the cabal within, and went, "Hey, Ozpin, the guy in charge is... Er, how did Qrow get here?" she asked, already knowing why they were talking to Ironwood, seeing as they were both headmasters, members of their respective councils, and friends for a long time now.

Qrow looked at her, "Er…"

"He decided to jump off of the nearby cargo hauler to talk, and I had to used my semblance to catch the drunken fool before he fell to his death", answered Goodwitch, the annoyance on her face becoming more genuine when she remembered all of the reckless incidents that he and the rest of Team STRQ got up to when they were in Beacon themselves.

Ann just rolled her eyes, believing the lie, which wasn't a hard thing to do, seeing as Qrow's reputation for reckless and alcohol fuelled chaos, helped along with his bad luck semblance, was almost universal, "Well, sure, whatever, just- Ozpin, just get up here. Parts of the fleet's moving forward. The Valerian military part of it."

"Hm?" Ozpin hummed, unsure of wherever he should be surprised or not that the man in charge, General and councilman Venta Winchester- A pompous man on the council, who somehow got himself in charge of the official Valerian military, had allowed his son's ego to be inflated and blown as far as it has, and had quite the large ego on him as well, and also hated Ozpin and the Hunters with a fiery passion. Surprisingly enough though, he did have a sense of care for his men and military traditions, felt pride for the military and those under his command, and actually wasn't a racist against Faunus (Despite himself, he actually saw the tactical, political, and social benefits of allowing Faunus into the army, and was hardly ever discriminatory against them). Cardin got that part from his mother, of all people- Hadn't called to let him know, seeing as Venta hated Ozpin, and was always looking for a way to one up him.

Ozpin and co walked up to the cockpit- Ironwood's hologram flickering from the hull and to the bridge in a second- And looked out of the windows to see the Valerian military ships-

The few ships that they had, which were 3 Atlesian airships that they had brought from Atlas, which they had renamed the _Grimm Tidings_ , the _King's sword_ , and the _Winchester_ (Venta's command ship), As well as about a dozen fully loaded and weaponised Atlesian made dropships and Scythe-class fighters, all of them painted in Valerian colours.

(The thing that most people nowadays seemed to forget was that at the end of the Great Wars, when the final treaties were being made and put in place, armies were not abolished outright, but were to be greatly reduced as so that the kingdoms at least had something to defend themselves with, though the kingdom of Atlas, the SDC, and the few private armies in Remnant were able to find loopholes in this agreement, with the Atlesian military taking advantage of automated systems, drones, and fully automated robots in order to boost their numbers, the SDC's private security forces SchneeFall weren't under the command of a kingdom, but a company, so they could get away with bolstering their numbers, and could use the excuse of increased attacks from the House of the White Wolves and the possibilities that elements of the House of the Devil's Kiss to increase themselves, and most private armies and forces existed in the Grimmlands, either under the control of Hunter turned Warlords, the Bandit Confederation, or just on their own, and as they weren't part of the kingdoms, the rules didn't apply to them, they could bolster their ranks with as many people as they wanted, which is why one would hear about the growing usage of PMCs in the Grimmlands for settlement protection against Grimm and bandits, due to their cheaper costs then Hunters, and also the growing decrease of Hunters in the Grimmlands to protect villages)

-Flying out ahead of the fleet in formation, while the rest of the taskforce, the Hunters, civilian militia, and police force, had stayed in position outside of the Emerald Forest airspace.

"Call Venta, ask him what's going on", Ozpin requested.

"Calling him...", Professor Harold Mulbery went, before going, "I've got him on holocall, Headmaster. Patching it through now."

In the hull, another blue hologram filled the room with it's light, and Ozpin and his inner circle came back into the room (Ironwood's hologram flickered in once more), To see a pompous, slightly overweight man in a military uniform, with a bushy moustache and shaved head. It was rather reminiscent of Professor Port, in a way, save for the military uniform and the smug, arrogant, and egotistical look on his face as it looked at Ozpin with a look of self-confidence and an inflated sense of pride.

 _"Ah, what do you wish for, Ozpin?"_ General Venta Winchester said in a smug tone of arrogance, _"I am rather busy coordinating my forces into position to combat the Grimm at our doorstep."_

"Our forces, General Venta", Ozpin said with hidden distain, "This is a joint effort in-"

 _"Oh, so you wish for me to share my military resources, and sully my, and by extension the rest of my men's, hands in the rebellious and undisciplined rabble that are your Hunters, Headmaster Ozpin"_ , Venta was more open about his distain for Ozpin, _"Don't think I haven't heard of the treatment that my men have been treated by those of your undignified rabble. The semblism and discrimination against based on either their race, or their lack of aura or semblances, all of them carried out by your Hunters, may I just inform you. I won't have the men and women under my command be treated like lesser beings by your attack dogs, all because you couldn't keep them on a lease!"_

 _"So you're committing high treason, then"_ , Ironwood interjected with, anger in his voice at Venta's actions.

Venta looked at Ironwood with fake shock, _"Oh, but General Ironwood, surely you would understand, of all people? My actions are in the name of Vale, and in the name of my men and their honour! We will win this battle and rescue the children of Vale from the clutches of the Grimm, and once we have, we will bring honour back to the military"_ , he looked at Ozpin as he became more dramatic, _"And we will show the people of Vale that a strong force of hand is better then the unorganised, rebellious rabble of super powered delinquents and fools that are the Hunters! An unorganised, global rabble of penny thieves and brutes that, may I remind you, ever since their inception after the Great War- For whatever insane reason that is- Have done the exact opposite of what the naïve reason for their existence was, and have given ground to the Grimm, gone rogue and set themselves up as petty tyrants and warlords over entire settlements, the entire Hunter's system has fallen apart and been turned into an easy cash grab, and , need I remind you all, back before the Rights Revolution, required roaming death squads to keep them in line!"_

"Oh screw you too, buddy", Qrow muttered, though everyone could hear him.

 _"Trust me, Branwen, the feeling is mutual"_ , said Venta to Qrow with venom in his eyes, most likely still bitter about loosing several of his men to a raid by Raven's Branwen Tribe back when they'd been tasked with protecting a VIP moving through Mistral in a joint exercise with the Mistralian police force.

Ozpin hid his sigh from Venta. The Winchester had always been a strong advocate for ridding Vale, and even Remnant of the Hunter's system, and reorganising Vale's military into the powerhouse that it had been before and during the Great War, and use them to sweep aside the Grimm through brute force, and take back the territories that they'd lost, regularly using the great armies of Atlas as an example, as well as the other examples in the SchneeFall organisation, and the PMCs in the Grimmlands as points in interest. Another reason that he was a supporter of reinstating the armed forces was so that they wouldn't have to ask for aid or support from Atlas or any of the other kingdoms, thereby not allowing themselves to be used as free money or subject to political blackmail by the other kingdoms, allowing Vale to conduct it's business as they saw fit, without any fear of political favours that needed to be paid to the other kingdoms. Of course, this would involve mass conscription of civilians and severe drainage of city resources, as well as deplete areas of the city's defences against the Grimm and other threats, which was all, in Venta's mind, a necessary sacrifice to ensure the future of Vale.

Unfortunately, while Venta was a prideful, arrogant, and tactically blind egomaniac (In Ozpin's personal opinion) Who'd gotten onto the council for who knows what, and allowed his vendetta against the Hunters and Ozpin to guide his actions, he couldn't say that the man didn't have a sense of logic behind him, and didn't have good reasons for many of his actions. Not only did he have a point about many Hunters being rebellious and rather uncouth, the treatment of his men and the rise of semblism and aura-elitism for example, he also had a point in that Hunters' system was beginning to fall apart at the seams, had done very little to help curb the threat of the Grimm since the end of the Great War (A slap to the face on Ozpin's part, seeing as he'd been the one who'd come up with the idea back in his previous incarnation as the late Valerian king as a way to reduce the armies and threats of another Great War, as well as control the growing number of people with semblances and auras unlocked), And had become an easy way for individuals to become more powerful, so they may fulfil their selfish desires, with many of them using sheer intimidation to get their ways, and setting themselves up as warlords (Raven would forever be a reminder of the system's failure).

Not only that, but a strong army might be able to combat the Grimm and push back their numbers, so that they might reclaim their lost territories, and easily defend themselves. Plus, Vale, thanks to having to ask for help and protection from the other kingdoms numerous times before, was now owing those same kingdoms multiple political favours, which would not do Vale any good in the future.

Now, Ozpin didn't like armies. They were too focused on brute force, too ruthless, too eager for conflict, and too wanting for war. Hunters, meanwhile, served as guardians, protectors, symbols of peace and hope. But then again, many Hunters nowadays were sharing the same traits at those armies which he hated, becoming more and more ruthless, more bloodthirsty, more violent, more eager for battle and conflict, so he couldn't really say anything about those points, less he be labelled a hypocrite. If anything, all this has proved was that the Hunters of Remnant needed to be more centralised, more focused. There needed to be a clear chain of command, and there needed to be some form of restriction on them, or at least something to curb the widespread corruption that was festering within the system.

So, in conclusion, Venta did raise a few good points, but his way of going about it all was a lot more skewed, if by his own ego and pride.

 _"Now, if you'll excuse me, headmaster"_ , Venta went, putting unwanted venom onto the last word, _"I have a battle to win, and an idiot t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-"_ {KKKKSSSSSSHHHHH}

The hologram froze and became more distorted, a harsh sound of white noise coming over the speakers before the hologram fizzed out with an undignified exit.

"Oz! Opzin!" called out Ann from the front, "Headmaster Ozpin! We've just lost contact with Venta's fleet! There's something interfering with our communications!"

The group made their way once more into the cockpit to look through the viewport, and saw that the Venta's part of the fleet had moved far enough away from the rest of the taskforce to come into contact with the rest of the Grimm, firing blue rounds into the beasts and effortlessly picking them apart, sending them tumbling to the ground like stones.

"It must be the same interference that is stopping up from contacting the initiates!" Goodwitch exclaimed, "The Grimm, or something else within the Emerald Forest, must be amplifying some sort of signal that's disrupting our communications."

 _"Like a jamming field"_ , Ironwood pointed out. The others looked at him, and he sighed, _"Back in Outpost Orion, before it was destroyed, we were testing a multitude of experimental devices. One of them was a jamming field, but it was still in its prototype stages, and was destroyed when the outpost blew up."_

Ozpin hummed, and then looked at the blue projection of Ironwood, "Were you able to confirm it's destruction?"

"Er, Oz?" Qrow went as he pointed through the viewport, "Something going on with Venta's fella."

They looked through once more, to see a couple flotillas of Grimm ships- One of them with a short body, it's wings reaching around like circles, and with 2 engines at the end of the wings, the other long and with 2 tank cannons on top of it, multiple gun ports along the side of it, as well as mechanical legs, making them look like flying caterpillars- Flying towards the _Grimm Tidings_ as it surged forward next to the _Winchester_ , the _King's Sword_ flying right behind them to act as a rear guard. The Scythe fighters and Dropships breaking off from the ships and ceased engaging the beast Grimm to focus on the fighters, sending blue volleys of light at them as they engaged each other.

Soon, the 3 airships that Venta had under his command had begun to fire upon the flotillas of Grimm craft, and the battle was properly underway. No longer bothering with the beast Grimm, as they'd been turned into barely a threat now with their automatic point defence guns, each controlled by a dumb AI, the other cannons began to fire into the Grimm fleet, sending blue against red. The Grimm responded with their own volleys of fire, red bolts of fire and missiles being thrown into the airships all the while the Grimm ships and the Scythe fighters and Dropships, now acting as gunboats, continued to dogfight in the air, chasing each other with volleys of fire, turning the surrounding airspace into a mess of red, blue, and orange flashes.

"Huh, for an arrogant ass, Venta's actually putting the hurt on the Grimm", went Qrow as he took another drink from his flask, "He's already making a path through."

 _"He's committing high treason by disobeying orders, endangering his men, and not going in without backup"_ , grimaced Ironwood, _"If he were under my command, he'd been thrown in the brig for high treason."_

"Hah!" Qrow exclaimed, "If he were under your command, that'd be a mercy!"

Before the 2 could argue with each other, Goodwitch cut them off with, "Wait, look down there, below the lead ship."

Below the lead ship, about 5 of the gunboat Grimm ships- Their bellies now visible, and sporting dark pools of black liquid, something which made them all queasy when they looked at it- Were rocketing up to the _Winchester_ at full speed, leaving trails of red light from their engines at they flew. The cannons on the ship barely had time to register before the Grimm ships slammed into the bottom of the airship, rocking it around upon impact, and sending it floating gently to the side before regaining equilibrium. The Grimm ships deployed their legs, and began to burrow deep within the hull of the airship, before stopping and deeply emplacing themselves within the hull. The lights on the ship began to flicker on and off, flashes of orange, red and blue lit off from within the windows of the ship, progressing further and further up the ship.

It should be noted that now, the Grimm had begun ignoring the _Winchester_ , and were now focusing all of their fire on the _Grimm Tidings_ and the various smaller ships around it.

"Oh god, the Grimm... All of their... They were a distraction", Goodwitch went, unsure of what to think about it, "They used themselves as cannon fodder, so that they could..."

"Board the ship?" Harold asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Clever", Qrow muttered, as he went to take another drink from his flask, but found that it was empty. Quietly cursing to himself, he continued, "Since they've got the numbers, they've used themselves as bait to draw away the big guns on those ships, so that their other guys can come in and board it. Huh, pretty smart."

"Can Grimm even think like that? Can they come up with those tactics?" Ann questioned with a worried look on her, "I've never known the major and Alpha Grimm or even the older, more intelligent ones to be capable of that kind of thinking."

 _"The older Grimm can come up with those kinds of tactics"_ , Ironwood interjected, _"Alpha and Elder Grimm can learn behaviours like hiding away to draw out their prey, and can direct lesser Grimm around them to do the same. Plans and behaviours such as that aren't uncommon. But because of their more animalistic mindsets, their plans are never like anything a person can"_ , Ironwood looked at Ozpin, _"Ozpin, have you ever seen anything like that in Grimm behaviour?"_

Ozpin looked at him, knowing what answer he expected. Instead, he responded with, "I don't know."

"Er, guys, the shooting in the ship's stopped", Harold pointed out, causing them to look to the _Winchester_ , to see that the lights were now back in, and the flashes of light inside had died out. However, what was worrying, was that while the Grimm weren't shooting at the ship anymore, the cannons on the airship had fallen silent.

"Huh, you think that means that the sailors have won?" Qrow asked.

Second later, the cannons on the _Winchester_ began to turn to the _Grimm Tidings_ beside it, and opened fire, unleashing a full volley of blue blasts into the ship. Explosions began to rock the _Grimm Tidings_ as it began to fall apart, several of the spines protruding from the giant ship falling off under the stress of the explosions, the explosions decimating the engines, and sending the massive ship gliding to the ground below, a column of smoke trailing after it as it fell to the floor. Several Valerian marines began to jump out of the ship, while a few escape ships and dropships tried to fly out of the falling ship, but the _Winchester's_ cannons ripped through the escape ships, sending the flaming remains plummeting to the ground below in a fiery wreck.

"...You know Qrow, I really hate your stupid fucking semblance", went Harold with an annoyed grimace, "Not to sound like a semblist or anything, but... I just really do despise it. With a passion."

"Trust me buddy, the feelings mutual", Qrow responded.

"Oh my go- What the hell is Winchester doing?!" Ann frantically asked, "Why is he- Why's he firing on his own ships?!"

"I believe Venta is no longer in command of that vessel", Ozpin stated.

"The Grimm? How could they have- There's no Grimm type that can utilise human technology! They don't have the brain capacity or intelligence for it!"

"Qrow mentioned- The other ship that he was on had telescopes", Goodwitch mentioned, "He said he saw what? Soldier Grimm?"

"Yeah, and a hell of a bunch of others", Qrow went, "Those Grimm things that hit the airship must've been like clown cars-"

"Ooh, don't mention clowns around me. Always hated those things. Still have nightmares", Harold went.

"Alright them, they must've been packed those things like sardine cans. Got as many soldier Grimm as they could into them, and when they hit the ship, they let them all out, let them take over the ship."

"Oh my god...", Ann put a hand over her mouth, "How do we... How do we fight this?"

"As we've always done, with strength, with unity, and with bravery", Ozpin went, his expression strong and fierce.

"Hey, looks like the last airship is heading back", Qrow said as they watched the _King's Sword_ , as well as the rest of the Scythe fighters and Dropships, which had now been halved in number, had, whilst under heavy fire from the compromised _Winchester_ and the Grimm flotillas, turn around and back to the fleet, fire trailing from it as it flew back. Eventually, the Grimm ceased firing on the airship, and began to move back into their previous positions, the _Winchester_ joining them, and blockading the path in front of the fleet, it's guns trained on the fleet as it hovered in position, Grimm soldiers with purple chitin running across the surface of it with blowtorches and repair tools, running repairs on the ship.

"James, how soon can you get your men down into Vale?" Glynda asked. Ozpin shot her a look, but Glynda followed it up with, "I'm sorry, Ozpin, I know how you feel about armies, but I don't think we can win this on our own. Not without huge losses, at least."

 _"You won't like my answer"_ , Ironwood replied with, before going, _"Under a week."_

"I'm sorry, what?!" Glynda asked incredulously.

 _"Even if I didn't have to worry about the rest of the council, and the negotiations between Atlas and Vale, and all of their political manoeuvring, then it would take under a week to gather intelligence and determine how many we'd need to send it, how many supplies and how much fuel we should use, loading up and preparing all of our airships, and then flying across the entire planet and trying to navigate the fastest path to Vale, and that's not even counting any delays that we may face, such as intruding on airways or in kingdom airspaces, encountering others airborne transports in our travel, and coming across any Grimm that we come across"_ , Ironwood sighed, _"There's too many logistics and politcs in moving an entire army into another kingdom to ensure a truly speedy journey over there, as much as I would like it to be right now."_

"And with the rest of the Hunters in Sanus either still on their way or declining the call, and the Council limiting the amount of police, civilian volunteer militia and police forces that we could take with us in this fleet, we have no reinforcements coming our way", Ozpin took a quiet sip from his mug, the liquid inside now gone cold, and he let out a long sigh, "We're it. We are the only hope that the children down in the Emerald Forest-"

"Under", Qrow went, "My nieces and the rest of the kids went into a cave. I'm thinking that it's connected to some sorta network that goes under the Emerald Forest."

"Right then, we are the only hope for the children under the... Under...", Ozpin looked at Qrow with a frightful expression, "Qrow, where did you say that the Grimm within the forest had come from?"

"Where? From under. I'd said that they'd dug themselves up from... Oh god..."

* * *

"YOU SON OF A-"

"Watch it!" Cardin snarled as he blocked Jaune's punch with one hand.

"You- You-" the Arc boy stammered, his voice echoing through the caves around them, now crowded and populated by the hundreds of initiates who taken refuge within, gazing on to the display with hushed whispers and scared murmurs.

"I what?!" Cardin yelled back with an angry glare.

"YOU KNOW WHAT!" Jaune yelled back, his response echoing loudly throughout the caves, surprising many of the trauma and PTSD riddled initiates around them, "We could saved Miltia! We could've! But you-"

"I saved your life! I save everyone's life!"

"NOT HERS! We could've saved Miltia, but you blocked off the caves and LEFT HER TO DIE!"

"Oh did I now!?" it was Cardin's turn to get aggressive, pushing Jaune back and onto the floor. Several initiates had jumped up and moving around them into a crowd. Cardin continued, "When we were at the entrance, did she come crawling to the cave?! Did she try to save herself?! NO! She started sprouting some cryptic shit at you, and then she fucking let her arms up and let the Grimm kill her! That suicidal bitch would've gotten you killed if you had your way, and then you would've killed all of us as well just because you wanted to save your girlfriend like the good little white knight fucker that you are! Well you know what! I blocked the tunnels! I stopped you from killing yourself! I stopped anyone else from dying! I SAVED EVERYONE'S LIFE!"

"We've got people with speed semblances, like Ruby or Neon! We could've-"

"OR WHAT!? You wanted to get them killed as-"

"SHUT UP, BOTH OF YOU!" a familiar girl stepped between them, Ruby, shoving herself between the 2 initiates with a fierce look, "Look, I get it, we're all scared, and we're all angry! we're angry because we've lost people!" she looked at Jaune when she said this, "And we're scared about dying ourselves!" she looked next to Cardin when she said this.

"I'm not afraid of-"

"Cardin, shut up", Ruby went, before sighing and going, "Look, we're all wounded and scared. We're running ragged and blind, but we can't start giving into our fears and tearing ourselves apart! If we start dividing ourselves and hating each other, then the Grimm will be writing our epitaphs when all of this is over! So allow me to state the obvious when I say that we need to stick together! If we allow ourselves to fall apart then the Grimm win! They'll pick us apart like toys, all because we couldn't get over our own fears and anger towards each other!" she paused, catching her breath, before going, "We need to stick together, we need to work together, and we need to put our fears, loathing, and everything else like that behind us, because if we don't, then we'll be drawing the Grimm right to us", she looked between the 2 boys, "Okay? Because we need a plan, and we need one now."

Cardin didn't say anything, looking at Ruby with an angry snarl, before turning around and stomping away, shoving aside a frog Faunus initiate as he angrily slinked away down the line of initiates that occupied both sides of the cave tunnels.

Ruby then looked down at Jaune, and extended her hand to him. Jaune didn't take it for a few moments, before saying, "Ruby, I'm- I'm sorry. This is my fault, my meā culpā. Sorry, I just- I don't know what came over me, I just... Felt so angry. I", he stopped himself, before taking Ruby's hand and allowing her to pull him up to his feet, "I just...", he didn't know how he was supposed to say that he was still angry for Miltia's death, before going, "I... I could've done something, but I couldn't... I could've saved Miltia, and Flashback, and Emerald, and everyone-"

"Jaune", Ruby's voice stopped him, "Please, not... Not now", the last part was a whisper, before she spoke up again, and went, "We need a plan of action. We've got around 600 people in these caves, with 50 people injured, and these caves seem too smooth and wide to be naturally made."

She was correct, from what it looked like. The cave was massive, with the walls being way too smooth, like marble, to possibly be natural, with hardly a rock or boulder, or even a shard of stone that came from the ceiling in sight, with few drops of moisture forming puddles on the floor. The air within the cave was hot and humid, sweat now dripping from the heads of pretty much everyone there, save for the Techions with bodies almost completely made of metal.

However, in the middle of the cave, going down each tunnel, there was a small stream of black water, flowing left and right as they travelled down the tunnels. There were a few of the initiates that were curious as to what the liquid was, with a few dares to touch it.

No one touched it. Not one drop.

There was something unnatural about the water. Something unholy, and grotesque. Something evil, like a liquid miasma. Even looking at it made Jaune feel nauseous, and want to throw up.

He stopped looking at it, his nausea ceasing as he broke visual contact with it, and then looked to Ruby, and went, "You think the Grimm made these tunnels?"

Ruby looked down to the black water stream, shuddering, and becoming a little pale, a small shine coming from her eyes (Hm? Ah, must be part of her semblance or something) Before she looked away and rubbed her eyes, looking back up to him and pointing to the water and going, "That's not normal, Jaune. That water isn't natural. I can feel it."

"So can I", Jaune nodded, "Every time I look at it...", he paused, before going, "Okay, let's gather some people up", he looked around, and called out, "Alright, we need everyone with speed and/or stealth semblances and capabilities up here, as quick as possible!"

"You heard him people!" Ruby called out as she ran off, a flurry of rose petals flowing from her, "Chop chop, everyone! Altogether!"

After a few minutes, Jaune and Ruby, along with the rest of their group, now just Ciel, Kay Nin, Skipjack, Razor, and Tusks, as well as Neon, the amber eyed girl, Ren, Scrapster, Flynt, and a few others, including a bulky red Techion in full armour, a glowing red visor, and glowing orange patterns across his body, with the name 'DJ' written on his chest above his Techion symbol in cursive.

"Okay, everyone, listen up, since it's clear that these caves were made by the Grimm- Thanks for pointing that out for me Ruby", Jaune went.

"No problem", Ruby chirped.

"Right, so I think it's safe to say that the Grimm'll know every nock and cranny of these caves, so we reckon that it won't take long for them to find us and, well, you know", he paused, before going, "So, we need to find a way out of these caves, preferably somewhere out of the Emerald Forest where the Grimm won't find us, so we don't have a big window to rest up", he then motioned to the many cave tunnels around them, "So, in these caves, there's gotta be some way out of here, and out of the Emerald Forest."

"So, you want us to move through the caves and find a way out of here?" questioned Ren, to the nods of the others around him.

Jaune nodded, "In pairs of 2, preferably. Just pick a cave and move out. Be as quick as you can, but don't go too far", he pulled his scroll out, "I think it's safe to say that the jamming field is still up-"

"Yep", went 'DJ', and everyone looked to him, to let him explain his point, "My semblance, it allows me to identify different individual electrical frequencies, like Wi-Fi and scroll signals and all that, and if I had my proper equipment with me, I would be able to interfere and manipulate those frequencies, but for now, I can only monitor them, and right now", he placed his hand to the side of his helmeted head, and a blue light shone from it, "There's some sort of interfering signal messing with and blocking with the scroll signals."

"Right, okay, that's- That's actually kinda awesome, I mean, well done, dude", he said to the Techion with a smile, and then went to the rest of the initiates around him, "So, don't go too far. Stay within signal range, and only go a little bit further then you have too, but again, let me stress this again, don't go too far. These tunnels could go on forever, and we don't need anyone getting lost. Pick a cave, pick a partner, leave a sign which'll help us tell which cave you go down, and then just-"

"Explore?" Neon asked.

"Basically yeah", Jaune went, "So keep your scrolls on, don't go too far, and all of that. You guys alright with that?" there was a chorus of nods from them, "Good, aright then, be quick guys, and don't get lost. Good luck. I mean it."

Most of the group around him, save for Ciel, Tusks, and Razor got themselves into pairs (Ruby with Kay, Skipjack with Scrapster, Neon with Flynt, the amber eyed girl with Ren, and so on), Chose a tunnel, leaving a sign of themselves by the caves that they chose (The remains of Crescent Rose by one cave, a purple cat button by another), Exchanged numbers with each other so that they could call each other if there was a problem, and with that, they moved out down the caves, using their scrolls to light up the dark, damp caves they travelled through.

Before Jaune could pick a partner for himself and move out, he felt a tap on his shoulder, and looked behind him to see Lavendar looking at him, before she said, "Um, Melanie wants to speak to you, about, um...", she left the words unspoken, for they didn't need to be spoken.

Jaune paused, and nodded, moving out to follow her before being stopped by DJ grabbing his arm, and then going, "Wait, boss, sir, the, um, the signal that's interfering with our scrolls, it's familiar."

Jaune raised an eyebrow, and went, "Er, okay?"

DJ went on to elaborate, "Each signal, my semblance gives each frequency a different sensation, a different taste if you would, but", he leaned in closer, and then whispered, "Sir, the interference... It's Atlesian."

* * *

"Oh god, what is that stuff?" Neon went as she rolled down the tunnel on her roller skates, occasionally looking down to the small black stream travelling down the cave with them, "You know, I kinda wanna poke it."

"Really? You really wanna touch that stuff?" went the chocolate skinned boy with the fedora and trumpet, Flynt Coal, as he walked down the other side of the cave, his clothes ruffled and torn, and a crack in one of his shades.

"Hah, nah, obviously not", said Neon, who then skated forward, jumping over the black stream once to the opposite side of it, then twice back to her side, and then made a gagging motion, "I feel like I'm gonna vomit the longer I look at it."

"Heh, yeah", Flynt went, before taking a quick peek at the small stream of black water, and then looking back up with a worried look on him, "Same here..."

There was an awkward pause between them for a while, before Neon broke the silence with, "So, why'd you sign up for Beacon?"

"Hm?"

"Why'd you sign up for Beacon, 'cause I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and say you're from Atlas", she motioned to the clothes that he wore, and the brand names on them, "There's only one place in Remnant who has those brands of clothes, and they're up in the big floating city in the sky!"

Flynt chuckled, "Yeah, so there is. Alright, you got me. I'm from Atlas. You?"

Neon paused, before saying, "Mantle. I'm from Mantle. I was born in the slums."

That got Flynt to pause, "Oh, I, em, I didn't-"

"Ah, don't worry about it", Neon chirped, skating along with her arms out like a Bullhead, "We're Hunters, aren't we? Don't need people feeling sorry for me or giving me pity or all of that crap."

"Well, we're not Hunters yet, er, what is it you call yourself?"

"Neon Katt, you?"

"Flynt Coal."

"Hah, nice, and to answer your question, I'm pretty sure that with everything that happened today, then yeah, yeah we've passed initiation, and graduation. We're as good as Hunters as we're ever gonna get."

"Hah, yeah, that works for me", Flynt happily went, before going, "What's it like in Mantle? In the slums?"

"Hm?" Neon hummed.

"I never went into the Mantle slums. Only the, you know..."

"The clean parts?" Neon asked. Flynt shrugged, and Neon let out another question, "What was it like in Atlas?"

"I asked first", Flynt went.

"Curtesy of a gentleman, my friend. A gentleman doesn't ask a lady of her age now, does he?"

"That last part didn't make sense in this context, but whatever", Flynt went, before going, "Growing up in Atlas, hm", he tapped the bottom of his chin as he thought to himself, "It was bright, blue, shining... And boring", he looked up and groaned, "Absolutely boring."

"Really?" Neon asked, "It's a floating city. You're saying there wasn't anything to do?"

"Well, you can only go skydiving so many times before it looses it's lustre", Flynt, "My dad used to own a dust shop."

Neon raised an eyebrow, "I thought most of the dust shops in Atlas were owned by the Schnees? I mean, that's what I heard from the few independent dust shops in Mantle."

"Yeah, my dad used to be independent, but here's the thing: Up in Atlas, the dust trade is like the fuckin' mafia, with big daddy Schnee up top. My dad was doing pretty well for himself. We weren't exactly the richest out there, especially since the dust prices that he had had to be hiked up to keep up with the competition, but all in all, it was a good life. Modest, comfortable. And soon, we started doing a lot better than before. So much so that the big Schnee started taking notice and wanted a cut, even though he's the richest douche in Remnant. When my dad said no, for obvious reasons, Schnee tried to forcibly buy the shop, started setting up construction work early around the shop to drive us out of business."

"What?" Neon went in surprise, "Isn't that, like, super illegal?"

"Never underestimate the power of cold hard cash, Neon, it'll make you do a lot of things", Flynt paused, before continuing, "Still though, my old man held up, and so did his fateful and regular customers, and so the Schnee got tired of waiting, and sent in the thugs."

Neon looked at him with wide eyes, "He sent gangsters to kill you guys?"

"Hah, he wished", Flynt went, "No, just to trash up the shop beyond repair, and they were his personal guards, from SchneeFall, his private army. And they did a good job. Had to move to Vale just to set up business again. After that, I decided to hit up Beacon, figured that if I could get a Hunter's certificate, then I could financially support my old man, make sure that we can live comfortably without having to worry about getting our shit kicked in again", he then glowered, "Until I saw daddy's girl at Beacon too, so that's ruined the experience for me."

"Heh, yeah, same", Neon agreed, "She's not even that good a singer. I don't know what the fuss is all about."

"True that", Flynt responded, before going, "What about you? What's Mantle like?"

The cat Faunus scratched the back of her neck with her tail, and shrugged, "Eh, dull, cold, poor, and boring. Absolutely boring", she said, before continuing, "I was born in the slums. Wasn't a good life, but, hey, it was my life. I mean, a lot of stuff happened, lotta stuff, stuff I don't really feel comfortable talking about, so, sorry. No offense to you, of course but", she sighed, before shrugging and going, "Eh, didn't last long, of course, got out of that hellhole, moved to Vale for a year. Got my parents to set themselves up as carpenters. Hell, I came to Beacon just so that I could support them financially once I get my Hunters' license", she paused again, "That, and I wanna go back into Mantle and punch all of the guys who treated me like crap back there in the face. You know, that sort of thing."

Flynt looked at her, and then chuckled, "You know, I think if you shared your story with a movie producer, they could make one out of you. Just saying, it's possible. People'll pay for anything these days."

"Oh my god yeah, they could, couldn't they?!" she chirped as she bounced up, "Omg I could make so much money off of the movie rights and profits! I'd probably make a killing in Menagerie! I'd be swimming in all of the moneys! Ooh, I can imagine it", she shuddered, "That sounds absolutely heavenly~"

Flynt then paused, and went, "Hey, sorry."

"About what?"

"About- Look, up in Atlas, the slums in Mantle, they get a bad rep. Lotta people see them as the worst place to be, and you hear a lot of bad stuff happening in that place, so, yeah."

"Eh, it's cool, it's fine, you didn't bring up anything bad like repressed memories or all of that melodramatic crap", she paused again, "Plus, I doubt we're gonna have to worry about anything dumb like reputation, and all that dumb stuff."

Flynt paused again, and then went, "You think we're gonna-"

"You think we're not?" Neon looked back to him, her face now showing her true emotions underneath: Scared and sad, "People have died today, Flynt. So many people have died today, and... And I don't think that we're gonna make it out as well. Or at least, I'm not gonna make it out. Sorry for sounding selfish but... I don't wanna die. I know as a Huntress, it comes with the territory, but", she rubbed her eyes, "But I don't want this to be the way I go out. I don't wanna go out in general. It's all...", she didn't finish. She didn't need to.

Flynt didn't say anything for a while, wondering on what to actually say to a response like that, before deciding on, "Hey", reaching over and putting a hand on Neon's shoulder, he looked the Faunus in the eye and said, "We're gonna make it out of this, Neon. Like you said, we're Hunters, aren't we? We're gonna kill all of the Grimm and get out of this mess, and after that, you can call and talk to your parents, and tell them that you're safe, and then you can go to as many parties as you want, and do whatever you want, and whatever. What'd you say to that, hey partner?"

Neon sniffled for a second, and then quietly said, "Promise?"

Flynt nodded, "Promise."

Neon looked down for a second, before looking back up and going, "When we get back to Vale- When we get back into Vale, I'm gonna find my parents and give them the biggest hug ever. No joke, just me, them, and hugs all around", she shrugged as she looked to the floor, and then to the walls down to the far away opposite side of the long tunnel, "Can't think of anything better to do other than that. Well, actually, no, maybe a 'We survived!' party afterwards", she nodded, "Yeah, that sounds like a plan."

"Eh, can't think of anything better to do", Flynt said, "Probably going to find and hug it out with my old man myself", he shrugged, now noticing that Neon hadn't looked back his way, still staring down to the opposite side of the tunnel, "Er, Neon? You good?"

"..."

"Neon?"

"...I can hear something."

Flynt raised an eyebrow. He couldn't hear anything, and said as such.

"I'm a Faunus, remember? We've got better senses then plain old boring humans- No offense to you- Better smelling stuff, better sight", she paused, tilting her head to one side, and focusing her ear to the tunnel, "And better hearing, and right now, I can hear something. Like an echo... Of a..."

She shrugged off Flynt's hand, and began to roll forward, her skates letting out a quiet whine as they rolled across the smooth rock floor.

"Neon, where are you-"

She put a finger to her lip, shushing him, and began to move quicker, her feet beginning to move more from their lazy roll to a much quickened pace. Slowly more and more, she sped up, before a bright rainbow erupted from her back, lighting up the dark, almost pitch black cave around them, as she zoomed forward, skirting the side of the cave as she dived down it.

"Neon, where are you- Dammit, Neon!" Flynt went as he ran after her through the dark cave, using his scroll as a torch as he followed the now fading rainbow pattern down through the tunnels, trying not to trip on anything as he went. He swore that this girl was going to be the death of him if she went on like this.

After running for a while, now well beyond the estimated range for their scrolls to be able to call each other, the rainbow trail that Neon left behind faded into nothingness, right when Flynt reached an intersection where the tunnel split off into 5, each one as dark as the others.

"Ugh, great", Flynt groaned, before calling out, "Neon! Neon where'd you go?!" putting his hand to his ear and listening out for anything that could tell him where she went.

Nope, nothing.

Wait, he saw something. On the far left tunnel, right at it's bend, there was a slight change in the darkness. It was just a little bit... Lighter.

Flynt looked through. A small trace of light, sure, but still, in a place like this, in these tunnels, it made all the difference. And it's most likely that Neon thought the same when she got to this bit as well.

He decided to take his chances, dared to hope, and made his way through to the tunnel, and started a brisk walk down the cave to it's corner, where the small shade of light seemed to grow brighter and brighter.

At the bend, he turned, and saw it. At the very far end of the tunnel, there was a light at the entrance, white and blinding. With it came blows of fresh air and the smells of nature, pulling him forward like a mother calling to her child.

Flynt's walk forward became a jog, then a run, then a sprint, as he felt the air become fresher and fresher as he moved forward, the light becoming more and more blinding as he reached for it, the wind threatening to throw his fedora off by his momentum.

With a free hand, he reached out to the light and ran through the entrance.

The light was searing, leaving him blind for a few moments as his eyes adjusted from being underground in the darkness, to the light of the surface, photobleaching leaving blotches moving around and obfuscating his vision, until the light lessened, and his eyes worked themselves to full functioning capacity, allowing him to see the world around him.

The air was crisp, and smelt of flowers and pollen. But, it was now stained with smoke and war, and also reeked of ozone and death. Flowers skirted the cave entrance that was built into a small hill of dirt, and trees parted the pathed ground where the grass had been dug up and broken apart by the slithering of a Blind Worm. The cave hill sat atop another hill itself, overlooking the plains and forests of Vale, with the Emerald Forest a good ways away, fire and smoke bellowing from the ravaged corpse of a jungle. In the air, the clear blue sky was broken up and dotted by clouds of Grimm, with the ravaged remains of an Atlesian airship in Valerian colours, with what looked like small traces of Grimm chitin attached to it, flew with them, watching over the dome of Grimm and it's inhabitants like a jailer to their prisoners. Beyond the dome of Grimm, a fleet of Valerian airships of all sorts sat in the sky, and beyond that, the great walls of Vale, and the tall cliffs of Beacon further along, standing tall like it's namesake.

It was then that he finally noticed Neon next to him, who looked away from what she'd been gazing at in the distance to him, and went, "I heard the echo of an explosion", Flynt let out a confused hum, and Neon elaborated, "In the cave, I heard the echo of an explosion, and then I saw the light coming from the entrance", she then pointed to where she'd been looking before, "One of those airships must've gone down over there, judging by the smoke trail."

Flynt looked to where she was, and saw a fresh arm of smoke reaching up to the sky, a steady orange glow coming from it's origin point.

"Let's go back, call the boss-man", Flynt went, "Tell him what we found."

"I'll head back, you stand guard", Neon went as she pulled out her scroll and began to roll back into the cave, "I wanna be the one to give him the good news!"

Flynt nodded, and with that, Neon raced off back into the cave, allowing the boy to sit himself down on a nearby rock, take a big whiff of fresh air, and try to ignore the scent of death that'd tainted it.

* * *

"I have a question."

"Sure, okay."

"But you have to promise not to get mad at me."

"Er, okay?"

"Promise?"

"Er, yeah, sure."

"What kind of a name is Kay Nin?"

The armoured wolf Faunus looked down to the shorter girl with the red hood next to him as they kept a steady pace down the tunnel, "Huh?"

Ruby put her pinky fingers and her thumbs together to make a triangle for a quick second, before putting her hands together and pointing them at Kay before going, "Kay Nin."

"Yes?"

"Kay. Nin. As in K9."

"Oh, yeah."

"What kind of a name is that?"

"Well that would be a pun, miss Ruby Rose. A glorious pun."

"Oh, goodness, don't talk to me about puns. I've got a sister that's absolutely loaded with them. Most of them are terrible", Ruby shuddered, before asking, "Isn't it a bit racist?"

"What?"

"Your name. Kay Nin. K9. Isn't it a bit racist? Won't some people find it racist?"

"Who? The more sensitive Faunus out there?" Kay then shrugged, "I don't know, I'm don't really care about it, in all honestly. I can appreciate a joke, as long as it's in good taste, mind you."

Ruby hummed in response, "I guess..."

"You guess what?"

"I guess that makes sense."

Kay shrugged, "Not everyone's that sensitive, or invested, in the whole Faunus racism thing, including both humans, and Faunus. I've never really experienced that much racism or discrimination myself, and even when I do, I just shrug it off. I mean, what do they know, am I right?"

Ruby then shrugged, and went, "Yeah, I suppose that's true. I mean, it seems a bit insensitive to the people who are being affected by anti-Faunus racism, but, you know, it's, er, your life, I guess", she then began to panic, "Oh, er, not that, er, not that there's anything wrong with how you live your life! I mean, it's your, um, it's your life, I mean, erm-"

"Ruby Rose."

"-Eh?"

"Ruby. Rose. Both of them are red."

"Huh?"

"Your name is red red."

"No, it's- Oh."

"What kind of a name is red red?"

"It's my name! What's yours?"

"..."

"Oh wait", Ruby looked down to her feet in embarrassment.

"You already-"

"I already know, y-yeah."

Kay looked down at her again, then chuckled, "You're alright."

Ruby looked up at him again, "Really?"

"Yeah. You're alright. You're funny. S'cute."

Ruby then started to stammer, and brought the tattered remains of her hood to her head, and pulled it over her. If one looked closely, they could see steam pouring from her face, now as red as her namesake.

Kay just laughed, letting out a loud guffaw as he knelt over in giggles and felt his clawed hands clutch at his chest. He took a deep breath, and then said, "I'd say I'm sorry, but Mama Nin didn't raise no liar."

Ruby looked at him for a few moments, before giggling and going, "That's a double negative. The negatives are just cancelling each other out. What you're pretty much saying is 'I was raised a liar'. Do you know what that looks like for you?"

Kay made a dramatic show of shrugging, "EH!"

"What?!"

"EH! I don't care! I'm a grown ass man (Well, I'm still 17, but that's just semantics), I do whatever I want!"

"Language!"

Kay quirked an eyebrow, "Really? we're in the middle of a cave network possibly about to be filled to the brim in Grimm ready to do us one and you're worried about swearing?"

Ruby quivered and looked down, tweezing her fingers together, "W-Well, yeah. I-It's all about the, um, the principle, you know?"

Kay shrugged once more, "Yeah, I suppose."

Ruby didn't say anything else for a while, allowing the redness to flush out of her face, and for her head to cool down, before looking up at Kay Nin once more, and taking the taller initiate in. He was almost fully covered in black and red armour, with purple highlights in the armour and between the joints of the suit lighting up the marble like cave around them in a royal hue. The front half of his face was covered in red and black metal plating, with his mouth exposed and lined with metal, his teeth sharpened to the point of them being daggers, and 2 red optical sensors where his eyes should be, almost like sunglasses. The back of his head, meanwhile, was unprotected, as was his entire back to make way for his mane. Not very practical, but then again, perhaps his mane served as protection in place of armour, as well as his aura. Again, not very practical, but what did Ruby know? She wasn't exactly wearing armour was she? (This might be something that she'd need to rectify in the future.)

But what really caught Ruby's attention were, of course, his weapons. The grey coloured and studded grenades on his belt looked like they were custom made, created with an unstable mixture of wind, fire, and lightning dust (She could practically see the unstable glow from the contents inside from, even though there were no viewports into the small explosives), With a small button, most likely the trigger switch, built in next to the hook that kept the spherical explosives attached to his belt.

His rifle, meanwhile, was what had truly caught her attention, of course. Coloured a greyish silver with glowing purple highlights covering it, the entire weapon was entirely custom made, built around a ring which contained the trigger and main grip, with a curved shoulder stock at the end of it, and a long barrel with another grip and a magazine built into the bottom of it's forestock, laser sights built into the scope at the top of it, and a pair of sights built into the tip of the muzzle, which gave off a steady purple glow.

Ruby was eager to ask about his weapon, and figure out how he made it, and how it fired (Was it a machine gun, or a hunting rifle, questions, oh questions!), And what type of ammunition it used, before Kay cut her off with, "I have a question."

"Sure, okay."

"But you have to promise not to get mad at me."

"Oh. Oh, I see, using my own words against me now, are you? Well, alright then, sure, shoot."

"How'd you get into Beacon?"

"Huh?"

He looked down and pointed at her, "How'd you get into Beacon, 'cause you look a bit too young to be in a Hunters' high school, or whatever."

Ruby looked down to the floor, and twiddled her fingers together. Her age, and how she'd gotten in... Was he going to look down on her for it? Was he going to make fun of her for it? Abandon her, just like everyone else in her life?

"Ah, I see, so hush hush, and all that. Alright, I get you", Kay went, swiftly dropping the subject in turn, "Just curious, is all", he didn't notice Ruby let out a silent breath of relief. Then, he went, "You know, you're cool. I'd like to hang out more with you."

Ruby queried an eyebrow, "R-Really?"

"Yeah, sure, you seem alright, and I'd like to get to know you a bit more", Kay paused, before going, "Er, if that's okay with you, of course."

Ruby looked down and tilted her head to the side, before going, "Yeah, yeah, I'd like that", ha! Another friend! Take that, Yang!

Back with the initiates, the wounded Yang's hair flickered for but a second, before she slumped back against the wall with a groan.

"Should we be heading back?"

"Huh?" Ruby hummed.

They stopped in place now to talk, right next to a cave bend.

Kay put his back to the cave to face Ruby, and went, "Should we head back to the others, because I think- Wait, let me check", he pulled out his scroll and went to look at the signal on it, "Yep, we're well past the signal range", he showed it to Ruby, "See?"

"So... We should head back down the tunnels?" Ruby asked as she hopped over the black stream of oily water onto Kay's side of the cave.

"Yeah, I should say so", Kay went, "Everyone else's probably running back to the rest of the initiates as well now, so they've probably found something themselves. Makes our little sojourn a bit of a waste if they have."

"Right, yeah, I'd say so", Ruby went, turning around and taking a few steps forward, "So, question of my own: How'd you make-"

{STAB}

A shrill whistle flew through the air, filling the damp air with it's cry. A single second later, a gross tearing of flesh and metal sounded off. Ruby felt splatters and fragments of... Something... Hit against her back and hood. She slowly, with a trembling hand, looked to the bottom of her torn sleeve, to see fresh splatters of red being absorbed into the fabric. She looked to the ground behind her. Splatters of gore and metal littered the ground, blood mixing with the black water, which was now rippling from movement.

The sound of Kay's rifle hitting the ground broke Ruby out of her tremble, and she looked up to see Kay being lifted off of the ground by a large, familiar white great sword made of bone, now staining red with blood, shooting up from the stream of black water, embedding itself in Kay's chest, piercing through his mane and coming out through the armour of his chest, blood pouring out of his wound and mouth and leaking onto the ground, forming a red puddle, while a large white claw, the arm that was connected to it shooting up from the black stream as well, held his legs in place, crushing the metal and bone with faint groans and cracks.

Kay vomited a mixture of sick and blood, before weakly going, "Oh", that was the last thing that he ever said, as the blade in him twisted around, and the claw at his legs pulled down, ripping the initiate apart, spraying the floor, ground, ceilings, clawed arms, great sword, Ruby, everything, in guts and gore, painting everything in an ugly shade of red. Some of it got into Ruby's mouth, but she couldn't find the strength to vomit, nor the strength to scream, to run, to cry, to stop the yellow liquid flowing down her legs and pooling at her feet, to investigate the strange tingling of her eyes, to do anything but stand their and quiver in place, tears clearing a path down her blood soaked face as she stood in place, still shaking, still afraid.

Too afraid to move when the large figure with the great sword squeezed and clawed itself out of the small stream of black water, and towered over her, purple patterns glowing in the dark, illuminating the caves, and reflecting off of its white chitin armour and skin.

It was only when the large figure spoke did Ruby pull herself from her fear induced stupor and look up into the diseased singular eye looking right at her.

_**"Hello there, Miss Ruby Rose. I do believe it's time we had a chat."** _

Ruby barely had time to react before the Brother of Light brought its great sword down and slashed at the ground, rolling to the side and just barely avoiding the black stream on the floor. Looking at Kay's ripped apart torso, she remembered the grenades attached to his waist.

Cocking and aiming the Ember Celica on her right wrist (She'd taken them from Yang when she'd found her back in the bunker), She let out a round from the shotgun gauntlets, which immediately impacted with the grenades.

She barely had any time to grab Kay's rifle from the floor and, using her semblance, burst through the tunnels in a flurry of rose petals, before the explosion buried the Brother of Light under a pile of rubble, and sealed the tunnel. Her actions would buy the initiates just another minute, but not her cape, as it would now be burnt to a cinder.

* * *

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Jaune didn't say anything.

Melanie didn't say anything.

Neither of them spoke a word to each other as they sat against the cave wall, aside from the complementary 'Hello' and 'How are you?'. Nothing about the important topics they needed to cover. Nothing about the important conversations that they needed to have. Nothing.

Jaune wasn't sure if he even wanted to cover those topics. Actually, no, that was a lie. He was definitely sure that he didn't want to cover those topics. He knew that there were conversations between them that they needed to have, not out of choice, but out of necessity. Things that they needed to say, needed to get off of their chests, whatever one's preferred saying is. To do the opposite would be to let these problems eat at them, to let them consume them, and rip themselves to pieces.

And yet, the silence was comforting. It was good. It was nice. It was a mutual understanding in that neither of them wanted to go through something that would only give them pain, even if it was like ripping a plaster off. Short, and hardly sweet.

They didn't say anything.

Until one of them did, "How did you know her?"

Jaune looked to Melanie, "Huh?"

Melanie looked at Jaune and opened her dull, lifeless eyes, unfolding like a butterfly's wings, "How did you know my sister?"

Jaune didn't say anything for a while, his face writ with confusion, "I... I've never seen before yesterday. The first time that I saw her was with you."

Melanie looked away from him, and up to the ceiling of the cave, her face stoic and emotionless. She was quiet for a while, before coming out with, "I never knew my sister."

Jaune gave her a confused look and hum.

"I never knew her", she let out a mirthless chuckle, "It's funny, I've been together with Miltia all my life, ever since we were born, and yet, she knew everything about me, but I... I never knew my own sister. Not the basic facts and traits that she would always put on display, but the real Miltia. The true Miltia."

She looked back to him.

"She was the smartest person in the room, you know? At least, she always seemed to be. Everything she did, she did to 100% perfection, even if she'd never done it before. Every time she spoke, she was always the wisest person out there. And yet, every time she looked at someone, she always... Her eyes were always filled with... Regret. With sadness. Every time that she looked at me... Her eyes, her face, they were always filled with... Pity. Sadness. Regret. Loss... I hated her for that. I hated her for looking at me like that. Every now and then, when she'd see someone... When she'd see someone who looks at least a bit like you... She'd get a little flicker in her eye. But... It was always... Just... A little..."

She paused again.

"...And yet, yesterday, when we saw you yesterday... Her eyes... They were... Different. They held so much hope within them... So much happiness... So much... Everything. It was like she already knew you, and not like everyone else, but like she truly knew every. Single. Detail. About you... She called you king... When we were sleeping last night, she kept muttering 'My king', over and over again, and then, she started calling you king... She looked at you like you really were royalty... Like you were so much more than her... I could see it in her eyes... You were everything to her. Every. Single. Thing. It was as if she'd known you her entire life."

She looked back to Jaune, her eyes narrowed and still.

"So I ask you again, Jaune Arc. How did you know my sister?"

Jaune didn't say anything. He couldn't for a while, before whispering, "I... I don't know. I really don't know..."

Melanie looked at him, obviously not liking his answer, but before she could say anything about it, the cave began to shake, and a loud bang echoed through the tunnels, sending shards of rocks and loose pebbles falling from the ceiling to the ground, cracks forming from those falling rocks, dropping dust down onto the initiates below.

"What the- What was that?!" Weiss yelled out, bow and arrow/spear combo weapon in hand and aimed at the tunnels around them.

"Nothing good, that's for sure", muttered Razor, loading and cocking his rifle, and going to the pairs that'd returned from the caves, the only 2 pairs left to come back being Ruby and Kay, and Flynt and Neon, "Hey, you guys find anything down there?"

"Nope, nada", went Skipjack, as he bounced in place, before going, "Anyone else?"

"We found nothing either", Ren said as he stood next to the amber eyed girl, Nora creeping up next to him and wriggling her arms around his. The rest of the pairs said a variation of the same thing, before Ren went, "Regardless of which tunnel we go down eventually, we'll need to move out sooner rather then later, or else the Grimm will find us."

"Agreed", Jaune went, muttering his apologies to Melanie before getting up and going, "Alright then, let's get everyone packed up and ready to move. I hate to say it, but I think we're gonna have to start playing eeny meeny miny moe with these tunnels and hope for the best. We'll just wait for Ruby and Kay, and Flynt and Neon to get back, and then-"

"Hey, boss, you've got a call incoming", interrupted DJ, as he put a finger to the blinking blue circle on the side of his metal head, and then went, "From one of the tunnels. It's still being interrupted by the jamming field, but it should be clear enough to get the message through", he motioned to Jaune's pocket, "On your scroll."

Before the last syllables left DJ's mechanical form, Jaune felt the scroll in his pocket vibrate, and he pulled it up to see a hastily added name of Neon (She'd spelt it 'Meom' when she'd put it in) Flashing on his scroll as it rung. Pressing the accept option, he put the scroll to his ear, and went, "Neon, what's up? You guys okay? We're waiting on you and Flynt to-"

 _"J-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-Fou-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-O-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}

"Wha- What? Neon, you're breaking up! Hold on, lemme", he stopped himself, just so that he could walk up to the cave entrance that Neon and Flynt had gone down, so that he could get a better signal, "Okay, say again Neon, you were breaking up."

 _"We f-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-Ay-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-Ut!"_

"What?!"

_"WE FOUND A WAY OUT!"_

In surprise, Jaune pulled the scroll away from him in shock, not at Neon's loud voice, but at what she said. Evidently, so was many other people around him, as they'd heard Neon's cry from the scroll, and were now crowding around him as they listened into their conversation, "Wha- Where? Down your tunnel? Where's it go? Is it safe?"

 _"Yeah, it's saf-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-Tside the Emerald Fore-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-O Grimm anywhere near u-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}

"We-Well great, we'll start packing up and heading down!" at the sound of this, before his finished his sentence, many initiates began to run around and begin gathering their belongings and gear to move out, and getting others ready to roll as well, picking up wounded initiates and whatever weapons they'd scavenged as well.

 _"I'll hea-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-Eet you up ther-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-Ead you up to the surfa-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-N't want you getting lost!"_

"Roger that, we'll move out now!" Jaune went, letting Neon hang up, before turning to the rest of the initiates, and going, "Okay, everyone, Neon's found us a way out, so pack everything up, and lets get moving! We just need to wait for Ruby and Kay, and then we'll-"

A red blur began to shoot down Ruby's cave, red petals flowing off of it like a torrent. One initiate, in a panic, raised his rifle and fired off a few rounds into the cave, before he was stopped by another initiate. Dodging each round, the blur changed to a figure, who skidded and flopped to the ground, their skin bloodied and grazed by the impact, blood stains now lining the floor, whatever they'd been carrying now slid next to Melanie, who picked it up and began to inspect it. Quivering for a second, the figure then got up to her feet whilst violently shaking, revealing herself to be Ruby Rose, her clothes singed, her cape burnt to the point of nonexistence, herself covered in blood, tears streaking down her face, and a faint smell of ammonia accompanying her.

"K... Kay... He's.. He's... He's...", Ruby quietly repeated to herself, looking down at her feet, her eyes swirling with despair and madness.

"R-Ruby?" Jaune asked, afraid of the obvious question, as well as the answer, "W... What-"

"KAY'S DEAD!" Ruby finally screamed out, spluttering out mumbles and whimpers, before going, "The Br- Brother of Light... He came, he just... He clawed out of the w... The black water, and he stabbed him, and then... And then..."

Ruby was stopped by Jaune, who caught her in a hug, and tried to sooth her. She did what she could, there was no doubt about it. He allowed her to sob into his armoured chest, and just let it all out.

Well, as much as she could, before Skipjack interrupted them and went, "Right, okay, good, let it all out, kid, except don't, not right now, cause let me tell you that we really need to move RIGHT NOW! AS OF THIS SECOND!"

"Shit, we got a- Oh, shit, BLIND WORM!" an initiate cried out from the end of the main tunnel, followed by an ugly, inhuman cry, and a horrid red glow. Down Ruby's corridor, a faint crash and tumble of rubble could be heard, followed by a demented laughter and a cacophony of alien screams.

"We need to move, now!" Jaune yelled, using his sword to point to the correct tunnel, and went, "C'MON, PEOPLE, WE ARE LEAVING!"

And so, the order was given. Within the space of a minute, all 600 or so initiates were on the move through the wide cave, charging forward like a wild herd of animals. Some of them had taken an extra few seconds in picking up the wounded, but otherwise they were fine, and were keeping the pace with everyone else. There were a few initiates that ended up tripping over themselves and getting trampled by the crowd, but were otherwise able to pick themselves back up and get moving.

Once again, no one touched the black water.

Jaune was the last person to enter the tunnel, waving and calling the last few people into the cave, being Nora, Pyrrha, Ren, and 2 other initiates, being the white armoured initiate and the initiate with the cannon configurations around his head, sprinting through as he called out, "C'mon, people, move it! We haven't got much time!" in the cave, he could hear the echoes of Neon calling out to the first people, and leading them through to the surface.

And then he saw it, the creature tunnelling and filling up the cave on the far side, a gigantic 4 fanged maw with a single blood red eye in its centre, tunnelling towards them with an angry, hate filled glare, and a mouth that let out a stream of salivating green acid that burnt everything that it touched.

Jaune froze for a second, his 2 eyes glaring right into the worm's singular one, before he heard a familiar voice- Pyrrha's- Call out for him and beckon him through the tunnel, to which he complied, and began his sprint through the tunnel, ignoring the shots from the initiates before him as he tried to keep himself moving ahead of the Blind Worm, keeping ahead of the roars and the sounds of shattering rock, and the occasional green spit that shot ahead of him.

"Hey, Arc!" Jaune heard someone yell, and caught a pistol that slammed into his chest. The same initiate, whoever it was, for he could not tell from behind the crowd ahead of him, then yelled, "Do us all a favour and shoot that thing!"

He called out his thanks, and then, whilst still running, he looked behind him and began to shoot at the Blind Worm, the recoil from the gun throwing his arm around, but nevertheless still held himself true, and tried to hit the Blind Worm in any place where it would hurt. Preferably, its singular eye.

"Shit, somebody help me out here!" Jaune yelled out, getting the attention of Ren, Nora, Pyrrha, and the white armoured initiate and the cannon head initiate, and letting them fire off their rounds into the massive Grimm, Nora's grenade rounds detonating right into the Grimm's mouth, creating tears and cuts which foamed green acid that frothed out of it's mouth in a torrent, creating thick funnels of steam when it hit the rock.

Meanwhile, the movements and tunnelling of the Grimm began to break apart the entire cave system that ran under the Emerald Forest, cracks and holes beginning to form in the roofs of the caves as the chase continued. Nora's explosives only served to make things worse, the shaking and vibrations from the blasts worsening the cracks and sending shards of rocks falling to the ground, and causing the already unstable surface of the Emerald Forest to collapse and break apart.

A green spit of acid impacted on the wall next to him, sending globs springing onto him, and burning holes in his armour and clothes. The acid hit his skin, and he began to hiss in pain as it melted away the layers, before a warm sensation came over him, and he looked over himself, whilst still running, to see bright white flames dancing off of his acid wounds, rebuilding the skin, and letting the green liquid harmlessly flow off of him.

 _What the hell?_ Jaune thought to himself as he watched the acid slide to the ground and melt away the rock, _Is this my semblance or something? Or is it just aura? What the hell is this?_

Another wad of acid flying past him broke him out of his thoughts, and he felt the warmth that fell over him fade away when he saw it hit the white armoured initiate, the blast melting through his armour, and tearing through his skin after breaking and failing a small white glow that came around him, leaving him to scream out in pain and fall to the floor as steam started to erupt from his bubbling flesh. The initiate with the cannon configurations stopped in place to try and pick him up and keep running, only for another wad of acid spit to hit him in his face, leaving him screaming and then gurgling in pain as he fell to his knees and tried to claw away the green burning gunk from his rapidly dissolving face, now just presenting himself and his fellow initiate as bait for the Blind Worm, as it roared and took them into it's fanged jaw, the many upon many rows of teeth tearing what hadn't been dissolved by the acid into bloody chunks of gore and red. The Blind Worm seemed to be pleased by this, as the eyelids around the Blind Worm's not so blind eye seemed to squint, and the bloody jaw seemed to shift itself into the closest thing to a demented smile.

Jaune wasn't sure as to why, when he tried to stop moving and go back to help them, or at least stab the Grimm in its eye, he didn't, nor did he understand why his armour- Or what was left of it- Was pulling him forward off of his feet. He didn't know, until he found his collar in the hands of Pyrrha, and reasoned that it was something to do with her semblance, and paid it no heed, content to be pulled along and look back at the gory remains that were wedged between the worm's teeth, staining the black mouth red.

"Jaune, move it, come on!" Pyrrha yelled out as she threw him over a shard of rock that'd fallen to the ground, vaulted over, and then pulled him back up and shoved him forward, keeping him running at the same pace as them. She then used her shield to block a mixture of blood and acid that had been spat at them, and pulled him to the side when another threatened to hit him in his back and melt him in half.

"Ah, dammit!" Jaune heard Nora yelled as she summersaulted over a spit of acid, and fired off another grenade into the Blind Worm, hitting its skin, and rupturing it, failing to slow the worm down as it began to swallow the contents of it's mouth, "It's not stopping, I need a..."

Then, he saw Nora's eyes narrow, and seconds later, she aimed her grenade launcher and fired off an entire clip right into the maw of the Blind Worm.

The cluster of grenades managed to hit the explosive rounds that the cannon head student and the white armoured student had on them, resulting in all of them detonating at the same second that the Blind Worm just swallowed them all. The resulting chain of explosions began to rip the Blind Worm apart, dislodging its 4 hooks and destroying its mouth, melting its eye in the head, and spraying Grimm matter and acid blood all across the tunnel walls, the resulting splatters of acid and all of the steam that it created filled the tunnel, making it almost impossible to see.

The resulting explosion would also be the final nail in the coffin for the entire tunnel system running under the Emerald Forest, the vibrations worsening the cracks, and bringing the entire cave system collapsing in on itself. The Emerald Forest, the already burning corpse of a forest, collapsed into the ground, consuming and crushing over a hundred Grimm in it's wake, as well as the 14 initiates who'd somehow managed to survive up on the surface for so long.

* * *

The Valerian taskforce was once more on the move, now in full force. Bullheads and Dropships were darting to and from the _King's Sword_ , carrying ammo, personnel, and repair tools, as the largest airship in the fleet positioned itself at the front as the tip of the spear, with the more vulnerable airships moving behind it to allow the ship to soak up and divert as much fire from them as they could. Meanwhile, the more powerful airships began to move to the outside of the formation to tank the Grimm shots for the weaker ships, while the Bullheads and Dropships moved themselves between the airships to act as gunships, and the fighters began to dart around the airships to run interference against any Grimm that breached the formation.

In one of the airships in the centre of the formation, Ozpin, Qrow, and Glynda were in a teleconference with Ironwood, Professor Peter Port, Profe- Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck, Coco Adel of Team CFVY, acting representative of the Hunter teams, Chief of police head Warren Mores, and head of the civilian militia Nathen Raymond.

 _"We've got the ground pounders ready to move, and I've got my baby all checked and loaded"_ , went the hologram of Coco Adel with a smile, hefting her minigun, Gianduja, in her arms, _"Me and my team, and everyone else in our crew will be ready to soar down and pick up the initiates when we get the signal, Headmaster"_ , her smirk then dropped into an unsure grimace, _"But, I don't know how many initiates we're gonna be carrying back when we do. We'll either have too little ships to pull them all up without stuffing them in like sardines, or... Or we'll have too much space"_ , she paused for a second, _"Do we have any confirmation on how many initiates are left down there? We'll need to know before we make any attempt at a rescue."_

"I got a good look down there, kid", Qrow went as he raised a hand up, "Last count was about, er, just over 600, and that was before they went into that cave in the cliffside."

 _"Okay, that's good, it gives us something to work with, but we've still gotta…"_ , Coco then caught herself, and looked to... Somewhere, before saying, _"Headmaster, you need to look outside."_

"What?" Ozpin asked, trying to keep out the worry in his voice.

 _"The Emerald Forest, it's- It's swallowing itself whole"_ , Coco went as calmly as possible, as the always level headed leader that she was.

Ozpin strode up to the front of the Bullhead into the cockpit, and looked out of the viewport, only to see, through the hordes of aerial Grimm, a massive cloud of dust and smoke emerging from the Emerald Forest, and spilling outwards to everywhere around it. Once the smoke cloud started to fade, Ozpin could see the mass graveyard, and all that came with it.

The Emerald Forest was no more, now just an uprooted and ugly monument to the dead. The entire forest had collapsed in on itself, like it had swallowed itself. The cliffsides had crumbled and turned into rocky slopes, the ground was now completely uprooted and jagged, with shards of rocks sticking upwards, and what was left of the trees and plants of the forest were now on fire, making the entire landscape look like it'd been taken out of the Brother of Darkness' eternal hell realm. And against the great fires' hadean glow, he could make out shapes of darkness moving hither and thither by the thousands, unaffected by the flames, with some seemingly revelling in the madness and death. Of the Grimm, he expected no less.

 _My gods_ , Ozpin thought as he looked out to the sea of destruction, before composing himself, heading back into the main hold, and going, "Then, that means that it's even more imperative that we move in and rescue our lost children from the Grimm now, rather than later. We cannot afford to leave them to those monsters."

 _"Headmaster Ozpin, while I do respect your determination to save those children"_ , went Warren Mores, _"I have to point out that if we are to move in now, especially with the vulnerable state of our own forces, we could be walking into a slaughter ourselves. We have, what, 22,000 people with us, and most of them don't have aura, I must remind you. We could be looking at a slaughter if we don't wait for reinforcements."_

 _"Are you saying that we just leave those children down there?!"_ called out Professor Port, pointing an accusatory finger at Warren.

 _"No, but I am saying that we need to be mindful of our own losses!"_ Warren retorted, before sternly going, _"Again, most of our forces aren't protected by aura, unlike your Hunters, and most of us are crammed into these airships like sardines"_ , he shook his head at the situation, and then went, _"We're gonna lose a lot of good people if we go along with this fight."_

"I am aware of this, Chief Mores", Ozpin calmly stated, "But unfortunately, we do not have the time to call in reinforcements, either from Atlas, or other Hunters. We are all the hope that the children below, and the people of Vale, have."

The plan that the Valerian taskforce had was patchwork, and was rather simplistic, but it was the best that they had. The general plan was to punch through the Grimm dome, and then completely bombard the Emerald Forest with as much fire as they could, before sending in the troops and Hunters to exterminate what was left of them. However, because of the vast amount of Grimm that controlled the air, it would take time to punch through the Grimm and get into a preferable position over the Emerald Forest, especially with the Grimm now in possession of the _Winchester_ , and even then, with the lack of visual contact with the initiates below, and with their condition unknown, bombardment of the Emerald Forest was just out of the question. However, should the initiates be spotted, then a flotilla of Bullheads and Dropships, piloted by Hunters and protected by as many fighters as they could spare, would shoot through the Grimm, pick up the initiates as quickly as possible, and then drop them off in Vale, meaning that the fleet wouldn't have to worry about the possibility of hitting any of their own, and could focus on taking out as many Grimm as they could.

 _"Well, it won't matter now, we don't have time to think of a different plan"_ , commented Nathen Raymond, _"If we decide to wait around for any longer, then we'll just be giving the Grimm even more time to muster themselves and launch an attack on Vale, and gods know what they'll do to the children down below if they haven't already gotten to them."_

 _"Let's not go down that route, sir"_ , Coco said, _"We'll find our fellows down below and pull them out of that mess, you can count on it."_

 _"Ah, I admire your bravery, Miss Adel, but we can't allow ourselves to become overconfident"_ , went Doctor Oobleck, _"As it stands, Chief Mores and Mr Raymond are correct in their assumptions, and we still cannot gauge the size of the Grimm horde present in Vale. Though, I still do not know as to how they got here. We have multiple sensors and Hunters that should've been able to detect this congregation, so how did nobody- How did we- Not discover this mass amount of Grimm earlier? Even with the supposed tunnels that they have running under the Emerald Forest, this amount of Grimm couldn't have stayed hidden for so long, especially with these new variants that have been reported."_

 _"Ah, but those are questions for later, Bart"_ , jovially went Port as he hefted his blunderbuss and folded out the axe blades with a smile, _"Now, we have children of Vale, and all of Remnant to save, and monsters of the night to-"_ Port's hologram began to splutter and falter, as did all of the other holograms, their blue holograms flickering unevenly, with the hologram from Ironwood completely fading away.

"We must be within the Grimm's jamming range", went Goodwitch, before a loud bang rocked the Bullhead that they were in, and she, Qrow, and Ozpin ran up to the front to look once more out of the front window of the Bullhead.

At 11:37 on a cool, clear skied Monday, the first shot was fired, in the form of a blue blast from the _King's Sword_ vaporising a murder of Nevermores. And with that, lances of blue light shot out from the fleet of airships, and either flew past or intercepted any Grimm in their path, blowing them to pieces and sending their fading remains plummeting to the ground below. In turn, the Grimm launched their own blasts of fire, energy, acid, father quills, harpoons, and the like back at them, filling the air with shards of red, blue, and orange lights flying from left to right, and from up to down. Several Grimm, mostly the new fighter variant, pierced through the formation and began to dogfight with the Scythe-class fighters in between the airships themselves. The Bullheads and Dropships in between the airships would begin to fire onto the Grimm that'd pierced through the formation, and were shooting down as many as they could, though they began to suffer casualties thanks to dying Grimm performing kamikaze attacks.

Below the _King's Sword_ , the Grimm attempted to pull the same trick that they pulled on the _Winchester_ , and used their vast numbers to try and distract the guns on the massive airship, while below, several Grimm gunboats began to fly for the underbelly of the airship, readying their weapons to pierce the armour and guns. However, the crew of the _King's Sword_ , having learnt of this tactic from seeing what had happened to the _Winchester_ , kept some of their heavy guns pointed below them, and negated this tactic by immediately firing upon the Grimm gunboats, surprising them and cutting them apart with satisfying red explosions.

However, the attention of the _King's Sword_ and the airships around it had their attention focused on other, more pressing matters. Ahead of them, the Grimm controlled _Winchester_ , with Grimm chitin growths now covering parts of its hull, began to move into position along with the Grimm, turning to it's side and unleashing a full barrage of fire onto the _King's Sword_ and the fleet, sending most of it's payload into the first ship, and sending another, smaller airship falling to the ground with crippled and flaming engines, exploding into a fiery mess before it hits the ground.

Seeing the damage that was being inflicted on the ship by the Winchester, Qrow, with a growl, forced open the hull doors in the hold, shouted out, "I've got this!" over the gunfire and explosions, and jumped out of the Bullhead, before Goodwitch quickly looked outside, and after sighing, closed the hull doors with her semblance to stop the air pressure.

"What the- Where the hell is he going?!" cried out Professor Ann Greene as she sat at the Bullhead controls, with Professor Harold Mulbery sitting next to her and trying to steer the Bullhead out of the path of incoming Grimm blasts, throwing the ship from left to right.

"He just jumped on top of a Bullhead!" lied Goodwitch, making sure to be as convincing as possible, "I believe he's going to try and disable the _Winchester_!"

"What?! Is he insane?!" Ann yelled out, not noticing the black crow fly past the window, "That's a military grade airship! A military grade airship that, somehow, the Grimm were able to take over in a matter of minutes! What the hell does he think he's gonna do?!"

"Trust me when I say that he will be fine", Ozpin said, "Besides, I believe that we have already established that Qrow is his own flavour of insanity", this got both of the professors at the controls to hum in agreement, and Goodwitch to roll her eyes and groan.

Ozpin didn't pay this much mind, as he continued to look to the battle ahead of them, seeing a Bullhead collide with a Dropship and bring both of them down, and then spotting a Sphinx kamikazeing into an airbus' engines, crippling it and leaving it tilting to one side.

However, just then, Ozpin found his attention being drawn elsewhere. Specifically, to a faraway part of the ground below, far behind the Grimm lines, where a cloud of smoke and steam flushed out of a previously unseen cave entrance.

* * *

"C'mon, hurry!" yelled Neon as she pulled Jaune- The last person in the collapsing tunnel- And pulled him through, speeding him to the congregation of initiates that'd now escaped the cave, and tossing themselves to the ground to protect themselves from the cloud of hot steam and smoke that shot out of the cave as it collapsed into a long pile of rubble and rocks.

Then, the rubble began to convulse and move, and just a few seconds later, the Blind Worm shot up, and looked down at them. Or, at least, what was left of it looked down at them. It's entire front face was gone, a mangled front with torn flesh and a mashed eye that frothed up it's acidic sludge from its wounds, pouring onto the ground like a waterfall, kicking up a massive cloud of steam as each drop hit the ground and began to dissolve everything in its wake, as well as tears in its flesh and rocks embedded in its skin, which were beginning to dissolved into sludge. The Blind Worm let out a weak groan as it began to sway left and right, acid drops falling like rain, forcing the crowd of initiates to run back from the mangled mess of a Grimm.

"Augh, why won't this thing die?!" Nora called out as she pumped her grenade launcher into the Blind Worm, explosions ripping apart the Grimm's skin, and dislodging its armour plating, sending more and more acidic sludge across the ground, and coating the black beast in green.

"Everyone, shoot that thing!" Jaune yelled out, and with his pistol, he shot off several rounds, hitting the Blind Worm in it's open wounds, causing it to groan.

The rest of the initiates responded in turn, shooting off dozens of rounds of whatever weapons they had, launching waves of bullets, rockets, acid, fire, and whatnot at the Blind Worm, tearing what was left of it apart, and ripping open its stomach, its green acid covered black guts falling out and slamming against the acidic puddle on the floor.

The Blind Worm went to retaliate, and began to spew up a concentrated torrent of acid vomit, shooting up and trying to cut through the crowd of initiates and kill as many as they could, though the crowd was able to part into 2 and avoid any casualties. Pyrrha used her shield to block a stray spit of acid, but that resulted in most of the shield melting into goop, with Pyrrha throwing the rest of her shield as a frisbee into the Blind Worm, hitting it in what was left of its eye. Tusks was able to throw Ruby behind her before she was hit with a spit of acid, and he summoned forth a sphere shield around him and the initiates next to him as it was covered in acid, preventing them from being dissolved. Scrapster summoned forth a blast of purple energy from his chest and blasted the massive Grimm in what was left of its face, and shot forth missiles from the studs in his shoulder wheels, creating a series of small explosions that ripped off more chunks of the Blind Worm's body, and left it leaking out green sludge like a sieve.

The Blind Worm spat out several more rounds of acid, before vomiting up it's acidic juts and the contents of its stomach, being dissolving body parts and gore, letting out one last pained moan, and went down to dig into the ground, but instead of the intended effect of it tunnelling into the ground, it instead just slammed its head into the floor, and because of the damaged and softened state of its face, it smashed itself into a black and green mush, finally killing it, the rest of its body going limp, and black smoke beginning to ebb off of its body, and green smoke off of the now fading acid.

A sigh of relief came over the initiates, as many of them collapsed to the floor with an exhausted huff and sigh, wiping the sweat off of their heads. Jaune, currently catching his breath, then called out to all of the initiates, "Great job everyone! Superb!" he did a thumbs-up, and then, after a few deep breaths, he wiped off the dirty sweat from his brow, and went, "Okay, take 5, guys. We'll move out once we figure out our next move."

With that, there was a series of nods, and many of the initiates began to sit down and catch their breaths, polishing their weapons and making sure that they worked properly, while the rest of them decided to walk around, half of them moving out as scouts, either in groups or in pairs, looking for a good way to safety, while the other half just took to admiring nature itself and smelling the roses and flowers around them, taking in the fresh air and the natural sun.

From beyond the trees and flowers that lined the cave entrance in the hill, the initiates could see the flaming, dilapidated remains of the Emerald Forest, the trees and rocks uprooted and burning, sticking out of the ground in shards and covered in flame, creating a thick black stream of smoke that polluted the air, and covered everywhere around it into a deep coat of soot. Luckily, they were far away enough from the Emerald Forest to avoid most of the soot and smoke, though there were a few initiates that were coughing at the wisps of smoke and dirt that travelled from the forest to them.

Jaune looked to Nora, who was standing right next to him. Nora noticed this, and went, "Oh, hey, what can I-", Jaune stopped her by pulling her into a tight hug, "Oh, wow, ok, hugs, I like hugs."

"Thanks Nora, for killing that thing, and for everything else as well", Jaune quietly said as he leaned his head against the smaller girl's head, "I mean it."

"Aw, shucks, thanks Fearless Leader!" Nora went as she joyfully returned the hug, "Feels great to be appreciated!"

Jaune allowed himself to chuckle, before breaking off the hug, looking to Pyrrha, and giving her one as well, "You too, Pyrrha. I don't know how I could thank you."

"Oh, well, you could start by, er, keeping up this hug", Pyrrha went, as she returned the hug, and muttered, "Oh, wow, this is nice."

"I know right?" Nora muttered, "He's like a bear. A big ol' softie bear", she then looked at Ren, and went, "Oi, get over here, not-chopped-liver, someone needs sloth hugs!"

"Yay, sloth hugs", calmly went Ren, though the smile on his face betrayed his stoic voice, as he allowed himself to be swallowed up into a bear hug by the energetic girl, chuckling as he returned the embrace.

Nora then took out one of her arms and pulled Jaune and Pyrrha in closer, ignoring the slightly pained groans from all of them, "Group hug! Our ultimate anti-Grimm weapon! No evil Grimm can ever stand against the power of the ultimate group hug!"

"Haha, yep, sounds about right", Jaune muttered happily. Gods, he needed this. After everything that's happened in the last few hours, he really needed this.

"We should file this as a weapon of war", Pyrrha chirped, "It's ammunition: Live snuggle rounds."

"If we did that, then it'd be listed as a war crime", Ren added in.

"A WMD", Jaune said, getting a nod from Ren and Pyrrha.

"Aw heck yeah!" Nora put out, "A big bomb of love! Just drop it on all of them! Make them all go boom!"

This got a hearty laugh from all 4 of them, before they broke it off and patted each other on the back, and then heard someone call out Jaune's last name, and they looked and saw Flynt Coal, with Neon Katt next to him, calling out to him, beckoning him forward, to which they complied.

"Thanks for finding the way out, you 2", Jaune said as he approached the 2 initiates, Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha in tow.

"It was mostly me, actually, just to let you know", Neon went, Flynt gave her a cocked eyebrow, and she then amended herself with, "I mean, you were there too, you provided moral support, so that's always a gooden, so thanks to you for being there. Good to have you."

Flynt rolled his eyes, and then pointed to beyond the little gathering area that they had procured, and went, "Hey boss, we've got a direct way back home to Vale from here."

"Wha- Really?! Where?!" Jaune frantically went.

"Down there, bossman", Flynt went, and Jaune looked to where he was pointing, to see a massive battle taking place up in the air, with airships of all shapes and sizes, presumably on the side of Vale, going up against a horde of flying Grimm, spraying fire at everything in their paths. Explosions rocked the sky and echoed off into the heavens, and many Grimm and airships began to plummet to the ground in fiery messes and glories. However, strangely enough, on the side of the Grimm, there was another airship, throwing rounds into the Valerian navy, and pummelling many of them with rounds of blue fire, and with Grimm chitin accompanying it as well, growing across the ship's hull and body like a sickness.

"Hey, wait, that's my dad's-", Jaune heard Cardin yell out, before he caught himself, and paused for a few moments, and then went, "C'mon, pick up, dammit", he looked to Cardin to see that he had his scroll to his ear, before he pulled it away and yelled, "Dammit, answer the phone, old man!"

"All signals are still being scrambled by the Grimm", put in DJ, "We can't get anything through-"

"Oh, shut it, you worthless tin can!" Cardin yelled as he smacked the back of DJ's metallic head, and went, "Why do we keep you people around if all you're good for is spare parts?" and stomped off.

"...Twat", DJ muttered, before sulking off to a cluster of other Techions, "Absolute twat, I say..."

Meanwhile, Jaune shifted his attention from the battle to a place a good distance from it, to see a thin column of smoke rising up from what looked like a large airship that'd crashed into the ground below, carving out a circle in the massive grounds of forests and plains (There were actually quite a few forests in Vale, but the Emerald Forest was just one of the more famous ones), And further along, a good couple hours walk away, were the great walls of Vale (If anyone was wondering, all of the initiates (Save for Jaune, obviously) Had travelled and arrived at the cliffside outside of the Emerald Forest via Bullhead), And beyond that, were the great cliffsides of Beacon Academy.

"Oh my god", Jaune went, before jumping up and going, "Oh my god we've got a way home!" he laughed, before going, "C'mere you 2!" and getting the 2 initiates in a hug, much to their surprise, before letting them go, and yelling out to the rest of the initiates, "Everyone! Gather around! C'mon, everyone! We've got a way back to Vale!"

With his words said, a large number of initiates, mostly those who had established themselves as leader types and important personal to the initiates' survival (Namely Razor, Tusks, Weiss, DJ, the amber eyed girl, Cardin, Ciel, and multiple others) Gathered around him and the others, and with that, the new High Command was in session, all of them eager to hear his words.

"Okay, firstly, is everyone okay? Nobody's hurt or anything?" Jaune asked.

"A few people were wounded during the run out, thanks to the Blind Worm and all of the falling rocks and all of that, but we've put them with the rest of the injured", Ciel called out, "Luckily, a lot of our injured are now healing up and getting better thanks to their aura, at least so much so that they can at least walk, even with help."

"Heheh", Nora nervously chucked as she scratched the back of her head, "Sorry about that. Y'know, blowing up the cave, and all that stuff."

"Hm, don't feel bad about it", Ren said, putting a hand on Nora's shoulder, "You were the biggest factor in destroying that Blind Worm, so thank you for that."

"Aw, shucks, you'll make me blush, Renny", Nora chuckled, before hugging Ren once more.

Jaune nodded, and then went, "Okay, so, thanks to Flynt and Neon over here-"

"Hey", Flynt waved.

"Yo", Neon waved.

"-We've got a way back to Vale. So", he pointed his Crocea Mors to the rising smoke column, "That's far enough away from the battle in the air where the Grimm'll ignore us in favour of the ships in the air. I say, that once everyone's ready, we march up to the smoke column, which seems to be a crashed airship, which means that we can check if there are any survivors there, salvage anything that we could use, and try and see if we can use it to boost a signal to Vale or the ships above. If that doesn't work, then we march onwards to Vale, which would probably take a few hours in of itself, but from the looks of the geography, it'll curve us around the battlefield, and around the Grimm lines, meaning that we'll hopefully be relatively safe from harm, since the Grimm might not see us as a target to waste themselves in and focus on the fleet of airships up above."

"So basically walk around the battle and gun it for the Vale walls?" asked one initiate.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and point out the obvious flaw in that plan, being that we can't predict that the Grimm'll ignore us for anything. We're one big target for the Grimm, filled to the brim with negativity and all of that. S'a good plan, but, y'know, we can't exactly say that the Grimm'll keep their eyes on the fleet."

"Yeah, so why the hell should we go along with that stupid plan?" Cardin called out, before going, "I say we go the opposite way. If we head back against the battle up there, and away from the Grimm, since they're all gathered at the battle, then we'll be safe from the Grimm, and won't be hounded anymore by them."

"Okay, bud, I didn't say that I wasn't against this plan, I was just pointing out the flaw, okay?"

"Agreed", calmly said Ciel, "Where would we go anyways? Not all of the Grimm in the air are engaged in the battle", she gestured to the squadrons of Grimm that were still patrolling the airspace, "And their ground forces are most likely spreading themselves out from the Emerald Forest to try and find us as we speak. If we go the opposite way from Vale, then we'll be passing the Emerald Forest, and will be vulnerable to the Ascendant Court and their Grimm forces."

"Alright then, we'll just go north", Cardin amended, pointing to their left.

"There aren't any settlements that way for miles, and they won't be able to support and treat a caravan of 600 people. The same applies for south", Ciel adjusted her beret, "I did my research on Vale before I arrived."

"She's right", said the amber eyed girl, "It'll take days to reach any settlement that can accommodate for us, and we'll be at greater risk of attack from the Grimm if we go behind us. Though there is a great threat of being attacked from the Grimm if we move to the smoke pillar and then to Vale, there's more to gain from it, it'll take an hour or 2 to walk from here to the pillar, and 5 or 6 hours from the pillar to Vale, as opposed to days any other way. Plus, while we're walking to Vale, there's a good chance that we'll be seen by someone at the walls, and they'll send Bullheads to pick us up."

"So, we're all in agreement?" Razor asked, to which everyone nodded, save for Cardin who looked like he was about to angrily object, but Razor then went, "Okay, everyone but Cardy-Boy?" Cardin's face was going red with anger, but Razor ignored him and went, "Alright then, everyone but Cardy agrees with your plan, Arc. When should we move out?"

"In a few minutes, preferably", Jaune went, rubbing the back of his head nervously, before saying, "We'll get everyone rounded up, we'll pick up our wounded, and we'll start trekking to the downed airship, and then to Vale, which should take us, er", he looked to the amber eyed girl, "How long did you say it'd take, Miss... Er…"

"Blake Belladonna", said the amber eyed girl, "And it should take, at the minimum, 7 or 8 hours to walk from here to Vale. So the better part of a day, I suppose."

"Alright then, Blake, good, thanks for letting me know. And also for the, you know, for helping me out in the locker room as well", Blake looked like she was about to say something about that, but looked away instead, and Jaune continued, "Alright then, let's spread the word and get a move on. We're burning daylight here, people. Let's move it out."

* * *

The walk to the smoke pillar was less quick paced than the initiates had imagined. In fact, the pace that they kept up was a lot more leisurely than should be prescribed to the situation they were in.

Nevertheless, the initiates were making good time, listening in to the birds around them as they walked through the gatherings of forests and thick trees, occasionally tripping over some roots, and over a good few plains of grass and dirt, on those bits moving a little bit faster so they wouldn't stand out more and could get into cover quicker, seeing as they were still in Grimm territory. And indeed, a few wandering Grimm did indeed try to make a pass at them, a wolf and a bear, a Baron and a Disciple, but they were dealt with as quickly as possible. There was an amusing incident with one of the hornet Grimm involving a ghost pepper and someone's pinky finger, but they all agreed to never speak of that incident ever again.

Of course, it wasn't all smooth sailing for them. One of the wounded initiates died from their injuries while they were moving through one of the forest gatherings. They didn't have time to bury her or have a proper funeral, so they just carefully placed her between a few trees and made a marker next to her to identify her presence. It was not a dignified send off, but at the moment, it was the best that they could do.

In light of this, all of the initiates decided to try and avert their minds from the current situation in whatever way they could. The scouts ahead of the column were focused on their task with laser guided precision, as were those carrying and helping the wounded. Different groups of initiates began to string up conversations of whatever they could think of, ranging from their surroundings to the history of Vale, to their own personal histories and backgrounds, to whatever they could think of. Many of them were content to simply walk in silence and listen in to the world around them, the sounds of nature interrupted by the echoes of the war up above.

The rest of the initiates were left to their own thoughts, pondering about anything that came to mind, wherever it be their situation, or their lives previous to now, or their regrets and fears, anything and everything.

* * *

_How many people have died now?_

That was one of the few thoughts running through Jaune's head.

_How many people have died because of me?_

People died because he couldn't save them. Sun Dance. Emerald. Flashback. Miltia. Kay. So many others.

_Miltia…_

He was the one giving the orders. He was the one sending people to their deaths. He alone was to blame for their passing. The blood on his hands was his alone to burden.

And now, these people... Was their faith now in him? Why? Why were they placing their faith in him? He didn't deserve it. He didn't want this. He wanted to be a Hunter, not a leader, for god's sake. These people didn't deserve a cowardly weakling like himself- Who'd faked his way into Beacon with no qualifications in anything and everything- For a leader. They needed a proper guide for them. A warrior. Someone who was brave, and strong, and could keep every single one of these people alive, not him. Not a failure. Not a worthless weakling.

_How many?_

He wished that someone else would step up. He wished that someone else- Someone better and braver than him- Would step up. The initiates. They were all Hunters, weren't they? Surely there was someone here who could take over and save everyone else. Throw him aside like the fool that he was, promise to keep each and every initiate alive no matter what, and keep those promises.

So where were they?

_How many?_

Against those who had died today, against the number of people who'd had their lives taken from them this day, his life was nothing. Worthless. Meaningless. It was the only truth that he knew right now.

He should've died instead. The Grimm should've killed him instead. If he had to trade his own life for Miltia, and everyone else, so that they might be able to live again, then he would gladly spill his blood on the ground for them.

_How many?_

* * *

_Miltia was dead._

It was the only thing that Melanie could think about. It was all that she could possibly think about.

_Miltia was dead._

Her sister... The only constant in her life. The only person who she had with her throughout the days she'd been on this earth. Everyday Miltia had been there alongside Melanie, and her Miltia. She didn't know any day where she wasn't there.

There were some days where she would wish to have her own life beyond her sister. Her presence sometimes... It was stifling, sometimes. It was like she was always breathing down her neck. There were times that... Heh, it was selfish, she knew... But there were times where she'd imagine herself as an only child... Yeah, she knew...

And yet now, she got her wish, didn't she?

_Miltia was dead._

Her stupid, selfish, disgusting wish.

* * *

_Kay's dead Kay's dead Kay's dead Kay's dead._

Ruby repeated it in her head like a mantra. A maddened chant as the world began to crumble around her.

_Kay's dead Kay's dead Kay's dead Kay's dead._

How? How did this happen? How did she allow this to happen? He shouldn't have died. Kay shouldn't have died. Nobody should've died. She should've done something. She should've done more than something. She should've done anything. She should've done everything. She should've done all that she could to save Kay, and stop Yang from getting hurt, and save everyone else.

Why hadn't she?

Kay's dead Kay's dead Kay's dead Kay's dead.

This wasn't it. This wasn't the life of a Huntress. A Huntress was meant to protect and save as many people as she could. She was meant to be a hero. She was meant to stop people from dying. She was meant to give people their happy endings.

There were no happy endings here... This place... There was only darkness... Only evil...

Kay's dead Kay's dead Kay's dead Kay's dead.

* * *

_Why is nobody listening to me?_

Cardin was angry. Why was no one paying attention to him, or anything that he was saying? He'd saved that blond fucking idiot's ass, hadn't he? Surely that should garner him something, at least.

No, nothing.

Cardin figured that being the child of 2 of the most wealthiest and influential figures in Vale would grant him the respect that he rightfully deserved. His mother, Napolea Winchester, was the lord mayor of the settlement of Communo, one of the largest and most well known settlement in Vale, and was the one who'd truly raised him throughout all of his life, teaching him the truths of the world, such as the true place of the Faunus, the animals that they are, and the imperfections and disgusting nature of the Techions, as well as Winchester pride, and the truth about how they were better and more rightfully deserving of everything that they ever wanted than all of the other wastes of human and Faunus flesh and blood that exist in Remnant, while his father, Venta Winchester, the bastard of a man that he was, was the leader of all of Vale's military, and had a seat on the council, so despite everything, the man had his uses.

(Cardin always hated the man. He'd taken up the name of Hunter for himself just because he wanted to spite his father. The man had always disagreed with his and his mother's views on the Faunus. The fact that he'd allowed those animals to infect his own forces like a plague was disgusting. The man had no Winchester pride, and was a Winchester in all but name. Cardin was aware of Napolea's plan to divorce him, take all of his money and Winchester titles and privileges, and marry the man who she'd been seeing behind his back, and Cardin was all for that. Heh, serves him right.)

He'd gotten no thanks from the ungrateful bastard as well. He'd saved that guy's life, and what had he gotten in return? The brat had a hissy fit over his suicidal girlfriend giving herself over to the Grimm! And then, when he'd told them that they should move away from the battle in the air and move in the opposite way in the direction of Communo, they'd rejected him! Him! Cardin Winchester, rejected, in favour of a whinny little brat who was going to get them all killed because he was too stupid and caught up in himself to see otherwise!

No, this would not stand. Not for Cardin Winchester. When he got the chance, he would convince all of these idiots that he was the one who should be rightfully in charge, and get rid of that blond moron. His Winchester pride dictated that he was the one to rightfully lead and use those beneath him.

And his Winchester pride dictated that he get rid of those who stand against what was rightfully his.

* * *

_Is this a war? Is this a second Great War?_

It was one of the many thoughts that were running through Ciel's head, as she walked near the front of the column of initiates, Weiss Schnee next to her, looking out for any Grimm that the scouts had missed, and calling out any obstacles and hinderances that she could see, and helping the rest of High Command move their fellows over them.

_Well, third, I suppose, if you count the Rights Revolution, but still..._

From what she'd seen of the Grimm today, after analysing their new subtypes and variants, she could see that the Grimm were evolving and arming themselves from an animalistic race of hate hungry beasts and monsters, to a fully organised and orthodox military force, complete with ranks, soldiers and captains and official leaders, and even aircraft.

_The Grimm are moving to war. Well, we've always been at war with the Grimm, yes, but now its official. The Grimm are shifting themselves to a military. They've got ranks, formations, tactics, and from the looks of it, goals. Goals, and the means to fulfil them. The only question I have now... Is why they are here. Why were they after us? Why aren't they moving to Vale now? Why are they still crowding around the Emerald Forest and controlling its airspace? Have they already marched on Vale, and are taking it now?... Are they here because of me?_

Ciel's semblance... It was a thing that'd dictated and controlled every decision in her entire life. Most of her early life was spent in Outpost Orion, being picked apart by scientists and doctors and what not, so that they could gauge the power of her semblance, and what it was worth, before they judged it to be too dangerous and somehow- She still didn't know how- Placed blockers over it to make sure that she couldn't use it, at least to it's full potential. She could access a bit of it, yes, but only a fraction of it's power.

After that, they booted her out of the outpost, and let her go about her own life. She started a new life in Atlas under the tutelage of now General James Ironwood (She was but one of his students. Winter Schnee was his most famous protégé), Took a major in military and Hunter courses, as well as training under several of the most well known fighters and teachers in Atlas, and finally was hired to become a bodyguard for Weiss Schnee as she journeyed to Vale to take up a Hunters' license away from Atlas (Ciel didn't really understand the logic of it, but then again, this was the Schnees they were talking about, they could do whatever they want for whatever reason).

All of this, all of the decisions and the reasons... She found that with her choices, she had little choice at all. All because of her semblance.

And now the Grimm were here, on the edge of the Valerian city, within and expanded out of the Emerald Forest, slaughtering her fellow initiates. A Grimm leadership in the Ascendant Court- Something that has never happened before on this scale or extreme- Was on the rise, and directing the Grimm, all with purpose. All with motive.

The Grimm could've slaughtered them easily. They could've simply overrun their positions back in the bunker and killed them. They could've used their massive swarms of aerial Grimm to bomb the initiates. They could've surged into the tunnels below the Emerald Forest and surrounded them.

But they didn't. They could've, but they didn't.

They were after something. They were after someone.

_Are they here... Because of me?_

Ciel quickly shook the traitorous thought out of her head. Nobody noticed, luckily. There was no way the Grimm could've known. They had to be after someone else.

_Right?_

…

They wouldn't get her. The Grimm wouldn't get their hands on Ciel, nor her semblance. She'd die before that happened. She'd slit her throat and drain the blood from her before that happened.

No one could use her semblance.

No one could have it.

No one at all.

* * *

Eventually, after 2 hours of walking, dotted by the occasional seconds long stop, the scouts found the clearing to the burning airship, and signalled to the rest of the initiates that it was clear to move through (At least, as far as they could see). Parting through the trees, the army of initiates came to see the still burning wreckage before them.

The airship was massive. Standard Atlesian design by the looks of it (Jaune remembered the design of it from Remnant: The Game, when he was playing it with Viola and Apollo back in Jewel), Though the hull was riddled with, er, holes, and many of the spines on the back were fractured and split in half. Fires riddled the ravaged ship, and the bottom of it was embedded in a still smoking crater that sat in the middle of a large plain, surrounded by a thick forest named something that Jaune couldn't remember. Shards of broken metal jutted the area, some of them melting and bending from the flames, others coated red with blood. Spots of gore were scattered across the ground, some of them with somewhat intact bodies, others just splatters of viscera and fabric, the remains of airmen who had either jumped or thrown out of the airship in flight, and had hit the ground hard. The fires were beginning to die out, the pillar of smoke lessening, and making the air just a little bit clearer.

Jaune just looked over it all and sided, saddened that he was becoming more used to the sight of bodies. Looking back to the initiates, he then went, "Okay, everyone, take 5. We'll search the airship for anything that we can take with us, find any survivors, and then we'll move out again to Vale", this got a chorus of nods from the initiates, and they began to scatter once more, either sitting down to rest up, standing around in their groups and continuing their conversations, and many others moving to the airship to assess what was left, and to see if there was anyone left to save. Jaune then looked to the rest of High Command, and went, "Hey, do you think that... You think that we can move the bodies here, to... I don't know, somewhere more respectable?"

The rest of the group nodded in understanding (Except Cardin, who just grunted in frustration and marched away), And with that, they began to grab out and move the bodies into organised files and formations, hopefully out of sight from a good majority of the initiates.

As he went to grab one of the bodies, he felt someone tap his shoulder. Grabbing his sword, he flipped himself around, only to see Blake looking up at him, "Oh, er, Blake, er", he nervously sheathed his sword once more, "Um, sorry about that, er, yeah."

"It's no problem", Blake coolly said, before going, "Me and the other scouts are gonna continue on and make sure that the path is safe", Jaune looked to her and began to object that they should get a bit of rest, but Blake came back with, "I know, but still, it'd at least make us feel safer to secure the area before we move, and we can get some good reconnaissance on the path before us, as well as any obstacles that could get in our way."

Jaune paused, before understanding her logic and sighing, "Okay then, but you know the drill, don't go too far, stay within signal range, and get back here as soon as you can", Blake nodded, and she went off, first to the group of scouts, and then with all of them as they moved on into the forest on the other side of the clearing, their mission clear to them.

"Interference is still up", Jaune heard DJ say, and he looked next to him to see the Techion talking to him, "But it's getting weaker. We're still in its range though", he pointed up to the still raging battle, now in a stalemate, it seems, "As is the Valerian fleet up there", he looked back to the airship, "I'm not picking up any signals from the airship, though. No important ones, at least. All of the communication signals are gone. Nothing's there, and- Look up there", he pointed to the top of the airship, "The signal/communications antenna is smashed. I doubt that we'll be able to use anything on here to boost a signal through the jamming field."

Jaune hummed, and went, "What about the systems on the airship that're just turned off? Surely there're a few things on there that can be booted up?"

"Perhaps, but I don't know", DJ replied, the doubt in his voice punctuated by its electronic undertone, "S'worth a look, I suppose."

"Alright then, do what you can", Jaune replied, reaching for the body that he was trying to pull along in the first place, "Just try, please."

DJ nodded, and the bulky Techion sauntered off to the airship, readying himself to pick apart everything that it had in it. Jaune muttered something to himself, and then grabbed the bloody body by his shoulders, and pulling him along, trying not to throw up as the putrid smell of death finally hit him.

* * *

The Valerian fleet has been brought to a stalemate against the Grimm forces: Any progress that they make and made was forced back by the Grimm, and vice versa. Humanity pushed, the Grimm pushed. And all the while, their numbers continued to dwindle and dwindle more, each of their advantages balancing against their own and the other's weaknesses. The Grimm fought and took advantage of their numbers and flew in great swarms, throwing themselves against the humans and Faunus and sacrificing themselves in great numbers so that they may take another life, negating their fragility and simple-mindedness, while the Valerians took advantage of their higher powers of thought and mind, as well as their auras and semblances to take down droves of Grimm, sending hundreds of them falling to the grounds in thick black smoke, negating their lack of numbers and panic.

 _"Too th-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-An't send our gu-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-Ative on rescu-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-Ay again nega-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}

Ozpin didn't need to hear the rest of Coco's message to understand the point, as he watched a Bullhead be ripped apart by energy blasts from a Grimm gunship, and then plummeting to the ground, the burnt corpses of the Hunters within falling with them. There were too many Grimm to launch a rescue mission for the initiates down below, as any attempts to go down have been rebuffed by the swarms of Grimm with violent force, sending any surge of Bullheads back with fireballs and red flashing lights. Same with any major Grimm surges into the fleet's formation, as they were picked apart one by one by the cannons and turrets of the airships and send tumbling down in turn.

The _Winchester_ was still unloading it's cannons into the Valerian navy in a full broadside, firing off it's entire payload into the _King's Sword_ , which had taken up a broadside position as well so that it could shield the more vulnerable airships behind it, and releasing a full salvo of it's own, each of the massive airships peppering each other with dust rounds and missiles, explosions rippling the air and clouding their surroundings with black smoke and orange fire.

The Grimm began to encroach on the fleet, squadrons of Grimm fighters encircling and outflanking the navy's formations, effectively surrounding the Valerians in the air. Spraying rounds into the fleet from all sides, this allowed for the rest of the airborne Grimm to follow suit and completely entrap the fleet, pushing them more and more together, and compressing them into a small, enclosed circle in the air, with the desperate gunners, soldiers, and Hunters fighting as hard as they could to keep the Grimm from destroying them.

It looked to be worthless, though. The Grimm were encroaching on them every second, picking apart their ships piece by piece. Bodies drifted to the burning ground below by the dozens as one airship after the other fell in a spectacular explosion for each of them. More red than blue filled the air, as the Valerians were backed into a corner, firing wildly as they tried to take as many of them down before they themselves were killed. They'd kill as many Grimm as they could, for honour, and for Vale.

For a while, it looked like their fates would be exactly that. It looked like they were going to die, it looked like the Grimm were going to finally end them.

Until it didn't. Until they didn't.

First, it was the _Winchester_ , its Grimm corrupted engines blaring angry red and blue lights, and then shifting away from it's broadside on the _King's Sword_ , shooting off a last few rounds before flying away in some other direction. Shortly after that, it was the new Grimm types- The gunboats and the fighters- That followed closely behind it, completely disregarding the Valerians as they flew after the airship, moving into formations and squadrons and flotillas as they glided through the air alongside each other. And after that, the animalistic Grimm followed after them in a trickle, some of them choosing to fight on a little bit longer, before flying off and trailing behind the airship at the front in a cloud of darkness.

Glynda was confused, as was Ozpin, but it was the headmistress who spoke up first, "What are- Where are they going? Why are they breaking off from the fight?" she looked from the front viewpoint to Ozpin, and went, "Have the Grimm ever displayed this type of behaviour before? No modern records have any reports of Grimm backing out of a fight. Their basic instinct is to fight to the death, isn't it?"

 _Only since the Cataclysm_ , "I don't know", Ozpin lied, though he could tell that Glynda didn't believe him, but didn't speak up about it, if only because they didn't need to start sharing uncomfortable truths with the 2 professors with them who were not in the know, "But then again, this has been a day where the Grimm have surprised us quite a bit", _and their master_ , Ozpin thought, knowing that Glynda was thinking the same thing.

"Um, headmaster?" Ann said, and quickly pointed to somewhere beyond the now ended battle zone, "The Grimm, they're heading towards that smoke pillar over there."

Ozpin raised an eyebrow, and looked to where Ann was pointing, to see the trees on the ground giving way and toppling over, and the plains now covered in black moving shapes. Every single Grimm, numbering in the tens of thousands, in and around the Emerald Forest was on the move, all of them wrapping around into a massive circle, and moving towards a pillar of smoke in the distance.

 _The_ Grimm Tidings _, the airship_ , Ozpin remembered, and squinted his eyes to try and see the crashed airship, and see why the Grimm were encircling the airship, _Why do they want the airship? It's destroyed? Surely there's nothing left of it for them to take?_

"Hang on a second", Harold said as he pulled up a camera feed from the camera built into the Bullhead, focused it on the crashed airship, and enlarged the image, "Lemme see what they're... Oh no."

Ozpin, Glynda, and Ann looked at the zoomed in image, and their eyes widened, a realisation and feeling of horror coming over them. They could see colourful bodies moving here and there across the airship, unaware of the impending death coming towards them, as they talked, explored, sat, stood, laughed, and cried.

The Grimm weren't after the city.

They weren't after Vale.

They were after the initiates.

* * *

"So", Blake began, Ren looking over to her as they climbed over an old, uprooted tree, and continued walking forward at a cautious, yet brisk pace, "What do you think?"

Ren queered an eyebrow, "About?"

"About everything so far", Blake coolly replied, "Or, well, everything that has happened today, so far, I suppose."

"You mean our current situation?" Ren asked as they stepped over a small stream of water, mindful not to slip into it.

"Mm hm", Blake hummed.

Ren looked to the side for a few seconds, carefully moving a branch out of his way as they walked, before he looked back at her and replied, "I'm not sure, myself. I haven't really paid much mind to it."

"Really?"

"Really. When it comes to situations like this, I tend to focus myself on the situation itself, and the different variables and factors in play, and not much of anything else. I focus on my priorities, and go from there", he didn't shrug, but he made a slight gesture with his head, "I try not to let my emotions or personal feelings control my actions, in times like these. Of course, there are times where my emotions do get the better of me, of course, I won't deny that, but I at least try to distance myself for the more emotional parts of a problem, so that I can find the most logical solution."

Blake hummed in response. That was an alright way of looking at things, she supposed, unsure of what she was exactly looking for when she'd tried to start a conversation, and thought for a response, "So, you detach yourself from a situation."

"In the emotional sense, yes, I suppose", Ren replied, "I know it sounds cold, but I find that it helps when assessing a situation."

"Hm, I suppose", Blake responded with, before going, "What about that girl that you were with yesterday?"

"You mean Nora?" Ren asked, his voice just a little bit more pitched.

"If that's the name of the ginger girl that you were hanging around with, then yes", Blake said, "You seem close to her, right?"

"If you think that I'm going to treat her like a tool or something and won't and don't feel anything for her then don't", he said with a hidden edge to him, "Don't."

Blake recoiled a slight bit, and looked down and went, "Sorry."

Ren hummed in response, moving a stray vine aside.

"You didn't answer my first question", Blake said.

Ren sighed, a hidden tone of slight frustration in him, and went, "I think that while the situation is bad, dramatically and ridiculously so, there is still something that we can salvage from it. We have a good plan-"

"One that is plagued by the major flaw in hoping that the Grimm will just ignore us and pay attention to the Valerian fleet up above", Blake interrupted, now pondering as to why she could no longer hear the sounds of battle for a second.

"Yes, there is that, but what else can we do?" Ren asked in all seriousness.

Blake pondered, and conceded, not being able to think of anything else. The city of Vale was the closest settlement to them, and by far the safest, and every other settlement was too far away, and also meant that they had to pass the Emerald Forest in one direction, and face possible pockets of Grimm that'd only hinder their progress and widdle down their numbers more than they have before. While risky and fraught with major dangers, the plan that they had was the best and only option that they had.

"Still though, I'm not that confidant in our leadership at the moment", Blake said, hopping over a moss covered stone, "Not that confidant in High Command."

"You mean Cardin?" Ren asked, and then chuckled with, "Have you ever heard of narcissistic personality disorder?"

Blake shrugged, and went, "Well, him, and Arc."

"I don't think Jaune's that much of a narcissist", Ren said, "I'd say that he seems quite modest, in fact."

"Yeah, well, I didn't really mean that", Blake began with, "I meant that I'm not exactly confidant in his leadership. Forgive me for sounding rude, but in my opinion, anyone could've come up with the plans that he has."

"And yet no one stood up and pointed this out either", Ren stated, silencing Blake, "Sure, someone can make up a plan, and sure, what we do have, and what Jaune came up with was rather obvious, but no one else spoke up, did they?" he paused, before going, "Yes, one can think of a plan, but there are also those who can follow through with that plan as well, and lead others around them."

"A difference between leaders and followers", Blake put in.

This time, Ren did shrug, and he said, "Sure, I suppose. There are those who are able to lead and rally everyone around them, and there are those who can't. I personally believe that Jaune is in the first category. Cardin, obviously, is in the second."

Blake looked down at the grassy and plant covered floor as she skipped over a tree root, letting out a quiet grunt in response to Ren.

It made him curious, "You don't agree with me?"

"I suppose I just don't trust leaders. I don't trust most leaders", she paused, before going, "Too many of them cling to their badges and their power and whatnot, always biding for more and more, never changing anything for the good of the people and those around them unless it suits them", she paused again, "The Wolves would never have militarised if the councils just listened to them, and so many pointless wars and conflicts, like the Great War, or the Rights Revolution, or the Coca War, or the Colour Revolution, could've been avoided if the leaders weren't so selfish and just learnt to share and get over themselves."

"Hm", Ren grunted, before going, "That's a rather bleak way of looking at things."

"You're an optimist?" Blake asked.

"I suppose", Ren said, "And I'm also a bit of a realist."

"Same here."

"Well, you seem to be a bit more on the depressing side of realism... Ism", Ren paused, before going, "While I'm aware of the inherent flaws of man as a whole, be it its leaders to the ordinary person, I am a believer in the inherent goodness that all men and women, regardless of who or what they are", Ren explained, "No one is born inherently good or evil, but everyone is born with the capacity for good more so than the opposite."

Blake stopped herself for a second, thinking to herself, before continuing on and going, "That's a very hopeful way of looking at things."

He hummed in response, "Yes, well, when you've been with a girl like Nora for so long, you tend to adopt a bit of her optimistic view of life."

She smirked a little, "That Nora girl... She's a real optimist, isn't she?"

"Yeah", Ren chuckled, "She's definitely something..."

Before they could continue on with their conversation, another initiate- A female Faunus with crab arms and claws named Reid- Burst through the foliage, covered in her own blood, and fell to the ground, her legs almost completely shredded and torn, the shell on her arms broken and shattered into pieces, revealing the veiny, pale flesh below. Reid looked up at the 2 scouts, part of her head and her ear missing, revealing the skull below, and she spluttered out, "G-Guys, you need to-"

She was interrupted by a barbed tentacle piercing through her throat from the bushes, followed by another and another, before the tentacles flung out and ripped her head off at the neck, sending her head flying and blood erupting from the stump of her throat.

From the bush, a Grimm with a spherical body covered in bone plating, and with now bloody barbed tentacles emerging from the bottom of its form, emerged into the clearing from between the trees, floating above the ground, a stain of fresh wet crimson dripping down it as it spread its barbed wires for tentacles out, expecting a melee.

Blake and Ren disagreed, raising their guns- Ren his pair of bladed automatic pistols, and Blake her Gambol Shroud- And fired off green and orange rounds into the bulbous Grimm, shattering its glass bulb like body, but still not killing it. This didn't bother Blake, as she jumped up and hopped onto the Grimm's shattered bulb, slicing off several of the creatures tentacles, and then stabbing her sword into the Grimm, killing it, and letting the body drop to the floor.

What kind of Grimm was that? A scout, perhaps?

Her question would be answered a few seconds later.

Blake, with her heightened senses, could hear a massive shift of noise in the air, a harsh, yet still faint rumbling filled her ears, like a vibration in the air, with hushed alien calls and shrieks calling out to her. It felt like it was all around her, clawing at her and telling her of its approach.

She looked around. She couldn't see where it was coming from. Too many trees. Too much foliage. Except at the top of the trees. She stabbed her sword into a nearby tree, and used it as a rung to jump up and claw her way up the tree's bark, her ribbon summoning the blade back with a strong tug. Ren called out to her, but she ignored it, focused on her mission, and not on whatever he was saying.

She would come to regret not listening to whatever Ren was saying, as when she reached the tippy top of the tree, and looked around, her eyes, more advanced than any human, zooming in on the sound in her ears, and then widening at the sight. Fear clogged her heart, and her mouth began to jabber, trying to make sense of all that she was seeing before her.

An endless tide of darkness was descending upon them, knocking down anything in their way as they marched, unstoppable and insatiable in their lust for blood. The skies were clogged with darkness, an oppressive black cloud, while the trees below on the ground were being knocked down, black smoke rising up from the crowd, and smothering what part of the sky was still clear in darkness.

The animalistic Grimm populated the front of the massive army, Beowolves, Manticores, Dromedons, Ursi, Ravagers, Boarbatusks, Goliaths, Weavers, Lancers, Ziraphs, Beringels, Griffons, Sphinxes, Creeps, Jackalopes, all of them populated the grounds and air like an infestation, or more specifically, like cannon fodder, useless beasts uncaring at the cost of their lives, unlike those beyond them. Behind the beast Grimm, the new Grimm marched in formation, the ranks clear and the formations smart. Disciples, Barons, Priests, Life-Givers, those Puma like robotic Grimm, the gun faced clocked Grimm, Ascendant Beowolves, and a new Grimm type: Mechanical behemoths larger than the Brothers Grimm, with a diamond like body and a glowing red turret at the bottom of it, that moved around on massive, bulky legs that were covered in thick armour, its diamond shaped body swaying side to side as it marched forward. In the air, an airship covered in Grimm bone- The same one that was suppose to be fighting the Valerians in the air- Hung over them all, the new Grimm crafts flying around it like bees to their queen, moving in flights and squadrons and formations.

And yet, in the middle of it all, atop a shattered hill that overlooked it all, they stood. The Ascendant Court. All of them stood on the hilltop like sentries and statues. The Brothers Grimm- The Brother of Light, and the Brother of Darkness- As well as their flunkies in Axis the Greater Invasive, Nexus the Greater Overmind, and Oxus the Greater Corrective, as well as the Beloved Soul and the Desired Soul. Around them, an entire legion of Architects and Royal Disciples stood guard, a private army in the Grimm horde, standing guard for their court like knights on watch.

Yet, with them, another figure stood, only this one was so much more different than the rest of the Grimm that surrounded them. It was human sized, and human shaped, covered in a full cloak and mask that covered their entire body from view, their pupils piercing through the darkness of their cloak with a glowing red shine, with nothing distinguishable on them to tell who they were, apart from 2: A diseased blade in one hand, black fog rising from its blade as it hung in their wrist, and a white, red, and gold butterfly pendant that sat in the middle of their chest.

The figure swung their blade and pointed it forward, and the vast sea of Grimm let out a cacophony of cries and shrieks, that echoed throughout the world around them, and burst into Blakes ears like a loud bang. She looked away from the massive crowd of Grimm ahead of them to see where else they could go to, because that direction was-

No...

It wasn't just that direction that the Grimm were advancing from.

It was every direction.

All around them, there were Grimm everywhere. The hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of them had formed a ginormous, closing circle around them, flattening the ground and any trees in their way as if they were an inconvenience. The sky began to blacken from the amount of Grimm that controlled the air, and creating a giant wall in the air that blocked out anything from getting in.

And they were coming closer and closer.

With a hand that shook slightly, she pulled out her scroll, and called a recently added number, "Arc? Jaune Arc? It's Blake. We have a massive problem."

* * *

"No one's left alive in there, boss", Flynt said to Jaune, as he and DJ stood side by side, while Tusks and Ciel stood at Jaune's side, all 3's hands stained with blood from the bodies that they'd been moving. Nearby, Pyrrha and Lavender were moving around the wounded, with Ruby sticking by Yang's side, or more Ruby talking about something and Yang letting her talk on. Cardin meanwhile leaned against a shard of metal that'd been embedded into the ground. The rancid smell of death slunk through the air, putrid and horrid, like a rotting fruit that was making everyone around the airship feel sick. Flynt continued, "Grimm got to them, or each other. Hanger was totalled, no Bullheads or Dropships that we can use. They're all smashed beyond repair."

"The communication systems are all fried as well", DJ put in, "Nothing's left that could possibly boost a signal to Vale or the Valerians", he paused, tapping his metal finger against his faceplate, before adding, "There are a couple AK-130 androids that are still intact in the ship's hold, as well as a few UGVs- Er, little drones, in case you didn't know- That we can power up and take with us, but I think they're all out of battery, or something."

"Oh, I think Nora has an aura or semblance thingy whatever that has something to do with electricity", Jaune pointed out, "And I think there's a Techion here called, er, I think he's called Voltage, or something, that can control electricity. They might be able to do something about it. If not then they might know someone here who has-"

"You wanted to see me Fearless Leader?"

-AH!" the group jumped at the surprise presence, "N-Nora! When did you get here!?"

"When you called me, silly!"

"B-But", Jaune then pointed to the top of the airship, "Weren't you up there just a few seconds ago? As in literally a few seconds ago? At the top of the airship? Admiring the big cannon up there?"

"Yep!"

"But... How did you..."

"I'm very quick."

"...O... Okay then", Jaune hesitantly said, before deciding to roll with it, and went, "Say, your, er, aura... Semblance... Thingy... Whatever, er, it's got a thing to do- Er, sorry, it's got something to do with energy, or electricity, or, er, something like that... I guess."

Nora nodded, "Yepparoni!" she chirped, "I can use electricity to amp up my muscles", she presented her 'Guns' to them, "Makes me super strong", she adopted a smug look, "Well, stronger than I already am, can I just say?"

"Er, alright then", Jaune said in a nervous tone, "Um, well, DJ here found something that might be in need of your semblance, right?"

DJ looked at him and tilted his head to the side. Jaune couldn't tell what his facial expression was, seeing as his face was a glowing red visor and faceplate, but somehow, he could tell that it was a 'Don't you dare leave me with this woman' expression.

"Ahaha, okey dokey then!" Nora smiled as she grabbed DJ by the arm and pulled him along with her back to the airship, "Lead the way, oh red robot man!" ignoring the fact that she was dragging him along, and not the other way around.

DJ looked at him again, and Jaune could tell that underneath his metal plated helmet, he had a 'I hate you so much' expression.

"Er, alright then", Jaune continued, before looking to Flynt, and going, "Right, lets give ourselves a few more minutes, wait for those 2 to come up with something, and then we'll make a move again. It'll probably get dark by the time that we reach-"

A chorus of faint, shrill cries echoed through their surroundings, surprising everyone, and worrying them to no end. Some of them started to panic, worried as to what would happen to them. The sound triggered a few of the initiates' trauma and PTSD from the day, and they began to curl themselves up onto the ground and either rock in place or cry.

Jaune then felt his scroll buzz in his pocket, and he pulled it out and saw the caller ID, pressing accept and placing it against his ear, "What's up?"

 _"Ar-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-Jaun-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-T's Blak-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-E have a massive probl-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}

"Woah, woah, Blake, slow down, I can hardly- What's wrong? What's going-"

 _"GRIMM, AR-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-Ousands of them-"_ , {KKKSSSHHH}, _"-Ll around us!"_

"Wait, what did she just say?!" yelled Weiss, who'd been standing nearby practicing with her newly acquired bow and arrow, who then demanded, "Put it on loudspeaker."

"Er-"

"Put it on loudspeaker, Arc!"

Jaune did as he said, and as he did, a crowd of initiates gathered around them to hear the commotion, worried for themselves and each other, numbering around 50 at the moment, and steadily rising.

"Er, Blake", the Arc scion hesitantly began, "Could you, er, please repeat?"

 _"Oh for-"_ , {KKSSHH} The signal was slowly starting to clear up, and the sound of running could be heard in the background, _"-Rimm, Arc, all around us. There's g-"_ , {KKSSHH}, _"-Undreds of thousands of them!"_

"Thousa- Wait, Blake, what direction? Where are they coming from?"

 _"EVERYWHERE! They've forme-"_ , {KKSSHH}, _"-Ircle around the airship, and-"_ , {KKSSHH}, _"-Marching on our position as we speak!-"_ , {KSH}, _"-E're completely boxed in! We can't go anywhere! We're stuck at-"_ , {KSH}, _"-Irship! We can't walk out and we can't fly out!"_

"The hell- Hold up", said one winged Faunus initiate, who's wings then began to flutter, "I'mma fly up and see-", Jaune didn't hear the last part of his sentence, as the initiate flew up to above the trees, and looked around in a circle, taking in the world around him (The initiates with flight capabilities hadn't taken off before in fear of attracting the attention of any packs of airborne Grimm in the sky, thereby drawing attention to the initiates caravan).

After a few seconds, the winged initiate, with a frightened look on him, fell back to the ground with a mighty {THUD}, a coloured glow coming over him and absorbing the damage as he smacked against the muddy ground.

Another initiate- A Techion with wolf ears and organic body, save for robotic arms and large, as well as boxy blue shoulders with speakers built into them, as well as a blue shirt with the Techion logo on its front, and the name 'Boombox' written above in in a bold highlight- Ran up to the winged initiate on the ground, and went to pull him up, "Woah, dude, are you okay?!"

The initiate muttered something. 'Boombox' enquired as to what he just said, and he loudly replied, "Thousands of them! Hundreds of thousands! There's thousands of Grimm all around us! They've called off their fight with the guys up in the sky just to come here and kill us!"

"Is there a way out of here?!" Jaune called out to the winged initiate, who'd now been pulled up to his feet by Boombox, "Anyway at all?! What about the Valerian airships?! Are they-"

"They're sitting up there like LEMONS!" the winged initiate yelled out, "They're not making any effort to try and get to us, and even if they did, the Grimm are making a giant dome around us that they'd need to punch through! There's no way outta here! We're completely surrounded and utterly screwed!"

"Meaning?!"

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK!? IT MEANS WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"

This was the nail in the coffin for the rest of the initiates, as they began to panic and try to compose themselves. A few of the initiates, out of morbid curiosity, either flew up to the sky to see for themselves, or began to climb up to the top of the crashed airship to look at the sight themselves, only for them to get their wish, and spread the news of the incoming death to the rest of the initiates, thereby spreading and increasing the panic.

Jaune, for his part, having hung up on Blake, was trying to calm down the fearful crowds of initiates down, but obviously to no avail, the panic in his own voice clear to all, "G-G-Guys! Everyone! C-Can you- Please, calm down! Be calm! We need a- I mean, we need to-"

"Oh, shut up!" Cardin yelled, pointing his mace at the Arc boy with an angry snarl, his teeth clenched and grinding in his mouth, "This is all your fault, you fucking bastard!"

"Hey Cardin, shut up!" yelled Neon from nearby.

"STOP TELLING ME TO SHUT UP, YOU FILTHY FUCKING ANIMAL!" Cardin screeched like a banshee, spit coming from him as he yelled out, "He's the one who got us here! He's the reason we're all about to die! We should fucking kill that little bitch now! Do the world a massive favour!"

"Yeah, it's Arc's fault we're here!" yelled that boy with the mohawk from before, a crowd of other initiates gathering around him and Cardin and throwing in their own agreements and judgements, "I say we string that little fucker up now!"

"Oh, shut up, you idiots!" Razor yelled out, "I don't see you coming up with any ideas!" he looked at Cardin, "Well, any good ideas..."

"Yeah, and if we had gone with your brilliant suggestion, Mr Cardin whatever you're called-", Tusks began, the 'Brilliant suggestion' part of that sentence dripping with sarcasm.

"WINCHESTER! MY NAME IS CARDIN FUCKING WINCHESTER!"

"-Oh okay then, let me amend that, Mr Cardin Fucking Winchester, if we had gone along with your amazing plan, then we would've gone right past the Emerald Forest-"

"We would've been safer!"

"-No, we would've been deader! We would've gone past the Emerald Forest- The same forest that we were trying to escape!- That was and probably still is crawling with Grimm! Meaning that we would've been presenting ourselves to the Grimm on a silver platter! And not to mention that if the Grimm have surrounded us, that means that they would all be coming from the Emerald Forest anyways, from the same direction that you wanted to go!"

"Then we should've marched somewhere else, then!"

"Where else would we go?" Ciel calmly entered the argument with, "Every other settlement, aside from the city of Vale-", she pointed in the direction of the city, "-Is too far out for us to travel too, and how do we know that the Grimm would've circle around us and box us in?"

The arguing continued to go on and on, droning on into a call of yelps and screams. Around them, everything was going to hell. The initiates were fearful and panicking, some curling up into balls and rocking back and forth, some openly bawling, some desperately trying to act tough and bravely, some debating on wherever to end their lives before the Grimm got to them, others just trying to comfort those close to them, while others continued to tend to the wounded, trying to take the wounded and their own minds off of their impending ends, and the rest were still loudly arguing with each other over what to do next, and who was to blame.

Whilst everyone was crying and arguing, no one checked up on Jaune. The boy was having a panic attack, curling himself up into a ball and rocking back and forth as everyone continued to scream around him, his sword clutched in a tight, shaking hand, his knees brought up to his chest.

He'd failed them. He'd said that they'd be safe. He's practically promised them the chance to keep living and he'd failed them. They were gonna die because of him and his stupid decision. Because of him. A tear left his eye and rode down his cheek.

He looked near him, to the wounded and the dying not too far from him. They were hurt because of him. They were dying because of him. Because he couldn't save them. Because he hadn't tried to. Because he was too scared to do so. He looked to the piles and rows of dead near him, the skin spoiling in the now afternoon sun, kicking up the pungent smell, and rotting the air around him. Maybe if he had done better, they would still be alive too. They wouldn't be rotting away outside of a burning wreck, with no one to find them, or take them home.

The smell in the air, the sight of the bodies, living and dead, around him, and the stress and horror of the day made Jaune want to vomit. Somehow, he didn't, and he looked around once more, to the sights of the broken world around him, and the wounded and the traumatised around him, the crippled and the now stunted. All because of him. He looked to the dilapidated airship behind him, an ugly tapestry of modern art, and then he-

…

An airship.

An Atlesian grade military airship.

A crashed, broken, and immovable airship that still had fire on some parts of it, sure.

But an airship with enough size capacity and holding space for all of them, as well as possibly a few fully functional weapons, androids, a medical wing (Hopefully), And possibly a makeshift armoury in there too.

If the Grimm truly are all coming this way from all directions, and focusing on them instead of everything else, then there's the possibility- A good possibility- That the Valerian navy up in the air could possibly regroup and reorganise themselves, and lead a major counterattack, or a surge, or whatever, slice right through the Grimm, and pick them up out of this mess.

He looked to the lines of wounded near him, laid out in formation and covered in makeshift bandages and plasters. They're in the line of fire, and would have to be moved into the airship, preferably somewhere were they can be kept safe, like a medical wing or a cargo hold, and a perimeter would need to be secured in order to protect the wounded.

He looked to the shards of metal and uprooted rock around them. If they could be moved, they could make good cover, and the area surrounding the airship could make for a good minefield if a few people spared any grenades of explosives for that.

However, there was just one massive problem that would get in the way of all of this: The initiates- No, the Hunters. They've earned that name at this point- Would need to be rallied and organised into making this effort. They would need to find a good leader, so that they might bring them under their cooling leadership, get them all to listen to them, and get this plan in motion.

But who? Who would be able to lead them, or rally them, or at least get them to go along with this idea, seeing as they were all now fearful for themselves and crying. Everywhere he looked, he couldn't find anyone who'd be able to do so. Melanie was catatonic, Cardin was screaming and acting like a violent ass, Weiss was ranting about how she had failed her sister, Ciel was comforting her, Ruby was crying her eyes out, Blake- Who'd just returned with the rest of the scouts- Was lying down on the floor trying to collect herself, Nora was hugging Ren to death, Neon was frantically skating around in place, Flynt was just leaning himself against a shard of metal and shaking his head, Yang was trying to console Ruby, holding her hand in a seemingly tight grip. Everyone else was curdled up into their own little balls, talking frantically in groups, screaming and arguing with each other, or just sitting down and taking everything in. Everywhere he looked, everyone was too scared to rally behind. There was no one left to lead them.

Jaune began to panic once more, before a hand clamped down on his shoulder, and he looked behind him and up to see the eyes of Pyrrha Nikos looking at him with tired, yet knowing eyes with slight bags underneath, the blood of the wounded that she had been helping and comforting staining her skin and armour, and mixed with her red fabric, her own skin turning pale, making her look like a ghost, or an angel of death, walking amongst the living, readying them for judgement.

Pyrrha, as composed as she can be, it seemed, looked at him with a straight face and asked, "Jaune, what do we do now?"

He paused, perplexed, before going, "Wha- "Why are you... Why are you asking me?"

"Because you have a look that I know quite well", Pyrrha said, "It's a look where you're coming up with a plan."

"How would you know?"

"You obviously haven't met my father", Pyrrha replied, "He's a bit of a planner", she then muttered something that he didn't hear.

"I'm the one who lead us into this mess, Pyrrha", Jaune simply stated, and then looked down, "I shouldn't be the person that you go to for a plan."

Pyrrha's question was simple, "Who else is there, Jaune?"

Jaune looked up to her, and looked around, looking for someone else again, and ultimately failing.

"Oh, er, I'm sorry!" Pyrrha let out. Jaune looked up to her with a questioning look, "I'm sorry if I offended you."

He waved it off, and asked her, "Why don't you lead them?" he paused, letting the words sink in for both of them, before going, "I mean, you seem confidant enough in yourself, and stuff, and you seem to knows your way with words, so why don't you lead all of us into... Whatever comes next, I guess."

And indeed, some of the Hunters around them, most likely knowing who Pyrrha was from whatever Weiss had said that she was famous for last night (He'd kinda forgotten. Stress of the day, and all that), And beginning to look at her for, well, anything at all, it seems. Guidance, hope, something, anything at all.

Pyrrha winced at this, and shook her head, shooting down the idea with a simple, quiet, "Jaune, I have no idea what I'm doing", Jaune let out a surprised grunt, and Pyrrha elaborated, "I have no idea what we're supposed to do now. I can't think of anything. I can't see anyway out of here. My mind is blank... I was", she paused, looking away for a second, before starting up once more, "I was asking you what we're suppose to do next because I don't know. I was hoping that you'd know... I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For forcing this on you."

"..."

Pyrrha looked away for a second, and muttered something about a champion not stopping an army, before asking once more, "Jaune… What are we going to do?"

"...", he looked into himself for a few seconds, debating on what to say next, before hesitantly coming out with, "I... I think... I think I have something... An idea, but...", he paused, and Pyrrha sat down next to him, beckoning him to go on, "Well, if... If the Valerians up in the air are still actually up there, like, um, like that other guy had said, then there's the chance that they'll, er…", Pyrrha nodded, and patiently waited for him to continue, "Well, there's the chance that they can reorganise themselves and counterattack against the Grimm."

"Well, yes, I suppose so", Pyrrha nodded in response.

"Yeah, so, if they can counterattack, then they could be able to punch a hole through the Grimm, and send in enough ships to pick us all up in the nick of time, you see", Jaune elaborated, "Either that, or they'll draw the fire away from us to themselves, and allow us to make a break for it out of here."

"Well, we'd be travelling on foot again for that last one", Pyrrha responded with, "And if we do, then there's the chance that the Grimm will hound on us and pick us off as we're moving."

"Well, yeah, I guess that's true", Jaune said as he looked down, and then continued, "So, if we start reorganising and moving these metal and rock fragments around us as cover and sort them into, well, at least something of a perimeter, or something, start spreading bombs and grenades around the circle past that area as a sort of minefield, put out as many fires as we can in the airship and move all of the injured in there, so that they won't have to worry about getting shot and killed, rearrange as many guns on the airship as possible and grab and distil as many weapons from the airship as we can around the area, get as many of us in the best positions that are as best suited to our strengths as they and we can, and make some sort of beacon out of the smoke, or something, so that the Valerians up in the air might be able to see us and see that we're still alive, and send down some ships our way, then we might be able to hold out as long as we can, and fend off all of the Grimm around us long enough for the guys upstairs to see us all, pick us up and get us the hell outta here", Jaune didn't notice that he was growing louder with his words, "Heck, if we fight off the Grimm for long enough, then we might not even need to be picked up. We could kill so many Grimm that those court things would see it as pointless to keep wasting themselves on us and leave us alone!"

He was unaware that a many other Hunters had been listening in to him, before one Hunter- A boy, from the sounds of it, in full golden knight armour, helmet and all, with a pike that had a blade made of blue hard light- Chirped up and said, "I like that plan."

"Eh?!" went Jaune in surprise as he looked to the knightly Hunter, and then to all of the others that had been listening in to him. Even the 2 groups of Hunters nearby had stopped arguing with each other to listen in to his rambling, "Er, hehe, um-"

"Yeah, no", Cardin said with an obviously annoyed tone, stalking up to Jaune, mace in hand. Jaune and Pyrrha got up, and the Amazonian put herself before the Arc boy just a bit, but Jaune stopped her by putting a hand against her. Cardin continued on, pointing his mace at him, his face slightly red, "Why, in the fuck, should any of us listen to this moron? He's the one who lead us into this shit show! I ain't taking orders from him!"

"Hey, Cardin, we get it, you have a hate-boner for him", one Hunter- Sora Auburn- Called out, "Do you have anything actually constructive to say, because if not, then shut up, and forever hold your piece."

"Oh, what, you're on Arc's side now?!" yelled the mohawk Hunter, "Typical of the fucking Faunus to side with the bitch..."

"Watch your tongue, boy", Esper called out, "Before I cut it out with my bare claws", she looked at Cardin, "Same for you too, Cardy."

"Shut the fuck up, freak", Cardin snarled, his teeth clenched, and the veins on his head visible.

"Make me, bitch."

Cardin growled, and dove at Esper, a blue light coming from the dragon Faunus' mouth as she grinned and opened up, before Jaune and a few other Hunters got between them and stopped them, Pyrrha holding out her hand and showing off a black glow from it, the same black glow enveloping Cardin's chest armour and forcing him to the ground, while the rest of them stopped Esper from letting out another dragon breath by forcing and holding her back.

"You 2, enough!" Jaune called out, surprised by the firmness in his voice, "We can't afford to fight between each other! Not now!" he paused and calmed himself, before going, "Let them go", the Hunters with Esper let the girl go, a look or amused surprise on her as she folded her arms in front of her and looked onwards at the show. Jaune then turned to Pyrrha, who was still holding Cardin down with whatever her semblance/aura thing was, and just went, "Pyrrha. Let him go."

Pyrrha looked at him, then to Cardin, and back to him, "But-"

"Pyrrha."

That was all that was needed, as she sighed, and the black glow from her hand and Cardin's chest armour blipped away, allowing Cardin to get up and brush off the dirt from him with a shaking hand, before stumbling back and into the arms of a few other Hunters, most of them letting him go and moving to the side, while a few had the decency to hold him up until he was able to stand on his own 2 feet once more.

Jaune then looked around once more. More and more Hunters had gathered around them, and he called out, "Okay, to all of those who didn't hear or have just arrived, I've got an idea on how we can survive this. How we might be able to get through all of this with our lives", he paused for a few seconds, allowing the Hunters to take in his words, before going, "Alright then, here's my idea: The airship near us is filled up with tons of weapons, a few androids- Or robots, or whatever- And more importantly, tons of room inside where we can put our injured. If we can move all of our wounded into a medical bay or a cargo hold, or something, then we can keep them safe from harm and out of the Grimm's line of fire. From there, if we start moving these bits of metal around, and start digging potholes, trenches, and mounds of cover around the airship, and create ourselves an area or perimeter or something, then we can put bombs and stuff outside of the area, and turn it into a minefield, which will kill a lot of Grimm, and confuse and disorientate the rest enough for us to cut them all down. From there, if we hold out for as long as we can, and kill off as many Grimm as we can, then that'll give the flyboys up in the air enough time to regroup and counterattack, and cut a hole in the Grimm, meaning that either the Valerians will send their ships down and rescue us, or they draw the Grimm away from us and allow us to make a run for it, or we can kill so many of them that those Ascendant Court guys will see anymore fighting as pointless and make a run for it themselves."

Cardin looked to the side, and muttered out, "I don't need saving. A Winchester doesn't need saving..."

"Okay, I'm gonna raise the question: Why the hell should we listen to you?" said the mohawk boy with a scowl, to the nods of a few, and the sighs and shaking heads of many others.

"Dude", went one Hunter, a boy with blue eyes and dark blue combed back hair, dressed in grey armour with light grey, almost white outlines, "Can you not?"

"Oh, shut up, don't try to act all high and mighty", the mohawk boy called back with, "He's the reason that we're-"

"Oh, enough of that rubbish!" Neon called out, "I don't see you coming up with any-"

"Neon", Jaune said as he put his hand up and shushed her, "It's fine", Neon paused and looked at him, but then relented, and took a step back. Jaune then looked to the mohawk boy, and then to the rest of the initiates, and asked, "Though her question is valid?" he paused, before spreading his arms out and going, "Does anyone else have any other ideas?" there was a quiet lull afterwards, before he asked again, "Is there anyone here that has an idea, or a plan, or anything, because that's all I've got. That's all I've got in the tank. I can't think of anything better", he paused again, "If anyone has any ideas- Any secret plan, or hidden save, or anything, please, say now."

The silence around the Hunters was all consuming, punctuated by only a bare few mutters and hushed whispers. From the sounds of it, no one had any ideas, or anyway out of this situation themselves. There were a few silent conversations, before they fell silent, and everyone else was just quiet, looking to the sides and to each other, hoping that someone would say something, anything, and gift them a way to go back home.

Until one Hunter, Sora, broke the silence with, "But... How do we know if we're even going to live through all of this?" his question was the obvious one, and on everyone's mind, "I mean, you're basing all of this on the hope of those... Solutions, or whatever... You're asking us to fight and die on just hope."

Everyone looked to Jaune, and those around him, for an answer, desperation in their eyes and writ all over them.

He paused, and then took a deep breath, trying to channel his inner Spruce Willis, before saying, "We'll survive this because we're Hunters. We're slayers of Grimm, paragons of hope, and warriors of the light against the hordes of darkness. Our kind, mankind, wherever it be man or woman, human or Faunus, black or white, have stood against the Grimm for countless years, and we sure as hell won't stop now."

"But we're not Hunters", one initiate called out, "We're just Initiates! We're not ready for this."

"Then it's time to prove yourselves. Time to test your mettle", he shrugged, "It is initiation after all."

There was a long pause. A white void of noise once more. There were a few initiates that were getting a bit pumped up, and a bit more optimistic about the situation, but the rest were still quiet, and uncertain.

The pause continued on, before Jaune spoke up again, "If you don't wanna fight- If you can't raise your sword, or your gun, or whatever, and fight the Grimm as much as you can, then please, take our wounded with you, and hide in the hull of the airship. It'll keep you safe long enough for help to arrive. I'm only gonna ask that you keep the wounded safe, if you choose to."

A pause.

"I'm not ordering you to face the Grimm. I won't order you to fight if you weren't and aren't capable of doing so. I won't order you to do anything you can't or won't do. Instead, I'm only gonna ask. If you say no- If you choose to seek shelter in the airship, until we can be rescued, then do as you will. No one's gonna think any lesser of you, and nobody'll blame you. Not today. For those of you who choose to stay, and fight the Grimm with me, because that's where I'm gonna be, I can't guarantee that we will make it out of this alive. I can't guarantee that our deaths will be kind, or peaceful. I can't promise that we'll be seeing our friends or families again by the end of this day. As was said, I can only offer you hope, and hope alone is no guarantee. But let it be known, today, at this moment, that I will be damned if I let these Grimm bastards get away with all of the lives that they have ended today. I will be damned if I do not make each and every Grimm out there today, pay for each life that has been taken, preferably at the edge of my blade. But, if you choose to stay, and fight, then you will have my eternal thanks, and my eternal gratitude, and my eternal loyalty."

Another pause.

"Fuck, can I be honest with you? I'm not good at speeches. I'm not good at any of this motivational crap. I'm not good at this leadership thing. I'm not good that this Hunter thing. Hell, I'm not good at anything. I'm scared. I'm one second away from throwing up and crying, and I'm another second away from running into that airship myself, locking myself in a closet, and hoping that the Grimm won't find me. I can't promise you anything, except hope. But I do know this: If we can buy enough time for the army men and Hunters up there to spot us, then that'll mean that we will have more and more of a chance of living, and more and more of a chance to see our friends and families once more."

Yang, Ruby, Pyrrha, Blake, Ciel, Weiss, Ren, and Nora seemed to cringe at the mention of family.

"So please, I ask you- Fuck it, I implore you- Help me. Give me the strength to stay out here, and face the Grimm head on. If you choose to fight, then we will carve our names into the minds of the Grimm, here, and everywhere, from now until the end of time, and show them why mankind has survived and thrived for years and years, and why we will continue to do so now and forever. Show them why we have refused to just lay down and die. If you choose to stay in the airship, and hunker down there, then by all means. No one will blame you. You don't need to give any sort of reason, the same if you wish to fight. You don't have to justify your actions, same as you don't have to invite others to criticize or ridicule you for your actions or your reasons. Here, there is nothing but understanding."

One last pause.

"Help me. Please."

There was a long silence. There was much decision making amongst the crowd, quietened muttering and discussion. Jaune wasn't sure if he made the right decision. He wasn't sure if he said the right things, chosen the right words, and so on. All he could do was hope that, in his selfishness, there would at least be 1 or 2 people who'd be with him. He hated the idea of dying alone.

Then, behind him, he heard a shuffling noise coming towards him, and looked behind him to see Melanie moving up to his side, a tight grasp on the dead boy's rifle that she held in her grip. With a single finger, she gestured to the seemingly burnt out engines on the downed behemoth of a warship, and then said, "The airship... It's not flyable, but the engines are still, well, at least somewhat intact. If we set the engines to as full as we can, then we can use them as a- As a jet stream that'll fry any Grimm that gets anywhere near them, or we can use them to- To create a smokescreen or something once help arrives, and use it to help us escape while the Grimm can't see us when we're leaving."

Jaune paused, and went, "Is- Is that possible?"

"Yeah, but the idea's kinda impractical", Tusks raised up with, "I mean, we should be using all of the dust that goes into that process for our defence, though I'll admit, the smokescreen idea is pretty smart."

Next, it was Ruby who spoke up, moving up ahead of the crowd, and wiping the tears from her eyes, before coming up with, "T-There's enough metal bits laying around to make some, erm, make some decent enough cover", she paused, tugging at whatever was left of her skirt, before asking, "W-Where should we start digging trenches?"

"Oh, er, around, um", he paused, looking around, before pausing at the furthest shard of metal not too far away, and points to it and responds with, "See that metal bit over there? Start around there. We'll start digging potholes and trench lines around there, and go around in a circle around the airship", he looked to the winged Faunus once more and asked, "How long do we have before the Grimm arrive here?"

"From now?" the winged Hunter asked, before going, "Erm, I'd say from now, er… Half an hour. At best."

"Half an hour...", Jaune muttered, rubbing his chin, before going, "Lets make it count, then", he grabbed a stray bit of metal as an improvised shovel, and started to move around, "Alright then, let's do this", he looked to the files of wounded near them, "Hey, anyone wanna move our injured into the airship?"

"I'm on it", went Pyrrha, as she, Lavender, Ren, and a group of others began to pick up those on the ground as best as they could, "We'll have them in the airship and be out in but 10 minutes!"

"Wait, we will?" Lavender said, but it was too late. The Amazonian was already running off with 2 wounded slung over her, "Er, I... I guess we will. Oi, someone help us out here, we got a few more guys here that need picking up!" as ordered, a few more Hunters flocked to them, and with that, the last of the wounded were carried off, and taken into the airship.

"Ah, alright then. Hey. who here's got grenades and bombs and stuff?" Jaune called out, to which a couple dozen Hunters stood up and presented their explosives and boom-booms to him, "Alright then, let's start setting them up. Start placing them around the new perimeter, we'll mark it out with potholes and metal shards."

The Hunters in question nodded, and set off on their way, running out and into the circle around them, digging up small holes with their bare hands and carefully placing their bombs and grenades within, being careful not to detonate them by accident, which, either by luck or experience on their part, didn't happen.

Soon, more and more Hunters joined in with the effort, until almost all of them were at work, setting up traps in the trees around the circle with string and bombs, setting and setting up and establishing the perimeter and aligning it with hastily dug up trenches and shards of metal as cover, moving turrets and weapon emplacements from within the armoury of the airship around and into strategic positions, repairing equipment as best they could, and loading up everything that they could on ammo, finishing up the minefield around the perimeter, and placing themselves into strategic positions where they can deal the maximum amount of damage, heavy artillery Hunters and others armed with snipers moved into the airship where they could get the maximum field of view on their enemies, Hunters armed with weapons and semblances akin to guns and projectile weapons placed around the area where they could dish out the most punishment, and Hunters primarily focused on melee moved themselves near to the front, since they were pretty much useless anywhere else (A pretty big weakness in Jaune's opinion, but then again, he was one to talk), As well as using the remaining fires as a beacon for the Valerian navy to see them.

Cardin tried to object, "H-Hey, people! Hey you morons, are you seriously going to listen to this fucking moron?! For fuck's sake, he led us into this mess, and you're all just going to listen to him?! Just like that?!"

No one paid him any mind, too focused on their own tasks to listen to him.

"Hey, you fucking idiots, pay attention to me! Fucking listen to what I'm sayi-"

"Ah, shut up, Cardin", one Hunter called out.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING TELL ME TO-" he was grabbed by a few others, namely the mohawk boy and that boy from before with the brown armour and hair combed to the side. With an annoyed grunt, he shrugged them off, and marched off into the airship, being one of the dozen or so Hunters who chose not to fight and shelter within the airship. Most of the Hunters at work were glad to see him go.

Jaune was not one of them, namely because he never noticed his yelling and leaving, himself too busy digging out a shallow trench with Ruby next to him, too worry about the people choosing to fight and die with him, and hoping to whatever god was out there that the half an hour that they had would be enough.

* * *

The half an hour that they had hadn't been enough.

But it was the best that the Hunters could've had, as they continued to run around and set things up as best as they could, the cacophony of calls and cries from the Grimm all around them echoing over the airship and the forest, signalling the end of their allotted time.

Their half hour had come and gone. The final preparations were underway. Their welcoming gift for the Grimm was ready to be opened.

And just like that, the Grimm unwrapped their first gift.

{KA-BOOM}

Beyond the last few layers of trees, an explosion echoed through the forest, and a fireball rose up from the treelines, spreading its heat across the soon to be battlefield.

{KA-BOOM}

{kA-BOOM}

{KA-BOOM}

Another series of explosions began to rock the forest, throwing around flaming branches and trees with the sheer force from the explosions. The rest of the trees were being pushed down by the sheer force of the Grimm surge, and the gaps between the wooden trunks began to shine a hadean red.

"They're crossing the minefield!" called out one Hunter.

"Everyone, in position!" Jaune called out, and with that, they did, the melee fighters got themselves to the edge of the perimeter, ready to fight, swords and clubs and hammers and axes and the like sharpened and ready. He could hear the cannons on the downed airship- At least, the guns that they could fix- Whirling into place, aiming their guns all around them. Around the circle of the airship, he could see the 2 dozen or so AK-130 drones that Nora and DJ had been able to switch on automatically, all in unison, shifting their arms to blades to blades and guns, steadying themselves, and standing as silent knights and sentinels. The cocks of guns and combo weapons and the like echoed and sounded off around him, and all he could do in response, was steady both his hands, Crocea Mors in one hand, pistol in the other.

Kicking a sniper rifle from the airship's armoury into Ruby's pothole, allowing her to grab and aim it towards the tree lines, Jaune took a shaking step forward, and pulled back the safety on his pistol.

Miltia.

Sun Dance.

Emerald.

Flashback.

Kay Nin.

So many dead, and for what, he didn't know. He doubted that he would ever know, and he doubted even more so that he even wished to know.

He knew that his death today wouldn't make up for all of those that've died today. Nothing ever could.

The sounds of explosions continued, and the trees began to rustle and shift. The red hue glowed brighter and brighter by the second.

But for all of those with him now. For all of those standing here, ready to do or die, partaking what Hunters did best-

He raised his pistol, and levelled it to the trees.

-He'd been damned if he didn't try.

The first tree was shoved down.

The wolf Grimm roared and surged,

And it was Jaune who had the first, loud word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you know what my biggest fear is in this fic? Turning Jaune into a Mary Sue (Or Gary Sue, or whatever). I would absolutely hate for that to happen. I'll have you know that I like my characters with a little bit of character in them, thank you very much!
> 
> So, with that in mind, I'm gonna try and do my best to avoid turning Jaune into a Mary Sue type character, 'cause that would suck. A lot.
> 
> Also, newly mentioned event: Coca War. Basically, it's the Opium Wars, but in RWBY. If anyone here has ever heard of the Opium Wars, you're in the know... Yeah, not a proud moment of my country's history...
> 
> Anyways, with all of that said and done, leave a review, and all of that jazz, and I'll be seeing ya'll later~
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	6. The Long Day part 3: Grimm Tidings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the Grimm continue to fight with the armies of Vale in the air, the Hunters on the ground are forced into a desperate battle for survival as the Ascendant Court gather all around them, ready for the final kill.
> 
> Lines will be drawn, sides will be taken, and nothing will ever be the same again...

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Arc theme:**[ _Last Stand from the Destiny: The Taken King Soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntdQR50il8o) ** _  
_** **Theme:**[ _Call to Arms from the Destiny 2 Shadowkeep soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQRnB9t7JXE)

* * *

These days (As of writing this), Many details of the Surge, or the Turning, or the Ascending, or whichever council approved term or definition was floating around at the time, have been mudded or lost to time, bias, and exaggeration. Times and dates have been contested, locations argued over, and points of view and personal accounts lost to bias. All of these things, as always, natural happenings of the general consensus to wash over the dirt and grime of history and come out cleaner for it. To erase one's mistakes so that they may appear better for it.

However, one unquestioning, all around agreeable truth that almost everyone has come to accept, is that the beginning of this new, dark age for mankind, humans and Faunus all, was the event known as the Initiation Massacre, a terrible, awful event.

On this day, in the forests of Vale, the new Grimm presented themselves, dark soldiers and war machines of death and horror presented themselves from nothing and declared their want for war, waging their slaughter on the poor children of Beacon, and then on the people of Vale. Thousands of people died that day, and with that, all around the world, it was the trigger for the untold hordes of Grimm all across the world to evolve, to change their shapes and take up new, terrible forms, and begin their campaign of terror all across the world of Remnant.

Most remember the day of the Initiation Massacre as the official beginning of the Second Great War, and the dark days that followed ams (As of writing this) Have yet to come.

And yet, there are just a few historians and chroniclers out there that say that the beginning of the Second Great War started not with Vale, but 2 years earlier, in a small farming home in lower Mistral.

A farming home supposedly called 'Arcadia'.

**_Extract from Tooth and Claw: Memoirs of a Wolf, chapter 8: The Grimm Tidings, by Sienna Khan_ **

* * *

The skies were misty and choppy, angry even, the harsh winds blowing left and right, sending the smoke from the ground swirling around high up in and into the air and spreading the fire down below, adding more air and oxygen into the cocktail of heat and ash, and allowing it to fester and burn at the trees, grass, and plants. The smoke, ash, and soot billowing from the Emerald Forest created a dark cloud in the sky that was now moving to block out the sun, casting a black shadow down on the ground below.

On the surface, the mass of darkness continued to converge and form around the small pinprick of silver and green in the middle. Flashes of multicoloured light began to ebb and shine from the circle, and lines of colour began to flash out from left to right into the crowds of blackness, forcing parts of them back, and allowing other parts to surge forward into the circle, pushing forward and surging back like an ocean. Circles of angry orange and black rose up from the ground, and sending fiery columns rising into the air, each one of them accompanied by a harsh chorus of inhuman howls and cries. The dome of monsters that filled the air around the circle began to close around it more and more, blocking out much of the natural light from the circle. Beyond the dome, the Grimm controlled airship hovered in the air, it's fleet of airships hovering around it in formation and tending to it like bees to their queen.

The Valerian fleet, meanwhile, was still licking its wounds, and nursing its bruises. None of them was sure as to what they should do now. Communications were still broken up and jammed by whatever was, well, pardon the repetition, jamming them, and from what they could tell, the only way to get a proper conversation over comms and radio was, surprise surprise, proximity, meaning that they had to get real up close to each other in their airships and Bullheads just to discuss what the hell they were going to do next. As an unsurprising result, this left communications between the airships, more specifically the major ones with the leaders of their forces in them.

This left the fleet and the individual ships within it in a state of confusion. None of them had any idea what to do, and with comms shot, they couldn't exactly put their heads together to think of something. None of them moved at all, content to hang in the air, unsure of what to do next or at all. No one moved back beyond the jamming field in fear or crashing into another airship in the confusion or being labelled as a deserter or whatever else, no one moved forward to the dome of Grimm in fear of being singled out and torn apart, or no one getting the memo and following them in. None of the airships did anything, in fear of something going wrong for them.

It was an absolute mess, is the point.

 _Well_ , Fox said, using his telepathy semblance to communicate with the rest of Team CFVY as they looked through the open ports of the hull in their Dropship, _This isn't good._

 _Yeah, no kidding_ , Coco responded over their mental link, formed by Fox back when they were announced as Team CFVY back at the start of their first year, and now solidified and made permanent over the last year that they'd spent together, _We've got every Grimm from here to Vacuo knocking at our door, and we're sitting up here with our thumbs up our-_

 _Language, Coco_ , she heard Yatsuhashi's voice in her head.

 _Yeah, yeah, I know_ , Coco sent back, looking through the viewport of the Dropship, with her most prized possession (Save for her sunglasses and beret, of course), Gianduja, her lovely portable minigun, shifted into its handbag form and slung over her shoulder, _But it's true. We've got our guys and girls down their, fighting for their lives, from the looks of it, against a whole buffet of Grimm, and we're sitting up here doing nothing about it. We should be down there, pulling the initiates out of this mess, not up here, oh, what was the word, Vel?_

 _Dilly-dallying_ , came Velvet's mental reply.

_Thanks, Bun-Bun. Always know I can count on you._

_Of course, Coco. Happy to help._

_Coco and Velvet's flirting aside_ , teased Fox.

_I'm not- Ah. I see. Joke._

_Yeah, not sure how you'd be able to mess that up._

Coco rolled her eyes at the banter and smiled. These guys were like kids. Stupidly adorable and loveable kids.

And no, they were her kiddies. She would not be sharing with anyone else. As Velvet would say, 'Bugger off'.

 _Wholesome banter aside once more_ , Fox continued, _Coco's got a point. We need to get down there, into the thick of things, and pull our fellows out of that mess, otherwise we'll be digging up Grimm chow from the remains of the Emerald Forest._

 _Grimm don't eat people, Fox_ , Yatsuhashi mind-commed, _Well, they do, and there are instances where they are seen eating individuals, but they regurgitate it up afterwards._

 _Well, thank you, Yatsu, for that mental image_ , Coco went.

_Any time._

_No longer wholesome banter aside_ , Fox went, _Again, I reinstate my point, in that Coco has one of her own._

 _Yeah, Fox is right_ , Velvet said, or thought, or something. Coco gave her a look, _As is Coco, of course. We need to get down in the centre of that mess and save everyone there! Not as many as we can. Everyone! If we don't, if we just leave them to die, then we'll be no better than the Grimm!_

 _Your enthusiasm is as heart warming as always, Velvet, but we need a plan of_ _action_ , Yatsuhashi put in, _We cannot just go charging in head first without a plan. As of now, we have no communication between the rest of the taskforce, Ozpin and Hunters all, and as such, we have no ability to formulate any kind of plan to recover the initiates down below. We cannot just go charging in head first, otherwise we will be slaughtered._

_Well we have to do something! We can't just-_

_Er, guys?_

_What's up, Fox?_ Coco asked with a raised eyebrow.

 _I think someone didn't get that memo_ , a low rumbling could be heard, and he pointed through one of the viewports in the Dropship, no doubt his ADA (Accessibility Dialogue Assistant) Earpiece was feeding him info on what he was supposed to be seeing through the viewport. Handy thing, ADA.

The rest of Team CFVY moved to the viewport that Fox was pointing to, and looked through, to see the massive Atlesian class airship at the tip of the fleet- The only one left, as the first one turned traitor and sent the second one falling to the ground, where all of their initiates were now- Fire off its engines and fly forward and downwards towards the dome of Grimm, its cannons and guns- Or what's left of them- Turning forward and aiming themselves towards the massive horde of dark creatures. Behind the great airship, one by one, multiple other airships, Bullheads, fighters, and Dropships began to kick on their engines and fly after the lead airship as well, while multiple other airships were content to sit still in the air for a while, most likely in confusion, before, reluctantly it seemed, powering up and moving out themselves, creating a steady trickle of ships in a single column as they floated towards the massive bubble of darkness. Next to their Dropship, a Bullhead flew in close. Nearby, a flight of Dragonfly drones- Small robots that were propelled through the air by 4 jet turbines- And a Vulture- A helicopter drone with 4 tubed missile packs on each side of it, and a gatling gun strapped under its chin- Flew past to join with the growing column, as were the few remaining drones that were left (Seeing as the lack of communications between the airships that the Grimm has set up had fucked with the rest of the drone force that they'd brought with them, some of them just dropping to the ground when the jamming went up, and the rest being so confused and directionless without orders, that they were easy pickings for the Grimm).

"What the heck?" Velvet muttered, before sending out, _What is- What are they doing? Where are they going?_

 _I believe the Valerians are following your advice, Velvet_ , Yatsuhashi commented.

The door to the cockpit opened up, and one of the pilots leaned through and went, "Oi, you lot. We just got a comm from the Bullhead near us. The _King's Sword's_ captain's decided to move out for the guys down below, and's passing a message down to the rest of the fleet to follow him in. I guess he didn't wanna sit around and let our boys below get killed."

"But the entire fleet's disorganised", Coco pointed out, "Okay, look, I like this guy's ethic, and all that, and I like that he's gonna go help out the initiates down below, but we've got no plan, no formation or anything, and we're completely vulnerable! We'll probably be Grimm chow by the end of the day if we go along with this!"

"Er, so, was that you guys backing down, or, er, something?"

The 4 members of Team CFVY looked at each other, a telepathic conversation going on between them. With a nod from all of them, Coco looked at the pilot and went, "Nope, just letting you know how it is, in case, you know, you wanna bank out."

"Oh", was the response from the pilot, realising that they were the ones giving him a choice. With a shrug and a light hearted smirk, he went, "Ah, comes with the territory, I guess. You guys get yourselves prepped up. I'll pass the message along to any ships that I can, and then we fly out. Should take about 2 minutes at most."

"Ah, good man", Coco replied with a smirk on her. Good to see that even now, there were people willing to fight against the Grimm, even in the face of death.

The pilot leaned back through the door and closed it behind him, leaving CFVY in the hold alone again. With that said and done, they began to move to their respective positions, Yatsu and Fox, being melee fighters only, were pretty useless in this kind of fight, so they were content to stand by their respective partners and call out targets for them, while Velvet and Coco stood by the hatches on the side of the Dropship's hull, Coco with her handbag clutched in her grasp, and Velvet fiddling with her camera, Anesidora, looking for the right weapon to use.

 _No rest for the wicked, I suppose_ , Velvet mind called to the rest of them, before she summoned forth a glowing blue hard-light copy of Coco's own weapon.

Coco slapped a pair of buttons on the side of the wall, and with that, the doors on both sides of the hull opened up, allowing the air to begin rushing out, and whooshing against her ears. Clamping her beret down on her head, she sent out, _In this case, it's no rest for the just_ , over their mental link, and popped her head out against the loud and hard winds. Through the bellowing smoke and harsh breeze, she could see the column of airships flying out to the dome of Grimm, going forth like a javelin spear towards its target.

 _You know we're probably gonna die, right?_ went Fox, ever the fatalist, as he stepped to the door and took a peak out himself, standing close enough to her that she could hear the faint whispers of ADA in his ear over the loud blowing winds.

"Yeah, probably!" she yelled out, with her actual voice this time. Pressing the hidden switch on her handbag, she didn't need to look as it shifted to its minigun form, and grasped its extra handle, pointing it at the dome as she felt the Dropship shudder and move forward, and called back, "Though we might as well give it our best shot!"

* * *

 _Where the hell is the power generator in this thing?_ Qrow thought to himself, as he made his way through the Grimm infested _Winchester_ , ducking through corridors covered in corpses, gutted UGV drones, and Grimm chitin to avoid patrols of humanoid Grimm covered in purple chitin and armed with rifles, sometimes shifting to his bird form just to avoid any encounters with these new Grimm, though a few times, he was almost caught, and was only just able to get away without being spotted.

He blamed his bad luck semblance, and not his stealth skills. No matter how much his inner Goodwitch nagged to him about it.

He shook his head, and slinked through another corridor, strewn once more with dead bodies, bullet holes, and war wounds, careful to not trip on anything as he- _Ah, for god's sake..._ \- Finally took notice of the maps on the wall that told him where to find the reactor. A map which pointed him in the opposite direction of where he was going right now.

Stupid sem- Why hadn't he noticed those before?

Stupid semblance.

Letting out a course grunt of annoyance, he turned himself around and began to trudge down the corridor, groaning to himself and wishing that he had some of his drink left in his flask, as he made his way to the reactor room once more.

In all honesty, the reactor hadn't been his first choice on where to go on this ship. It was actually the bridge. He'd figured that Venta Winchester had somehow convinced the rest of his crew on the ship to side with the Grimm, and start shelling their own kind. As such, he'd wanted to get to the bridge to 1: Kick Venta and everyone who'd sided with him in the balls and kick their asses from here to Mistral, and 2: Try to take control of the airship somehow (He was sure that there was a manual or something lying about), And use it to kill all of the Grimm on the ground and save his nieces from that mess. Everyone else be damned.

Yet now, the situation had changed. When he got to the bridge, it had been torn up and ripped to shreds. The consoles were shot up and beyond salvage, and a few of them were jammed up with blood and gore. The bodies of the people who'd been in the bridge were ripped apart and shot to hell. Venta himself was dead as well. From the looks of it, he'd been shot through the head before he could even get out of his chair, with half of his head missing and staining everything around it red.

There was only one part of the bridge consoles that was still somewhat intact, and all that it could do was show him a small part of the schematics of the ship, and telling him that in the event of the main bridge being compromised in this model of airship, there was a secondary bridge built deeper into the ship in case of emergencies, right where the reactor should be.

As such, here he was, trying to find the main reactor in this thing, so that he could either take control of this floating metal trashcan, or in the event that he couldn't, blow it sky high, and send its remains falling to the ground and crushing the Grimm below.

And speaking of which, there it was, the reactor room, just down that corridor. Only problem, it was loaded with guards. About 6 or 8. All of them armed, and all of them darting their single eyed heads from left to right, eyeing for anything suspicious.

Oh wait, did he say that it was a problem? Hah, nope. This would be over in 10 seconds or less.

He grasped the weapon on his back, Harbinger, and prepared to shift to his crow form. If he could build up enough momentum by flying down the corridor, he could shift to his human form mid-flight, pull out his sword, and cut off all of their heads in a single swirl, and then, before the bodies even touch the floor, cut his way through to the reactor and kill every single Grimm in there in the blink of an eye. Yeah, that would-

A hand grasped his shoulder.

"Hello there, Mr Branwen", a voice came from behind Qrow. The hand on his shoulder tightened, and began to lift him up, "Would you like to come in?"

The hand pulled him up off of his feet, and began to crush his shoulder, though his aura began to absorb the pressure. With a chuckle, the figure behind him pulled him to the side, and threw him right through the wall, the metal caving in as he slammed through the wall and into the ground, rolling across the cold metal floor, and slamming into a metal console, almost impaling himself on a stray bit of chitin.

Letting out a groan, Qrow looked up in a daze to see where he was. The reactor room. In the centre of the room lit in green lights, was a large spherical object built into a pillar, the sphere rotating in a clockwise position as it channelled power from its dust supplies into the rest of the ship, glowing with a rainbow of colours as it spun on its axis. Around it, the box of a room hadn't many other features, save for the green patterns of lights on the ceiling and down the walls, as well as the doors on either side of the large room, and the array of consoles scattered around the room, each of them now manned by one of those purple bone wearing Grimm people, all of them now looking at him with their rifles in hand. Scattered across the room also were pieces of Grimm chitin and growth, some of it covering the bodies of a few dead Valerian soldiers that, from the looks of it, had been trying to protect the reactor room, and failed to do so.

Qrow started to get himself up, before noticing the Grimm guards from outside the room pouring in, and aiming their weapons at him, the same for the ones at the consoles. It was only when he heard another damn chuckle that he looked to the freshly made hole in the wall, to see the figure from before, now in full view, cautiously walking through, and then looking at him with a smile on their face.

"I apologise for the brashness, Mr Branwen", said the figure, as they stood at full height, and then went, "But, of course, in times of war, one cannot stand for spies lurking about", they paused, before going, "Ah, how rude of me. I haven't yet introduced myself", they cleared their throat with a cough, and went, "I am Persephone, of the Ascendant Court. A pleasure to meet you, Mr Branwen. I have heard much about you."

"I'm gonna take it", he caught himself as he got up, leaning himself against the console behind him, and saying, "I'm gonna take it that Salem is so in love with me that she's decided that she wants to marry me and end this war between her and Ozpin right here right now, because if that's true, then yeah, I am that good. And hot, of course."

'Persephone' rolled their eyes, and went, "Well, I have been told things about that ego of yours", they sniffed the air, "As well as your alcoholism. Have you been drinking?" they tsked, "That is in bad form, Mr Branwen. You really should take better care of yourself than this."

"What the hell are you, my mother?"

"Ah, you raise a good point, I almost forgot, my apologies", they pulled 2 swords from their back, "Alas, I am afraid this is the part where I must kill you. I'm sure you would understand, of course", they paused, before tilting their head to the side, and with a smile, going, "Ah, but worry not, Mr Branwen, for I will make certain that your nieces, Ruby and Yang, are treated well. You have my word."

Qrow leaned forward and narrowed his eyes at Persephone, ignoring the barrel of a rifle pressing into the back of his head, "What. Was. That?"

Persephone pulled one of their swords up, and tilted it to the side, "Please execute him."

Qrow didn't give any of them the chance, shifting into his bird form before the purple rounds of the Grimm around him impacted with him, most of them tearing into the Grimm behind him and turning it into swiss cheese, and the rounds from that Grimm impacting with Persephone's shoulder, burning the fabric and lighting up the aura, though they looked more annoyed by it than anything else. They were to then adopt a surprised look, as Qrow, flying right towards them, shifted back into his human form and slammed his feet right into their abdomen, forcing them to the ground beneath him, and raising his Harbinger, in scythe mode, to cleave them in half. He wouldn't let them hurt her nieces. He'd be damned if anyone laid a hand on them.

However, Persephone would stand to disagree, as when Qrow threw his scythe down, they caught it with their 2 swords, and rolled to the side, tripping him up, and, whilst he was still in mid air, allowing her to grab his feet while jumping up, twirling him around for a moment to build momentum, and then throw him to the side into a wall.

Qrow stopped this by digging his scythe into the ground and catching himself, pulling it up and converting it into its sword mode. Seeing the Grimm people around him with their rifles pointed at his person, Qrow used the shotgun attachment to his weapon to propel himself forward, dodging the bullets and rounds from the Grimm around him as he twirled around in the air and decapitated 2 of the Grimm people in a single swipe, before cleaving another in half, and then tripping another one up and batting its body into another of them, sending them slamming into the wall.

One particularly brave Grimm person let out a growl, and in a blur of motion, its rifle changed into a sword, and it charged forward with a snarl of anger, it ran forward, delivering a blow that Qrow deflected with his blade, and then again, and then again, before Qrow delivered a riposte that slammed itself against the Grimm's armoured chest, piercing the purple chitin, and then pulling the blade upwards, cleaving the Grimm in twain, before using his free hand to grab another Grimm person by their head and slam it against a nearby console with a wet, meaty {CRUNCH}, before twirling around and slicing a Grimm in half by its midsection, and then grabbing it's rifle before it hit the ground and using it to light up another Grimm nearby.

He heard something, and rolled to the side, to dodge the slam of Persephone's feet hitting the ground, and then flipping back up to his feet as they stabbed their swords into the ground, before summoning forth 2 more and throwing them at Qrow like throwing knives. Dodging them, he brought his blade up, and used the shotgun mod on it to propel it down in a swinging motion against them, which Persephone blocked with the swords that they plucked from the ground, before returning their own string of strikes against Qrow, all of which he dodged, whilst still being shot at by the remaining Grimm people.

Yeah, he was that good.

Shifting to his bird form, he flew through 1, 2, 3 swings from Persephone, then to his human form, shifted his Harbinger to its war-scythe form in mid air and used the shotgun mod to bring it down with enough force and momentum to pierce Persephone's aura and shatter it, and cleave them.

Unfortunately, he didn't get them all of the way, and the blade pierced only the fabric and skin, black blood oozing out of the wound. This was enough, however, to send Persephone tumbling back onto ground and crying out, hands clawing at the wound.

This allowed Qrow the time to finish off the remaining Grimm in the room still shooting at him. 9, in total. No problem.

He shifted his war-scythe into its sword mode and got near 2 Grimm people, grabbing one of them and using it as a shield against the hail of gunfire, and then using it's rifle to shoot another Grimm person in the head. 2 down.

He then chucked the rifle at another Grimm, disorientating it and allowing Qrow to slice its arm off, and then its head. 3.

He then used the Grimm as a springboard to jump up into the air and land on top of a Grimm's head and neck, crushing the eye and snapping its neck, before grabbing its body and throwing it into another Grimm, and then throwing his sword up into the air with a twirl and kicking the hilt, sending it rocketing into that same Grimm, pinning it to the ground and killing it. 5.

Shifting to his bird form and speeding across the room, he then once more took on his human form and pulled his sword out of the ground, and parleyed with 2 Grimm people who'd gotten too cocky for their own good, shifting their guns into swords and trying for his dance partners, _Oh well, I'll indulge 'em_ , Qrow thought as he delivered a swift kick to one of them, causing it to squawk out in surprise, as the second one lunged forward and took a swipe at Qrow, its blade connecting with his, to which he swiped it off himself and took a swing at the Grimm, to which the 2 of them did battle with him, their blades connecting with his again and again and again, until Qrow swung his blade and cut it through one of the Grimm people's arms, causing it to cry out as Qrow then stabbed it through the head, and then parlayed a bit more with the second Grimm, before slicing its throat and kicking its head back, knocking it right off. 7.

After that, he jumped up onto a console and leaped forward, shifting his Harbinger into its scythe form and landing right in front of the next Grimm, wrapping his blade around its neck and fired off his shotgun mod, letting the recoil do the work and cut the Grimm's head off. 8.

Grabbing the Grimm's now smoking head, he threw it at the last Grimm person, hitting it right in its own head, and then tripping it up and kicking it into the air, before jumping up himself, and then sending his scythe smashing into the Grimm's body, pinning it to the ground and killing it immediately. And that's 9. Point to him.

He looked back to Persephone, now leaning against a console and soothing the cut on their chest. Qrow snarled at them, and he walked over and stood tall over them.

They looked up and smiled at him, "You... Are as much of a fighter as I was told, Mr Branwen", they paused, before going, "A pleasure to fight you, truly."

"Wasn't much of a fight", Qrow muttered, "More like me kicking your ass."

"Ah, so it was", Persephone replied with, "Oh well, always room for improvement, of course."

"Yeah?" Qrow questioned as he raised his scythe over his head and glared at them, "I don't think you'll get the chance", he would kill them now. He wouldn't let them, or anyone else, get a chance at his nieces. He wouldn't allow it. Once he killed this bastard of a being, he'd take this ship, somehow, and he'd rescue his nieces, and he'd take them home, wherever that would be, and he'd make sure that they were safe, and then he'd kill every Grimm on this planet as well. And he'd be damned if anything got in his way.

On the far wall, a Grimm person that Qrow thought dead, only having been knocked out, pushed the fading remains of the Grimm that Qrow had thrown at it off of its person, and spotted the Hunter towering over its leader, a royal member of it's court.

It snarled, and raised its rifle at the Hunter, firing off an entire clip of purple rounds.

Qrow wasn't expecting it, and was surprised by the rounds of bullets hitting him, though his aura absorbed the worst of the barrage. He twirled his scythe around to deflect the incoming rounds, but failed to notice the foot of Persephone smashing into his own until it was too late, twisting himself around to see them grab his arms and pull him down to deliver a swift knee to his face, the Grimm person from before reloading and now unloading another series of rounds into Qrow as Persephone delivered punch after punch and kick after kick into Qrow, giving him no time to respond, and delivering him no rest or respite, until...

His aura broke.

The Grimm person stopped firing as Persephone smashed their foot against Qrow's knees, crushing the bone and forcing it into an inverted position, grabbed Qrow's arm and bent it back, snapping the bone, and then forced Qrow down to the ground, and continued to deliver punch after punch to his head, first tearing the skin, and then drawing blood, then cracking the skull, knocking out the teeth, tearing his tongue, destroying his cheeks and his nose, shattering his jaw, dislocating his eyes, and leaving him, much to his embarrassment, howling in pain, as each punch seemed to be delivered with the weight of a thousand tons of steel and iron.

Persephone finally stopped their assault, and looked at their handiwork, their knuckles and fists caked in blood. Qrow's face was completely covered in his own blood, and had been completely destroyed, the jaw fractured in half and the bone turned to powder, his skull fractured and cracked in places, his eyes dislodged from their sockets, and one of them turned to mush, his teeth either broken, missing, or embedded in what was left of his tongue, his nose bent to the side, his cheeks torn and broken. His entire face was caved in and mutilated beyond repair, and he was barely able to breathe, blood pouring out of his wounds like a sieve.

Persephone sighed, and went, "I... I apologise for that, but... Sometimes, my... My anger gets the better of me", they shuffled, and scooted his broken leg to the side, "Of course, as I said, we both know how this will end, Mr Branwen", they pulled 2 more swords from their back, and moved them into a scissor position in front of them, "I know you, of all people, will understand."

"F-F-Fuck... You...", Qrow spluttered out, trying his best to spit a wad of saliva at them, but could only dribble out a mixture of spittle and blood, "I-I-I won't l-let you k-k-k-kill... My... Nieces..."

"Kill them? Oh, you fear for their lives. You needn't do so. Death is a natural thing. An inevitability. The only real question, of course, is when, and how."

Persephone moved their blades to his throat, still in their scissor position, and looked him right in his remaining, loose eye, dangling on by a bloody cord. A tear left his socket, as his last thought went through his mind.

_Ruby..._ _Yang... Tai... Summer... I'm sorry... I couldn't... I failed... I failed you..._

"Everything dies in the end, Mr Branwen. But, unfortunately for you..."

The last words that Qrow Branwen ever heard before Persephone sliced their blades through his throat and cut his head off in a messy spray of squaller and gore was:

"The end is here."

* * *

"INCOMING!" came the cry from a Hunter near Jaune, as a dying winged lion Grimm slammed into the ground near them, and skidded across the muddy ground, slamming into a herd of boar Grimm, and running over an undetonated landmine, activating it and setting off an explosion that killed it, the boar Grimm herd, and a large horde of Grimm around it as well, sending the flaming black bodies flinging around the area, with one of them, a bear Grimm flying up, falling down, and then flattening a camel Grimm with a satisfying {CRUNCH}. Nearby, a UGV drone- Small, stubby droids coloured in black and white, about more than waist height, with 2 tank treads attached to them for movement, a bright red optic in its centre for sight, and 2 gatling guns attached to its upper sides- Sprayed a hail of gunfire into 3 stubby 2 legged Grimm, killing them, before it was picked up by a wolf Grimm and smashed into the ground, destroying it.

"We've got a group of Beowolves coming in at our flank!" Razor called out from a bit away from him over the gunfire, explosions, and awful cries of horror and pain, "They've got an pair of Alphas leading them, and they're supported by Weavers!"

"Right, get to our flank and shore it up! You 2!" he pointed to the Hunters next to him, the armoured Hunter with the chaingun and the Hunter in juggernaut armour, "Go with Razor and start shelling those Grimm that he spotted! We've almost got through all of these animal Grimm, and we can't back down now!"

"Apart from the ones in the sky, you mean!" yelled the juggernaut Hunter, pointing his large rifle into the sky to point out the massive dome of animal Grimm floating above them.

"Ah, well, it'll have to do for now!" Jaune called out, masking his own uncertainty with confidence, "Just do your best, you 2!"

"Wait, did that Razor guy say Wea- Ew, spider Grimm!" yelped the armoured Hunter with the chaingun around his hand, firing dozens of rounds indiscriminately into the Grimm hordes around them, "I hate spiders! Can't stand 'em!"

"Oh stop whining, ya big baby and hop on it!" yelled the Hunter in juggernaut armour next to him, "We don't need you weeing yourself now!"

"Omega, Rancor, c'mon! You heard the order! Let's move!" Razor called out, slamming his foot against that of a wolf Grimm's knee, snapping its leg and causing it to growl out in pain, tilting its head back to howl, allowing Razor to shoot 3 rounds into its head and kick it into another wolf Grimm. This allowed Razor to run off to their flank, 'Omega' and 'Rancor' following, and begin bolstering the efforts there.

Sword in one hand, and pistol in the over, Jaune fired 3 rounds blindly into an incoming ape Grimm, and tried to shoot off even more, before realising that it'd run out of ammo. In a cry of annoyance, he threw the empty gun at the Grimm, and readied his sword. The ape Grimm slammed its fists against its chest and let out a harsh cry, before forcing its hands to the ground and stampeding over to him, its mouth open and snarling.

A slab of stray metal, covered in a glowing black hue, slammed into the ape Grimm, though instead of flying back, the Grimm skidded back on its feet, holding the slab of metal in its hands. The black hue covered metal then slung to the side, taking the ape Grimm with it, though it quickly recovered and stood back up with a roar.

Jaune looked to his side, to see Pyrrha leaping in, spear in hand, and covered in grime and dirt, through looking no less ready to fight, her face writ with readiness and confidence, "Was that yours?"

"Er, no, um, not really", Jaune got out, "Er, thanks Pyrrha."

"I think we should be saving that until we survive this", Pyrrha replied with, pointing a thumb to the ape Grimm, "I'm afraid our new friend here doesn't want to be seen off."

"Oh, well then", Jaune said, nervously moving himself into some sort of a fighting stance that he could remember from a video game, his sword shaking in his grasp, and he looked to Pyrrha and said, "Er, after you?"

"Ah, don't mind if I do", Pyrrha replied with a smile, before charging forward and shifting her spear to its rifle form and firing off 2 shots, one for each of the ape Grimm's eyes.

The Grimm recoiled from the shots, hitting its eyes and bruising them, but not bursting them, the beast taking a step back, growling and snarling all the while as it thrashed its head about, trying to shake off the red goo that was beginning to weep from its eyes. This allowed Pyrrha the chance to use her semblance/aura thing and grab the same metal shard from before in a black hue, and throwing it at the Grimm once more, the ape creature being unable to stop it, but was able to catch it in its hands after being forced back by it, and began to try and swing it about, putting a strain on Pyrrha as she stressed her semblance, and began to strain.

However, this proved to be a good enough distraction for Jaune to be able to jump up onto the Grimm's back- He had absolutely no idea why he was doing this! It felt more like a rush of adrenaline and instinct rather than any logical move at all- And then claw his way up its back all the way to its head, before pulling up his sword in one hand, and sheath in the other, both of them shaking in his grasp.

"Wha- J-Jaune, what are you- What are you doing!?" Pyrrha called out to him on the Grimm's back. This proved to be too much for her, as in her distraction, the ape Grimm was able to firmly take a hold of the metal shard pressing down on it and pulled it to the side, the black hue breaking, and Pyrrha letting out a cry of surprise, before the Grimm lifted the metal shard over its head and let out a roar, intending the throw the metal slab at her.

"I- AH!- I have no idea!" Jaune screamed as, in a panic and adrenaline fuelled rush, he shoved both his sword and sheath into the ape Grimm's eyes, bursting them and blinding the beast. The ape Grimm screamed out in pain and pounded its fists against its chest, before lurching and reaching for its back, trying to grab at whatever was blinding it. Jaune let out a cry as he narrowly avoided a grab from the ape Grimm, and then yelled at Pyrrha, "S-SHOOT HIM! SHOOT IT!"

"Oh, er, right! Right!" Pyrrha yelled out before firing off more rounds into the Grimm, punctuated occasionally by her reloading of her gun. The Grimm howled in pain as a few more Hunters joined in, unloading round after round into the Grimm, embedding its bony armour and blackened skin with bullet cartridges, dust blast marks and fresh scars. One Hunter with a grenade launcher fired off 3 rounds into the Grimm, the resulting explosions revealing the glowing red and black gore within.

This wasn't enough to kill the beast, however, as it finally took hold of Jaune by his arm and slammed him into the ground, his sword and sheath still stuck where its eyes should be, the white flaming aura that is his flaring up and shielding him from the impact. The blinded ape Grimm howled as more and more black goo seeped out of its punctured and destroyed eyes, its fists blindly slamming into the ground into a vain attempt to hit him, another rounds of shots impacting with the Grimm, but it paid them no heed, as its fist slammed into one of Jaune's arms as he was trying to shield himself, and it found its target, slamming repeatedly into the boy, his aura flaring up with each hit, but slowly loosing its shine as each hit drained it piece by piece, the Arc boy each time trying to put his arms up in a vein attempt to shield himself, though each time was for nought.

Then, a spear impaled with the neck of the ape Grimm, and it recoiled and let out a guttural roar at it turned its head to the side, only for Pyrrha to leap over it and grab the spear in its neck and rip it out, taking a large chunk of flesh and black blood with it. The beast roared out, and gave Jaune the opportunity to grab his sword, still embedded in the Grimm's eye socket, and twisted it, before violently pulling it out, drawing black and red goo and gore with it, and cutting off part of the head as well, exposing part of the skull and brain. Not giving the Grimm any chance to respond or react, he then, with a roar of his own, stabbed his sword into the black and red bloody chest of the Grimm, where the heart should be, and shoved it in, twisting it and drawing black and red gore and sludge. The Grimm roared and cried out in pain, and Jaune ripped his sword to the side, slicing pieces of flesh and blood off with it.

The Grimm groaned, black blood pooling and pouring out of its mouth as he slumped to the side, more and more rounds from the Hunters pouring into it. Jaune got up to his feet, still shaking, and saw that, despite everything, the ape Grimm was still alive, groaning in pain and swaying its head from side to side.

So he raised his sword above him, and brought it down on the ape Grimm, cutting into its head, and sending black and red stains across the ground and him.

It groaned out in pain, so Jaune repeated the process.

Still alive, so he hit it again...

And again...

And again...

And again...

And again...

And again...

And again...

And a-

He felt a pair of arms wiggle under his armpits and pull him back. He looked behind him to see Pyrrha holding him back, whispering to him, "Stop, stop. You're okay, you're okay... It's dead."

He looked down to the ape Grimm, to see that it was beginning to fade away, black smoke erupting from the shrinking creature. The head, having been cut to pieces, released his sheath from its grip and let it drop to the floor, and with a shaky sigh and unsteady grip, he picked up his sheath, attached it to his waist, and slid his sword into the holster.

Once he felt Pyrrha's arms leave him, it was then when he allowed himself to vomit.

Pyrrha rubbed his back as he heaved and violently unloaded his stomach contents onto the floor next to the fading Grimm, ignoring the still raging battle burning hot all around them. Jaune just kept going until he started chucking up stomach acid, and then, he just started dry heaving until he finally regained equilibrium over himself, and with deep, horridly tasting breaths, he wiped his filthy mouth on his sleeve, and looked to Pyrrha, and breathed out, "T-Thanks... A lot... Thanks a lot, P-Pyrrha..."

"It's no problem at all, Jaune", Pyrrha said as she patted his back, and then grabbed his shoulder, "But, I think we should really move..."

"Ah, you're right", Jaune replied, before looking around to assess the developing situation around them.

Everywhere he looked, he saw nothing but darkness. The dome of Grimm above them was blocking out most natural light from getting to them, save for a few rays of light that got through the cracks between the Grimm. The only thing that was illuminating the world around them were the flashes of gunfire and explosions, as well as the neon lighting from the crashed airship and the many armours of the Hunters, as well as the glow of their auras.

Around them, the Grimm had been charging forward nonstop, heedless of their own losses. In the first half an hour of the battle (They'd been fighting for about an hour now, he reckoned), Jaune suspected that they'd reduced the beast Grimm numbers by about 20%, mostly due to a number of factors that the Grimm hadn't been able to predict or adapt too quickly enough; Namely the traps and minefield that they'd set up beforehand; The few heavy guns and cannons that they were able to get online, and were still in the process of switching on and repairing, which destroyed huge swathes of Grimm with their heavy ordinance and payloads; The AK-130 drones and UGVs that they were able to bring back online, which were targeting and terminating Grimm with deadly precision; The entrenched positions of the Hunters and the barricades and cover points that they were able to set up in the time that they had, as well as their positioning and strategic emplacements; The amount of firepower that the Hunters were packing with them, RPGs, AK-47s, ML-15s, ML-15As, MPX Copperheads and the like, personal drones and machines, grenade launchers, the works; And the sheer level of suicidal determination that the Hunters were packing, all of them around him fighting with a ferocity and tenacity that he had never seen or imagined.

Around him, he could hear the cheers, cries, and yells of Hunters caught up in the slaughter, fighting on and on and on, regardless of the harm that came to them. Ever last stand was one that depopulated the Grimm by the dozens, if not the hundreds. Every Hunter, in death, was now the equivalent of a hundred Grimm, and each living Hunter now was killing them by that number, if not more so. Perhaps, by the end of this day, the kill counts of the Hunters around him would reach the thousands.

The evidence of this was featured all around them. Around the perimeter that the Hunters had made, there was a wall of dead and dying Grimm. A literal wall that encircled the entire broken airship, always in flux as the old dying Grimm faded away and the new hordes of monsters clambered over it in the dozens to try and get to the Hunters, ready to rip them apart by tooth and claw.

However, the major problem came in that there were Hunters indeed making these last stands. The bodies of those who had been bravely fighting and dying for them littered the floor, and more and more Hunters were being overwhelmed and dropping like flies by the minute. So far, their numbers had been reduced by a good hundred people, and if they kept this up, then they would all be dead in the next few hours, unless the Valerians up in the air actually did something and at least drew away the attention of the Grimm from them and allowed them the chance to escape, at the least.

Jaune looked back to the group that'd arrived with Pyrrha, and said to them, "T-Thanks, guys... I mean it. I owe you all one", beyond him, an AK-130 robot was torn apart by a camel Grimm, a cannon shot from the largest gun on the airship tore apart an elephant Grimm, a 3 headed giraffe Grimm, and dozens of other Grimm surrounding them, and Boombox sent out pulses of sound from his shoulder speakers into a swarm of bat like Grimm, the creatures distorting and letting out estranged screams of pain, before falling to the floor dead, black blood pouring out of their ears, though the Hunter was unable to stop a bear Grimm from grabbing the winged Faunus Hunter from earlier and ripping his wings off, and then his head with a swipe of its paw, though Boombox did kill the Grimm by grabbing and snapping its neck afterwards.

"Anytime, sir", saluted the Hunter from before- The boy with the full golden armour and hard-light pike.

"Er, okay, alright then", he muttered, before saying, "Right, lets start moving back and shoring up any holes in our lines", he looked to the side, to see a pack of wolf Grimm clambering over the wall of their dead and surging into their perimeter. He then pointed to the pack of Grimm and went, "Right, everyone, we've got a pack of Grimm trying to bust through! Let's get over there and stop them from getting in!"

"Roger that, sir", said the golden knight Hunter, and with that, they started running off to help out the Hunters combating the wolf Grimm surge, Pyrrha and a few others in the group shooting into the pack of Grimm, and diverting the attention of a few of them and splitting up the group, weakening the strength of the pack and making it easier for the Hunters to kill the Grimm.

"Yo, boss!" Jaune stopped in place and looked to the side to see DJ running up to him, firing off orange blasts from the guns in his arm into a rabbit Grimm, before stopping next to Jaune and going, "The signals from the Valerians airships- They're getting stronger! The jamming field's still up, and we still can't communicate with them, but the signals that they're sending out are getting stronger, which means that they're getting closer!"

"Wha- Really!?" Jaune said as he cracked into a smile, "W-Well, can you tell when they're gonna get here!"

"Er, I don't know. Maybe half an hour, or around that time! Depends on how the Grimm'll… Er…", DJ looked up, and the darkness of the sky began to clear up.

"What? What is it?" Jaune looked up to where DJ was looking at in the sky, "I don't... Oh."

The massive dome of aerial beast Grimm was moving. Many packs of Grimm began to flock and fly away, first individually, and then in pairs, and then in groups, and then in flotillas, moving one after the others, until soon, all of the beastly Grimm that made up the dome above them had flown away in a massive swarm, allowing the blinding daylight to shine on down onto the circle of Hunters below, blinding them for a second, before they could see the few clouds in the baby blue sky. The Grimm below, once harder to see in the darkness, now stood out greatly in the light, and were made even easier to target and eliminate. In the distance, the Hunters could see a column of airships- The Valerian fleet- Floating towards the circle of Hunters on the ground, with the massive swarm of Grimm flying off towards it, the horde now firing off long range feather quills, harpoons, fireballs, and the like at the airships, while they in turn were fired upon with missiles and blue lances of light. Hovering above the ground, the Grimm controlled airship began to fire long range rounds into the Valerian fleet, acting as some sort of sniper platform for the Grimm, while most of the smaller flights of Grimm crafts- The Vetols and Carriers- Joined the swarm of Grimm in the air, flying out in squadrons and flotillas, while the rest of them began to hover above and around the bunker of Hunters, creating a blockade of sorts.

"Oh, wow, that's- They're moving. They're moving!" Jaune cheered, throwing his arms into the air "The Grimm're moving! We've got a chance now!" this was followed by the cheers of many other Hunters, who were now fighting with a vigour of confidence and hope that filled their lungs and threatened to burst out of them as they fired their rounds into the Grimm hordes, killing so many more than they had before.

"Heck yeah!" cheered a nearby Nora, as she smacked a spider Grimm into the air, to which Ren then jumped up into the air and, with his 2 half gun half dagger weapons, sliced it in half and jumped back down onto a bear Grimm, which a nearby Hunter killed with an array of glass throwing daggers that she summoned from thin air. With a twirl of her hammer, Nora then hit a 2 legged squat Grimm into the air, and sent to colliding with an airborne winged lion Grimm, winding the beast, to which she then shifted her hammer into its grenade launcher form and fired off a single grenade into the mouth of the winged lion Grimm, to which it exploded, destroying both Grimm while still in mid air.

"Yeah, now we've just gotta hold the line until the guys up in the air come save our asses", DJ got out, firing off several orange blasts into a bear Grimm, "Which should hopefully be easy, since we've knocked down the beast Grimm numbers at this point by 2/3s, seeing as they're just throwing themselves at us, and we're in pretty good positions ourselves, and with plenty of support. Let's just hope that we're all alive when the boys and girls upstairs come down and get us!"

"Yeah, let's hope so", Jaune muttered, before he felt a rumbling in the ground, and nervously asked, "Er, do you- Do you feel that?"

"Erm, feel what?" DJ asked, before he too felt the vibrations in the ground, presumably, and went, "Oh, you mean the- The rumbling. The vibrating."

"Er, yeah. Yeah, that", he paused, before tuning in his ears.

Above the sounds of battle, above the sounds of bullets, explosions, cries, and cannon fire and fodder, there was a faint rumbling that was only growing louder and louder. The stones and pebbles on the ground were beginning to vibrate, and the ground was beginning to shake.

"Arc! Jaune!" the boy in question looked up and behind him to see that Blake Belladonna had jumped up onto one of the taller shards of metal, and was looking out over the wall of decaying Grimm, "The new Grimm- The army! They're coming in fast"

"W-Wha- Er, how- How long have we got until they get here?" Jaune called out.

"About 30 seconds tops!" she yelled as she jumped down and held her 2 weapons in hand, ready for the kill.

"Alright then", he muttered, before going, "Right, stand tall people, we've got more incom-"

The rumbling noises and vibrations became stronger and louder, the ground shaking and twisting as it continued, almost like it was parting to swallow them whole, or like something was burrowing through the dirt and mud of the surface below.

Just beyond the wall of Grimm in front of them, the ground split apart, and shards of rock and dirt were spat up, as a blackened object covered in smoking green liquid spewed upwards from the ground, and glared down at them. A single, damaged eye sat in the endless maw of a broken, fractured circular mouth, with 4 broken hook fangs wobbling in place as it glared down at them. Green acidic liquid spewed out of wounds that covered its entire body, dropping to the floor and creating puddles of ugly smoke and steam that dissolved everything that it touched.

The Blind Worm from before- One that they thought they'd killed- Glared at them, with hate in its eye as only one endless thought came to its mind: Vengeance. It snarled and blared its fractured teeth, and spat a wad of acid at them. The cries of the new Grimm types filled the air, and Grimm small arms fire began to pepper the airship and the Hunters that guarded it.

The Hunters took a step back, fearful for themselves and those around them, as they glared up at the Blind Worm, and cocked their guns, readying themselves for the brutal fight ahead.

"N-Now what?" Jaune heard DJ mutter, as his arm guns powered up.

The boy sighed, already exhausted, but he pulled his sword from his sheath, and shifted said sheath into its shield form. He held himself in th best combat ready pose that he could think of, and, once more channelling his inner Spruce Willis, he said, "Now... Now the real fight begins."

The first Disciples climbed over the wall and opened fire.

The Blind Worm roared and surged forward.

* * *

"Sir, we've got a murder of Nevermores coming in on grid 2-11, 2 mikes out!"

"Order cannons 3 and 5 to redirect their fire to those Nevermores, and redirect Scythe fighters 1Q, 54R, and 13S to intercept them!"

"Yes sir!"

"Cannon 12 is down, and Dropship 18C has been shot down!"

"The last of our drones are down! I repeat, the last of our drones are gone!

"Grimm fighters are swarming our engines, and are trying to destroy our engine spines!"

"We've got a flight of Grimm gunboats coming in below us!"

"I see them. Looks like they're going for a boarding maneuverer like they did the _Winchester_! Redirect the bottom guns to those targets!"

"Roger that!"

Captain Gordon Brown of the _King's Sword_ took in the chaos of the bridge, listening in to the barks and orders of the men and women that made up his command crew. Through the viewport of his airship, into the battle outside, she spotted tracer fire going into a herd of Griffons, and a squadrons of Grimm fighters outflew and tore apart several Bullheads, while cannon fire and missiles flooded the air and explosions spit the skies. Swarms of Grimm tore through the ocean blue skies and split the few clouds that were in the air, and over the sounds of explosions, engines, and cannon and gun fire, he could hear the cries and shattered calls of the Grimm outside, queen Lancers and Sphinxes led the massive swarms that they fought against.

Near the ground, he could see the _Winchester_ hovering above the floor, sending off cannon shots from its guns into the faraway fleet, acting as a sort of long range sniper platform, and placing itself between the fleet and the circle of children below. Their targets.

The airship rocked and shuddered, and alarms began to blare off as the lights in the bridge turned from blue to red, and a sailor quickly turned and yelled to Jeremy, "Captain, the Grimm are targeting our engine spines, and 3 of our main engines our down-"

"INCOMING!" another sailor quickly yelled, and Gordon looked up to see a Grimm fighter craft barrelling towards the bridge, on fire and blaring off it's weapons into the airship that it was on a collision course with, red streaks of light impacting with the reinforced windows.

"EVACUATE!" yet another sailor called out, "MOVE MOVE MOVE!" and so they did. Almost everyone on the bridge filled out at top speed, and presumably began making their way towards the emergency control room in the reactor room.

Gordon was one of them, standing tall and passive with his arms folded in front of him as everybody else ran out besides him, save for his top lieutenant Elizabeth Timore, who was standing by the door and waiting for him, as she went, "Captain, what are you-"

The Grimm craft slammed into the bridge and shattered the glass, sending fire and shards of reinforced window flying around the room, and shattering many of the consoles and walls. The smoke began to filter out of the newly made holes in the walls and windows, and the Grimm craft began to fade away into smoke and ash, before it slipped out of the breach and began to plummet to the ground, allowing the air pressure to leave the room and creating a vacuum that began to suck everything out, glass, fire, steam, shards of metal, the like.

None of this affected Gordon though, as he just stood still, allowing everything that just happened to happen, subconsciously brushing off a swipe of dirt on his shoulder, looking out to the battle outside, and then taking a step to the now open viewpoint, his coat fluttering in the winds and fires bellowing around him as he leaned out and took a look at the ground, seeing the hordes of Grimm that surrounded the children of Vale below, and the massive airship that hovered above the surface next to the circle of children, its cannons targeting and destroying Bullheads and Dropships with red and blue precision.

Without looking behind him, Gordon called out to Elizabeth, "Lieutenant, how many guns do we have left on the ship?"

There was a brief stutter from his NCO, before he heard the tapping of a scroll-pad, and she replied with, "M-Most of our guns are gone, sir! We've only got forward cannons 1 and 2 left! And most of our main engines are down!"

"Can we still protect the fleet?" compared to the nervous, fearful voice of his Second in command, his was much more calm and collected.

"Er, um, n-no sir! We'll most likely be falling to the ground in the next few minutes!"

Gordon just grunted in response, and nodded, before calmly walking to the intercom on a console, held down a single button, and over the ship radio, and went, "All hands, all hands, abandon ship. I repeat, all hands, abandon ship. Make your way to an escape craft and evacuate", he then, finally, turned to Elizabeth and coolly said, "Lieutenant, set the ship on a collision course with the Winchester below, and get on an escape craft as well. I'll be staying on board. A captain goes down with their ship."

"B-But sir-"

"A captain must go down with their ship, lieutenant", Gordon firmly repeated, before turning back to the battle around him and the airship below, and said, "Now go, before I throw you out myself."

He looked down to the _Winchester_ , the once proud airship and symbol of Valerian military might (Or a symbol of Atlas' grip in the world, or something along those lines, or whatever), and sighed. He doubted that Venta was still alive, and even if he was, he very much doubted that he'd ever turn against Vale like this. Despite his flaws, Venta was patriotic to the very core, and had too much pride in Vale to ever consider turning against the kingdom. In any case, he'd choose his own death than to turn traitor. So if he really was alive in that airship (Again, he very much doubted so), Gordon would be, in a way, doing the man a favour.

Heh. He really did sound like a cock when he put it like that, didn't he? Ah well, didn't matter anymore, did it? He was a dead man walking, anyways.

Gordon would've taken a drag of a cigarette if he had one, but he'd promised his mother that he'd stop smoking, and he hadn't brought any with him. He'd been trying to go cold turkey.

The effort didn't really matter in the end. He still got lung cancer. Learnt about it just this morning. He was going to call his mother and father and everyone else, but then he got the call from Ozpin and Venta and the council and everyone else to assemble the war fleet, and then, well, everything else.

Well, he was going to be dying anyways, just over the course of a few months, and in all honesty, he'd rather die like this, in a blaze of glory, or whatever, then wither away on a deathbed. Made for a much better way to go out.

Ah well. He supposed that he always did have a flair for the dramatic.

* * *

"HOW THE FUCK IS THAT THING STILL ALIVE!" screamed Dove as he sat in the control seat of the cannon that the downed airship- The _Grimm Tidings_ \- Housed in and on its hull. Before letting the last loud syllable roll off his tongue, he realigned the cannon targeting systems, redirected it to the Blind Worm- The same one they all thought they'd killed back at the cave entrance- And pulled the trigger of the cannon, the barrels letting out a loud flash and bang as the projectiles roared into and around the Blind Worm, and destroying any and every Grimm that stood around it in a flash of orange light and fire.

The Blind Worm, meanwhile, teetered its mutilated body from side to side, roaring and spewing acid across the battlefield as swarms of red and blue bullets darted from side to side, flying from the airship, and into the airship, flying from the Grimm, and into the Grimm. The air became hot with fire, and lines of sight were being clouded by ash and smoke, as the tides of darkness kept coming in closer and closer.

"Who the hell cares?! Shoot it!" yelled a nearby initiate named Nova Cronus, a bare chested boy armed with but a sickle (A stupidly impractical weapon, in Dove's opinion), as he acted as his maintenance man and helped to reload the gun. The muscular boy hefted another ammo cartridge into one of the gun's barrels, while nearby, another initiate, a Techion named Scrapster, loaded a round into another barrel, and with that, Nova then cried, "FIRE!"

And with that, Dove fired once more into the Blind Worm, the beast roaring once more as fire began to dance across its body, spraying acid out of its maw of a mouth like a fossette. The few Grimm around it that had somehow survived began to redirect their fire at the cannon, their small rounds tapping and bouncing off against its armour.

Nearby, a Faunus with crab arms and claws ran up across the hull and next to the cannon, and yelled into it, "Hey, you guys, don't worry about the Blind Worm! We've got a Grimm dropship overheads that dropping troops onto the hull!" she paused to heft her custom rifle and fire it into, indeed, one of those new Grimm carrier gunships was hovering over the airship, dropping off at least 20 Grimm people onto the hull of the airship, themselves now doing battle with the initiates that'd placed themselves across the hull of the ship and within its gun ports and hull breaches. Nearby, Scrapster threw one Grimm person into another and kill them both with a headshot each, while one of them stabbed his sword through a 4 armed Faunus initiate- Dove remembered his name to be Cole Shoji- Which was returned in kind by a Techion called Mixer, firing off the 2 cannons on his back into the Grimm person , the blast consuming 2 others in its radius. The crab Faunus then turned back to the cannon and the crew inside and went, "Start redirecting your fire to the dropship!"

"Er, excuse me, missis!" Nova called out to the Faunus girl, "But I think we'll focus ourselves on actual priority targets, like the giant fucking Blind Worm down there, and not whatever you're whining about! Besides, I think you've got this!"

"'Prio'- What!?" the Faunus girl yelled, "That is not- T-The giant fucking Grimm ship hover- Floating right above us and dropping troops on us is a petty big fucking priority fucking target in my-"

"Shut it, beast!" Nova coldly yelled at her.

"I'm sor- What the hell did you just say!?"

"Oi, you 2! Shove it!" Scrapster yelled to them, "We need to focus! Find a target, pick a target! Now move!"

The Faunus girl snarled, and then ran off back to her original position, firing off a shot into a Grimm person's head, hitting it right in the eye, and killing it.

"Ah, fuck it", Dove growled to himself as he began repositioning the massive cannon, shifting his sights from the raging Blind Worm to the floating Grimm gunship hovering above them, firing off its guns into the ground and the initiates below.

"What the hell!? What are you doing!?" Nova cried out to him as Dove continued to shift the cannon up.

"Not dying, that's what!" Dove countered as he got the Grimm gunship in his sights, and-

{KA-BOOM}

-Let out a loud round from the barrels of his gun, sending them right into the Grimm ship and destroying it with a mighty explosion.

"Scratch one Grimm!" Dove called out, though Nova didn't reply. Dove then just went, "Start loading up another round, will you?" with a grunt, Nova started loading another round, and Dove began to readjust the cannon and moved to pick another target.

In all honesty, this was not how Dove had expected his day to go so far. Well, he doubted that anyone could've really expected anything like this for their initiation, but still, this was not how he imagined he'd be spending his day. When he'd arrived in Beacon the previous day, he'd imagined taking a written test or something, and then maybe a gladiator fight or one on one battle or whatever, and then boom, he's in Beacon, done and done. Not being spring boarded into a freaking forest by some old dude going on about something called a 'Landing strategy' (What the hell was a landing strategy anyways? The pamphlet didn't say anything about whatever a landing strategy was), And then being forced to fight for his life against a horde of godless monsters literally made of negativity, trek an hour or more across Vale, and then get holed up inside a giant tin can and once more fighting just to stay alive, only now it was less about survival and more just prolonging his life for a few more minutes before the Grimm got to him.

Eh, not bad, in his opinion. There were worse ways to go, surely. Besides, he got to blow things up with a giant cannon. Pretty good trade off, if he did say so.

He looked back to Nova, who was still seething and glaring in the direction of that crab Faunus girl, "Nova, need a reload."

"...Right", Nova muttered as he took another round in hand and loaded it into one of the barrels, before taking another and doing the same to the other barrel in Scrapster's place.

Dove just shrugged to himself, and began looking for new targets. Truth be told, he never really understood the whole Faunus hate thing. Well, sure, they had extra eyes, or ears, or whatever, but still, he didn't really see the reason to do so. It all seemed rather pointless in his opinion. He always figured that people just hated on Faunus because they were different, or that they felt insecure, or superior, or whatever. He wasn't trying to justify them, and he wasn't going to. If they had their reasons, then whatever. It, again, just seemed pointless, in his opinion.

Still though, he hardly seemed like one to talk. Back in Signal Academy, he'd joined up with a group of bullies and other likeminded people and started picking on a couple of Faunus students, only because it meant that he had at least a few friends in Signal (He didn't really have many people he could call friends. Didn't really know how to make them), So he supposed he was being rather hypocritical in that regard. Possibly. Probably. Whatever.

In fact, the only reason that he'd come to Beacon was to get away from all of that and start over. Sure, no one from his old friendship circle would be there with him, but he'd hoped that somehow- Somehow!- He'd be able to put all of that bullying on his part, and those guys behind him and start his social life afresh. Make some new friends (Hopefully better friends), Get on a good team, make up for his experiences back in Signal, so on, so forth. Not exactly the best reason to come to Beacon, nor the most ambitious, or the most altruistic, but still, had to start somewhere.

Then again, that all seemed to be hopelessly naïve. Knowing himself, he'd just do what he'd always done, and go with whatever these friends of acquaintances or whatever said, and not question it at all. Bully a Faunus? At least he wasn't lonely. Bully anyone in general? At least it wasn't him.

Actually, he remembered that one of the people from that old group that he was in was now in Beacon as well. The loud one with the weird flanged mace thing. What was his name again? Cardy? Whinny? Probably didn't matter. Hopefully it didn't matter. Then again, it seemed to be a rather bad omen of-

Target acquired. 2 of those Grimm fighters barrelling in hot. Both of them aiming at the cannon. His cannon in particular.

The 2 Grimm ships started unloading into the airship, spraying its hull with red blasts of light. Dove fired his cannon, and the brilliant flash of light impacted with one of the Grimm ships on one of its wings, sending it spinning out of control and slamming into the ground, wiping out dozens of Grimm as it slid across the ground. The other Grimm ship rolled to the side, and continued to fire, before beginning to fly upwards, forcing Dove to begin angling the cannon upwards, so that he could take another shot at it.

He fired once more, but didn't take into account the speed that the Grimm fighter was going at, and it missed, "Dammit", he muttered to himself, and began to reposition the cannon to take another shot at the-

"OH SHIT INCOMING!" Nova screamed behind him, and Dove quickly looked to where the boy was pointing, only for his eyes to widen. A third Grimm fighter, gunning it right towards them, firing off its weapons at the cannon. How did he miss that? He should've-

Wait.

The 2 other Grimm ships. They must've been shielding it from view, keeping it hidden. The 2 of them were diversions, meant to draw away his attention so that the 3rd Grimm ship could fly in unimpeded and destroy its target.

The Grimm fighter unleashed a round of missiles from its underside, all of them blasting towards his cannon.

Dove and Nova began to panic, screaming and climbing over each other to climb out and escape from the cannon and its blast radius before-

It was too late. The missiles impacted with the cannon and completely destroyed it in a fiery explosion. Dove and Nova would be consumed in the blast, their last moments in excruciating pain.

* * *

"Cannon's down!" Neon called out, as one of the barrels from the now burning cannon slid down the side of the airship, before slamming into the ground with a mighty {THUD}, a few rounds that'd been still inside the barrel cooking off and catching anyone nearby, mostly fellow initiates, in its wake as they exploded, killing a few and throwing the rest aside.

The explosion from the cannon began a chain reaction of explosions that began to ripple out from inside the airship, spreading down to the bow of the ship, and then to the side, before reacting with the engine columns, and creating a massive detonation, throwing initiates from side to side like ragdolls, and ripping off the few engine spines that'd still been attached to the airship, sending them falling to the ground and starting a fire that began to burn away at the initiates' defences, the explosion from the engines destroying many of their trenches and cover, and creating a breach in their lines.

Melanie noticed this, and swore to herself, before going, "We've got a breach!" and pointing to 3 initiates near her, "Ciel, Neon, Flynt, you're with me! Let's go shore up that breach before the Grimm take advantage of it and bust our door in!"

"Roger that", Ciel coolly chimed in with, loading her blue coloured pistols and then putting a dozen rounds into an Ascendant Beowolf.

"Let's try not to die!" Flynt called out in turn, before using his trumpet to blow away a Disciple (She'd heard Jaune and Blake calling them out as such. In fact, she'd heard them call out a lot of the new Grimm types. When she asked them, Jaune said that he'd learnt the terms from Blake, and Blake said that she'd heard the Brothers Grimm call some of them out as such, and she'd just been coming up with her own terms for the others, and for her, him, and everyone else, they just kinda stuck).

"I make no promises!" Neon cheered as she jumped up into the air and landed the back of her leg against the neck of an Ursa, weakening and dazing it, before landing several hits from her nunchaku on it, each hit letting out a blast of dust that impacted with the Grimm, fire, lightning, gravity, water, ice, ash, hard-light, until the Grimm bear plopped to the floor, and began to fade away.

Melanie just sighed, before hefting up her rifle- Kay's rifle, sorry- And double tapped a Puma, before applying a kick of a Disciple's neck, cutting its head clean off with her razorblade heels. She then leaped up and dug her heel blades into a Beowolf's skull, before leaping off and slicing her foot down the skin of a Life-Giver, then dodging a blast of red energy from the same Grimm, slamming her feet against the side of a metal shard of cover, before kicking off of it and then slicing both of her feet through the eyeball Grimm, and sending flaming red goo leaking out of the deep cuts.

As the eyeball Grimm somehow let out a gurgle and teetered to the side, Melanie ran past, along with Ciel, Flynt, and Neon, jumping over and leaping through the columns and rows of fresh fire as they made their way to the breach in their lines, unloading as many rounds that they could into the Grimm ahead of them. Disciples and Pumas and Beowolves and Creeps fell before them as they sprinted forward, as red and orange and purple and blue and white blasts of light soaring all around them as they ran and ran, until they finally reached the breach, and the flaming wreckage that accompanied it, that marked the land like the fires of hell itself, as if they were within the presence of the throne of whatever anti-god may lay there, and came upon a wall of Disciples- Royal Disciples, to be exact- Aiming and firing at them, a wall that'd pierced through the breach and already taken 4 of their number, their fresh corpses leaking red onto the ground.

The 4 of them ducked behind still hot shards of new cover as the Royal Disciples threw an endless stream of purple rounds at them, firing off rivers of burning hot energy at them as Melanie returned her own, aiming down the gun in her hands and shooting a Royal Disciple in its eye. But, instead of dying immediately, the Grimm staggered back, shook it off and rubbed its head, before growling and continuing its assault.

 _Huh, they're tougher then I thought_ , Melanie thought, grunting to herself in annoyance as she reloaded her rifle and once more pulled the safety down, calling out, "Neon, start running interference!"

"What?"

"Run circles around them and kick their asses! We'll cover you!" Neon, now understanding the plan, nodded and jetted off to the side, no doubt moving to build herself momentum, "Ciel, Flynt, open fire! Give her some support!"

The 2 of them nodded, and unloaded pistol rounds and trumpet blasts into the wall of Royal Disciples, Melanie joining them but a second later, putting 3 more rounds into the same Grimm from before, now properly weakening the beast and causing it to bleed purple blood. A fifth shot was what it took to finally pierce the skin on the eye and let the Grimm fall to its knees and try to apply pressure to its bleeding eye, now blinded. A sixth shot to the head hit its hands, and they flew away by instinct. A seventh shot right into its broken eye and splattered purple blood and gore across its ilk that stood next to it, its head hollowed and empty, and it plopped to the floor, smoke beginning to flow from off of its body.

Nearby, Neon made her play, flying in with a rainbow hue coming off of her, and she applied her 2 feet against the side of the Royal Disciple at the end of the line of them, intending to send them flying and tumbling down like dominos. Of course, this didn't work, as she was only able to get a good few of them down, as she was able to slam down one, who collided with another, who collided with another, who collided with another, who collided with another, who didn't collide with anymore, as the ones nearing the falling stack of dominos moved out of the way and growled, still firing on the 3 initiates in cover.

One of the Grimm on the floor, however, roared in anger, and flipped back up onto its feet, its gun flipping around and changing, in a flow of smoke, into a pair of tomahawks. The Royal Disciple growled and twirled the single handed axes around for a second, before lunging and taking a swipe each with them at Neon, and then swiping in an X pattern, both of which Neon dodged with a cartwheel back. The Grimm grunted and lobbed both tomahawks at Neon with a twirl, the Faunus dodging one and catching the other, throwing it back into the Grimm, embedding it in its bone armour plated shoulder. Behind them, Flynt blew away the Royal Disciples on the ground with a trumpet powered blast of air and gravity.

The Royal Disciple roared and pulled the tomahawk from its shoulder, and then summoned another from its non-existent sleeve into its other hand. It placed the handles together and in a flash, they merged into one weapon, like a helicopter blade (The blade of some old machine used back in the Great War). Spinning it around a few to get a feel of it, it then lunged forward and swiped it at Neon, growling all of the while. It began to spin the double bladed tomahawk around in its hands like a saw as it moved for Neon, the girl dodging the slicing wheel and delivering her own strikes from her nunchaku, each one impacting with one of the axe blades on the spinning double edged tomahawk.

Using her tail, she wrapped it around a fallen piece of metal, and then threw it at the spinning blade of death, distracting the Royal Disciple long enough for her to land a nunchaku strike against the centre of its double bladed tomahawk, splitting it into 2 once more. The Grimm grunted in annoyance, before lunging once more, swirling its single handed axes around and doing a little twirl before hitting them against Neon, her aura absorbing the blows.

She smiled, and delivered a kick to its knee, causing the Royal Disciple to stagger back, and then swing one of its tomahawks down in retaliation, though Neon quickly deflected it with her nunchaku. She chuckled, "When you try your best~ But you don't succeed~", she mocked in a sing-song voice, causing the Grimm to cry out in anger and swing once more at her, hitting her in the shoulder, though once again, her aura took to the force of the impact.

Melanie narrowed her eyes. From what it looked like, Neon was allowing her aura, which already seemed to be rather weak, to absorb and take some of the blows, instead of blocking, or at least trying to block those attacks. More in all, she was making fun of the Grimm and spurring it on further, fuelling its anger, and giving it reason to fight harder. Not only that, but her aura was beginning to fade, the pink hue around her becoming more and more gentle with each blow, and yet, she seemed to be unaware of this, too caught up in the fight to take notice.

Until it was too late.

Behind her, another Royal Disciple had picked up a large beam of metal, and roared as it swung. Neon quickly looked to the side to see what'd made that sound, only given a second to react before the metal beam impacted with her chest, shattering what was left of her aura, making her drop her nunchaku, and sending her flying into a shard of metal with a dull {THUD}. The first Royal Disciple tossed one of its tomahawks to the second, which dropped the metal beam that it carried to catch it, before running up to Neon, who'd now just gotten up, leaning against the metal shard for support so that she might catch her winded breath, her eyes widening in shock, and then in pain, as the first Royal Disciple embedded its tomahawk into her breast, the other striking its tomahawk into her stomach, just above her navel, both fresh wounds coughing and spitting out blood.

"""NEON!""" was the call that came out from Melanie, Flynt, and Ciel, as they tried to redirect their fire, but found themselves being pinned down by the wall of Royal Disciples that stood against them. In the distance, Melanie could make out a dark outline marching through the smoke, cleaver axe in hand, glowing purple highlights travelling all across its body, a necklace of red rubies around its neck.

Neon in question cried out in pain at the 2 blades piercing her skins and drawing blood, before grabbing them and ripping them both out of her skin and the Royal Disciples' hands. In a fit of what looked like pure instinct, she crawled down onto all 4s, and hissed at the 2 Grimm, tomahawks still tightly held in her hands, before she ran up to them with a look of desperate rage upon her, blaring her canine teeth, and embedded one of the tomahawks into one of the Royal Disciples' single eyes, and the other tomahawk the other's throat. With a growl, she bit her sharp teeth into the first Grimm's neck, biting down and drawing purple blood, before ripping out its throat, and then shoving her arm into the wound, pulling out as much gore as she could, and bloodying her hands.

Neon then blared her now bloody teeth at the second Royal Disciple, the tomahawk still in its neck, and lunged forward at it, blaring her claws and digging them into its eye, forcing them both down as she smashed her fists and slashed her claws at the Grimm's eye, hitting i times, and then pulling up her nunchaku from the floor back into her hold, and slamming the now glowing red weapon into the Grimm's scarred eye, shattering whatever little protection its head had left, and letting out a miniature, fiery explosion that turned the Royal Disciple's head into smoking purple mush.

Melanie cursed to herself as she watched Flynt move up to Neon, and, along with Ciel, began providing him covering fire so that he could move up as unimpeded as possible. Flynt did his best to return the favour by launching a blast of sound, like a rush of wind, into the nearest Royal Disciple, sending it flying into a pillar of fire, and letting it burn to a crisp in the searing heat.

Flynt went to kneel down besides Neon, making sure not to trip over the fading Grimm bodies, and when he did, he carefully asked, "Er, Neon? You good?"

Neon looked up as him, sweat dripping down her face, purple blood coated her mouth and teeth, which were ebbing purple smoke as they faded away, whilst she took deep breaths to regain control of herself, her nails digging into the hot dirt, a tired tear dripping down her, and a faint pink glow overcoming her body. Her aura was starting to recharge, evidenced by her wounds slowly closing up, though the blood that'd leaked out still remained and soiled her form. Her hair was loose and messy, some parts of it burnt or cut off, and her clothes were torn and charred.

"...Yeah", she muttered, as she climbed her way back onto her feet, "Y-Yeah, I... I think", she caught herself as she stumbled in place, spitting up a wad of smoking purple blood from her mouth before continuing, "I-I think I'm good... I think I've... I've got all that out of my system..."

"Heh... Yeah...", Flynt muttered, "Yeah, I hope so...", he paused as she wrapped her arm over his shoulder for support, and then continued, "Or I, er, I don't... Hope... So?... Not at this moment, because we, y'know, might need that whole rage thing that you got... But it might get you killed, and... I don't know... Just try not to get killed."

"Heh", Neon went with a hint of mirth, as a purple bolt of energy shot past them and hit a nearby shard of metal, "Like I said, I make no promises."

"Hey you too, get a move on!" Melanie called out to them as she fired off more rounds into another Royal Disciple, eventually dropping it, "We need to-"

A massive glowing purple bolt of light stopped her from finishing her sentence, hitting the space next to her, and sending her flying into a nearby shard of metal, banging her head against its jagged edge, her aura absorbing most of the damage, though she was left with a nasty gash on her forehead that began to weep blood. Ciel, meanwhile, was tossed to the side, her clothes burning and singing in the purple fire, and her beret being thrown away and burning away in the flames, one of her pistols breaking in the impact, and becoming nothing more than a useless piece of metal.

Ciel let out a pained grunt of frustration and tossed the broken weapon at a Royal Disciple, the metal object bouncing off of it. She then ran up to Melanie, who was now picking herself up from the floor, and grabbing the singed rifle at her side. She grabbed Melanie by her shoulders and pulled her behind the now bloody metal shard as more purple bolts of energy began to shoot past them and into the shard that they now took refuge behind, and then she asked her, "Melanie, are you-"

"I'm fine", Melanie answered, as she rubbed the bloody gash on her head, now closing thanks to her aura, though her hand and forehead were now smudged red, "Wait, where's...", she looked past the cover, and saw Neon and Flynt running to cover themselves, still under fire, and she yelled to them, "Neon! Flynt! Move it! Get to cover, now!" she pulled up the rifle in her hands and fired a shot at a Royal Disciple, leaving a mark on its eye, "We'll stay here, call for backup, and we'll make sure that the Grimm can't-"

 **"AHAHAHAHAHA!"** a deep, demonic voice called out, as a great figure with black skin and bony armour, glowing purple patterns and a necklace of red rubies, stepped through the fires and came into view, **"Good! GOOD! You fight well, beastwoman! You deliver no mercy, and I admire that! I shall look forward to our fight, and I shall look oh so forward to peeling your skin back and wearing your flesh around my body!"**

The Royal Disciples stopped firing and straightened themselves, their wall parting as their new guest joined them, its feet stomping against the ground in mighty crashes

The Brother of Darkness. One of the Brothers Grimm. Its diseased mouth drooled blood and saliva, fantasying over its next kill, its next bloody slaughter, like a perverted dream. Its cleaver like axe swayed in its hands, stained fresh dripping red and dried dark brown from blood new and old, and so its chest as well, red streaks dripping down from the rubies of its necklace down in trails on its-

Wait.

The Brother of Darkness hadn't been wearing a necklace before.

Melanie took a closer look at the necklace, and then vomited.

The necklace. Its rubies.

They weren't rubies.

They were bloodstained heads.

They were heads that'd been covered in blood, their eyes shrunken and looking upwards, their skin pale and loosing their shine. Some of them were missing their jaws, leaving rotting tendons dangling from the roofs of their mouths. Others were cut off by their necks, their mouths wide open, and their expressions locked in place and etched with horror, with some of them even having parts of their spinal columns still attached, dangling down like ropes. Disassembled bloody arms and legs acted as the chains between the heads, with twisted pipes of metal acting as connectors that kept it all from coming apart, and knives of Grimm chitin acting as the nails and bolts. Flies began to buzz and dance around the rotting act of ultimate desecration, feeding on the dead flesh and only serving to kick up the already pungent smell, crawling and crisscrossing back and forth across the macabre display to find the best feeding.

Melanie then saw the head at the centre of it all, and began to growl in anger, bearing her teeth, hot tears flowing out of her eyes, her aura kicking up.

At the centre of it all, was the burnt up, but still bloody head of her sister, Miltia Malachite. Her jaw had been dislocated and was dangling on by just 2 tendons, and nails had been shoved through the sides of her head, connecting it to the rest of that monster's fleshy necklace. Her eyes- Oh, her eyes. Her shrunken, ruined, now putrid eyes- Seemed to be staring directly into Melanie's, as if to scream 'Why?'.

The Brother of Darkness noticed her horrified gaze, and bellowed out a laugh that screamed madness, **"Ah, you like? You like my necklace? You like it? I made it myself!"** it took Miltia's head in hand and tweezed it between its fingers, **"It makes me happy! It makes me feel delightful!"** it laughed, spittle flying out of its mouth as it smiled, showing off its rotten teeth, **"And it should! It should! That is the purpose of art!"** it giggled, **"Ah, yes. If you couldn't tell, I am an artist at heart!"** it tilted its head and its smile widened, as it pulled Miltia's head forward, and presented it to her, **"Ooh, would you like one too? I can make one just for you!"**

This time, Melanie was able to supress the urge to vomit, and glared at the creature, teeth grating against each other and eyes swelling with tears. She stepped out of cover and reloaded her rifle, before cocking it and growling at the Grimm. Ciel took to her side, one of her hands holding her pistol, and the other holding Melanie's shoulder. Flynt and Neon braced themselves as well, readying their weapons, and in the case of Neon, blaring her fangs.

The Brother of Light, once again, took notice of this, and its laughter was haunting, **"Oh, oh oh OH! You want to fight me! You want to play with me! AHAHAHAHA! Yes yes yes! We shall have such fun times together, my playmates!"** the Royal Disciples around it cocked their own rifles and aimed them at the 4 initiates, growling and flexing their trigger fingers.

"Melanie", Ciel began nervously to the girl in question, her voice still formal and clear, but now fraught with veiled hesitation, "What do we do now?"

"Now, Ciel?" Melanie aimed her rifle at the Brother of Darkness' eye, "Now we make this bastard pay."

She didn't notice the small blue flame dancing on her arm, as the chains on her soul crack and loosen.

* * *

A Nevermore flew in front of his targeting view, but Mei Dei didn't pay it any mind as she continued to aim her cannon at the ground, and fired off another salvo of missiles into the Grimm hordes on the surface below, the projectiles crashing into the Grimm tide by a dozen, with loud and mighty orange balls of light incinerating dozens of Grimm, and throwing so many others around like ragdolls, killing possibly a hundred or more Grimm in total.

Mei smiled at the sight of the burning Grimm on the ground, but then frowned at the sight of the hole in the Grimm lines that she'd made in the lines being filled in once more by even more Grimm than before, their sheer numbers compensating for any losses.

Well then, if that was the case, then she'd just have to kill off even more of them, and even faster than she was before! Now that was something that she could work with!

Alright then, c'mon, chop chop! Places to go, people to see, Grimm to kill, and all that!

"Alright then, you lot, c'mon, chop chop! Get a move on with those baddie kills! We've got places to go, people to see, and Grimm to kill and all that!" Mei called out to her fellow gunners near them, eliciting a vigorous cheer of enthusiasm from them, as well as a few other sailors around them.

"AHA!" called out the well known queen of hamminess, miss Hammy Hamilton herself, Beatrice Kenner, as she sat at her own gunner's seat and fired off a projectile into a nearby swarm of Lancers, "Hell yeah! Now that's something that I can work with!"

"Hey, that's what I thought to myself! Plagiarism, that is!"

"Well, yeah, you thought of it first, but I thought of it second, so since I thought of it, therefore it's automatically better in every single way!"

"Oh, forget it!" Mei shouted out as she fired another salvo into the grounded Grimm below, "Just keep unloading into them!"

"You know, Mei Dei, we would probably be going about all of this if you would actually help us!" called out their gunnery sergeant, Peter Heliotrope, as he marched over to where Mei Dei's missile pod was located- It had been hastily bolted down onto the once civilian cargo hauler airship before they took off and joined the rest of the fleet earlier in the morning, as was the same for the other guns on the ship- And then yelled at her, "But instead, you've just been shooting at the floor instead of hitting all of the perfectly available targets around us!"

"Oh, c'mon, sarge, I am helping!"

"Hel- How are you helping right now!?"

"I'm helping our boys and girls down below!" she pointed out, readjusting her goggles and firing yet another burst of missiles into the floor below, hitting a crowd of Grimm that were trying to break through to the circle that the initiates below had made around the crashed _Grimm Tidings_ , "They've got millions of Grimm down there marching down on them, and if we don't try to thin the herd at least a little for them, then they'll all get killed before we can get down there, and we would've come all the way out here for nothing!"

"Those guys can take care of themselves, Mei! If they couldn't, then they would've all died by now! But they're not, are they! I'm sorry, Mei, btu right now we need to worry about ourselves!" Peter argued.

"What?! But-"

"Focus, Mei! We've got a thousand Grimm flying circles around us, and we need to take out as many of them as we can before we can even think about making a move to the initiates down below! Now get a move on and start picking more immediate targets!" Peter went, causing Mei to huff in annoyance and worry for those down below.

"Hey, hey sarge, hey sarge", went Beatrice, "Guess how many Grimm I've killed... Sarge. Guess how many Grimm I've killed. Sarge, guess. Guess. You have to- You have to guess."

" _Sigh_."

"I bet you can't. I bet you can't guess. I bet you're rubbish. You're rubbish at guessing."

"...3."

"What, no, you're- You're wrong. You're not right. Go on, have another-"

"What the hell is the _King's Sword_ doing!?" called out a Techion gunner called Back-Step from nearby, looking out through his cannon sights and pointing to somewhere beneath them.

Mei and the others looked to where he was pointing, and their eyes widened. The _King's Sword_ was completely covered in flames, and was firing off whatever few guns that it had left into the floor and the Grimm that crowded it. The hull was riddled with bumps and holes, tears and marks, the engines were shot to pieces, and the few spines that were left on the ship were snapping off and, thanks to the constant fire being pelted at it by the Grimm around it, were drifting down to the ground below.

As was the _King's Sword_ , as their largest ship in the fleet nosed dived to the floor, on a collision course with the initiates below.

* * *

"Um, g-guys?" began a boxy blue, white, and purple Techion with a boxy head and red visor, with the name 'Leadpipe' scribbled on his chest, "I-I don't think that thing's slowing down!" he fired off another round of orange blasts from his built in arm guns, into the jagged and ravaged Blind Worm, the shots doing nothing to harm the monster, but only serving to aggravate it, as it spat a wad of acid at the Techion, forcing him to roll to the side as the spittle slapped against the ground and splattered against his metallic backpack, burning the metal and creating a steam trail and a nauseous smell of oxidising metal.

Leadpipe got back up to his feet and aimed his arm guns once more, but an explosion from another Grimm knocked him back down, dazing and confusing him. He groaned and tried to get back up, but a leg smacked against the back of his metallic leg, forcing him back down to the muddy ground. He looked over himself to see one of those Grimm people from before- One red eye with a yellow iris, black skin, hunched over head, 3 pairs of slices on its neck going sideways, black sword which used to be a gun in its hand.

The Grimm thing chuckled. It was ugly and crude. It lifted it's sword up and-

_Oh god no please no please mama no not again please no I'm sorry no I won't do it again please no_

-Brought it down into his arm, piercing through the metal and cutting into the frail flesh and bone underneath. It twisted the blade, and black oil and red blood commingled together and weeped out of the freshly made tear.

_Oh god why why please no I'm sorry please make it stop it hurts please mama I'm sorry not again please_

Grabbing a displaced rock next to him, he screamed out something unintelligible and smashed it against the Grimm person's head, the force of the blow caving in its skull and dropping it to the floor as it cried and groaned and withered in pain. Leadpipe groaned and cried under his helmet, his tears leaking out of the bottom of his glowing red visor and down his faceplate. He didn't bother with his new war wound.

Oh god, what was he doing here? Why was he even here? Flashback had said that it would be safe here. He said it would be safe in Beacon. He said it would be safe. Why wasn't it safe? It was the only reason he'd come to Beacon. To be safe. To start again. But here he was, about to die- Oh god, he was going to die, wasn't he? Oh god, he didn't want to die. He was scared. He didn't want to die. Not now, Please not now.

He began to curl up into a ball and began to tremble. Everything was becoming louder. Louder and louder and louder and louder.

"Hey, Jauney!" called out the voice of a short girl with a hammer and a jolly smile, "I've got an idea!"

"Yeah?" went the response.

"I've got a plan that'll kill that worm for good!"

Oh god why was she so loud? Why was everything so loud? Why was everything so bright?

An explosion rocked the ground beneath him and rang in his ear. The shrill cackle of gunfire and screams of man and monster echoed around him, flashing here, there, and everywhere.

His mind began to go into overdrive. Flashing colours, red, blue, purple, white, orange, yellow, green, black, everywhere. Loud noises, screams, calls, cheers, bangs, booms, thuds, cackles, explosions, more and more and more, louder and louder and louder, brighter and brighter and brighter.

He clutched the sides of his metal covered head, gripping it so hard that he began to leave the imprints of his fingers in it.

He wasn't even meant to be here. Not in the first place. It was all such a big change to him when Flashback had told him and the rest of the Techions in their part of the Valerian chapter, their frat to be said (If they were in college, at least), Were going to be attending Beacon. He didn't like the change. He didn't like change in general. He had everything in his life all sorted out, all organised and folded away into nice neat piles and folders, and now, everything was changing, and everything was different, and everything was out of schedule, and he hated it. He was scared of it.

He was trembling even more. His arms and legs and whole body was shaking and shaking. Around him, the world was still burning. Still burning and dying and fighting. Still burning and dying and fighting and exploding and firing and cheering and calling and flashing and bleeding and muddying and vibrating and echoing and fearing and screaming out in pain and-

He felt someone pull him up, much to his horror. He began to thrash about , trying to shake it off, before a new voice, a more familiar voice, just recently met, said to him, "Hey, hey, Leadpipe, its me, its me."

He looked up, his red visor looking into amber eyes, "B-Blake?" indeed, the amber eyed Faunus girl (It was incredibly easy to tell that she was a Faunus. Her only disguise was a bow, for goodness sake. You could see it twitching every now and then if you looked closely enough) Dressed in black and white was pulling him back up to his feet. He trembled again as a shot whizzed right past them, from who, he didn't know, and he whispered in a shaky stutter, "I-I wanna go home..."

"I know, I know", Blake whispered herself, somehow able to be heard over the madness of the world around them, "C'mon, I'll take you back inside", and with that, she began to pull him inside of the ship.

"N-N-No, wait, wait", Leadpipe protested, "I'm needed out here. I need to be out here. I was told to be out here. I can't abandon my post now-"

"What are- You just said- Leadpipe, you- You're in no condition to fight!"

"Wha- I got- It's just a- This is just a scratch", he gestured to the deep cut in his arm, still leaking black and red, "This is just a scratch. I'm fine. I can still fight."

"You're trembling."

"No I'm...", he caught himself, and looked down at his hand, "Oh, I am, aren't I?" he paused, before looking at Blake and going, "Look, look, I'm fine now. I'm fine. That was just a- Just a moment. Just a freeze up. I'm fine, and I'm staying out here. All hands on deck, and all that."

"No, you are in- Look, I've got experience with this kind of thing, and you are in no condition to fight."

"But I'm- Blake, I'm fine. I'm fine now! I'm- AH!" a missile soared towards them, and Leadpipe pushed Blake down to the floor and jumped down himself, using his metal body to shield her from the flames as the missile impacted with the floor next to them, the red fire from it coming over them, heating up the mechanics and metal armour of Leadpipe's body, bending and twisting it as he kept Blake safe from the burning heat.

Once the fires stopped expanding out, Leadpipe climbed off of Blake, pulled her up, and went, "See, perfectly fine."

"You're trembling again."

"What, no I'm", he caught himself and looked down to his hand, "Ah, so it is", he paused once more, steadying his hand, before he went, "Look, I'm good now. I'm fine. I'm okay. And I need to stay-"

"Leadpipe", her voice was firm, as was her grip.

"-Out here and keep fighting, and keeping the Grimm off of us for-

"Leadpipe!" her voice was getting more agitated, her grip getting stronger.

"-Another second more before-"

"JUST MOVE ILIA!"

Leadpipe quivered under her voice, stuttering out, "S-Sorry... I'm sorry", but then thinking to himself, _Ilia?_

Blake looked more shaken than he was herself, a look of shellshock over her face as she realised what she just said, a frozen expression of... What, he didn't know, but it was still there, though what he did know, was that her eyes looked as it they were showing a memory on playback, reliving a past experience, though what experience that was, once again, he didn't know.

Another round of bullets shot past them, breaking them both out of their pauses, and the same Grimm person from before, with the sword and the rock dent in its head, got up and roared at them, though Blake quickly pulled out her gun sword combo and put a single round into its eye, killing it immediately, and letting it drop to the floor like a stone.

Blake then looked to Leadpipe, sighed, and said, "Okay, fine. Fine. You can stay out here, but you're sticking with me. No buts, got it?"

"Er, yeah, yeah right", Leadpipe went, "Yeah, I can- Wait", he pointed to the side, "What the hell is she doing?"

Blake looked to where he was pointing, to see a girl with a hammer jumping up high into the air and glare down the Blind Worm before it. Behind them, one airship crashed into another.

* * *

Gordon stayed staring out of the now sloping bridge of the falling airship, letting the rushing winds and smoke blow past him and bellow past and through his long coat, and letting out a deep sigh as he tapped a few buttons on his scroll-pad, the command that he typed in readjusting the few remaining engines on the ship, and redirecting their flow, so that the ship may be swayed not from its course to the _Winchester_ below, the airship in question firing round after round into the falling _King's Sword_ (Gordon smiled at the irony of the name at the moment).

Right now, all of the ship had been evacuated, and presumably, all of the escape pods and lifeboats had been launched, and the hanger bay had been emptied. Meanwhile, most of the corridors of the ship had been caved in with fire and broken steel, and most of the hull had been ripped apart and torn to shreds. The airship, now nosediving to the ground and the airship below, was barely more then a giant lump of jagged metal, barely shooting off a few blasts into the Grimm below as it fell.

However, it was still falling, and it was falling fast. From the looks of it, down below, the _Winchester_ was kicking on its engines in a last ditch attempt to get out of the path of the falling rock of steel and flame, but Gordon knew that it wouldn't change anything. It was too late for either airship to escape their fate now.

Another explosion rocked the airship, and Gordon looked to his scroll-pad to see that the last cannon on the airship had been destroyed. Ah well, didn't matter anymore. This thing was gonna go up into a fireball once it hit the ground, and then make an even bigger fireball once it hit the airship.

He turned back behind him, to see his second in command Elizabeth Timore still typing in things into her scroll-pad, and trying to work the few remaining consoles in the bridge. Hadn't he ordered her off of the ship?

The airship began to tilt to the side, beginning to fall onto its side, the strain of the weakened metal and air resistance rushing against it threatening to break it in half.

"Did I not give you an order, Lieutenant? I ordered you off of my ship."

Elizabeth looked at him, and gave a soft smile, "I'm sorry, sir, but for the first time, I'm going to have to disobey your orders."

"Ah, that's a court-martialling there, Lieutenant", said Gordon with a smile of his own, "Heh, I'll have you thrown in the brig for that."

Elizabeth laughed, "You'll have to buy me dinner first, sir."

"Yeah...", Gordon looked down and sighed, "If only...", he looked to Elizabeth, "It has been an honour to serve with you, Lieutenant Elizabeth Timore."

Elizabeth nodded, "It has been an honour for me as well, Captain Gordon Brown."

Outside of the bridge, the _King's Sword_ was brought down on the _Winchester_ , metal tearing into metal, and fire and smoke bellowing out from both airships as the _King's Sword_ drove itself into the _Winchester_ , shredding itself and the Grimm infested airship into pieces, and forcing both airships into the ground in an ugly sight and sound of turning steel and roaring fires.

Gordon saluted to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth saluted to Gordon.

And then, they were overcome by a brilliant orange light and a white hot fire.

And then, they couldn't do anything anymore.

As the airships hit the ground, their reactors overloaded and detonated, the dust powered explosions mixing and reacting together, and then, they gelled together and bloomed like a rose into a massive fireball that enveloped both remains of the airship, and thousands of Grimm in its fiery wake, the shockwave from the explosion and the spreading fires killing hundreds, if not thousands more. The brilliant orange and black dome of fire and smoke was visible from Vale, and the brilliant white glow that came with it blinded all, man and monster, for just more than a moment, and seemed to split apart the heavens themselves.

* * *

_A few moments earlier..._

* * *

Nora swung her hammer into the head of a new Grimm subtype- A Rocketeer Grimm person the size of a Disciple, but covered in bulky black bone armour and with a helmet over him, as well as large shoulders with a massive 4 barrelled rocket launchers on each of them- Snapping its neck and sending it flying into another Grimm, another new type- A bulky Grimm, almost identical to a Baron, in size and features, save for the 2 miniguns that replaced its arms and hands, and the shards of metal that it wore over its body like armour, like a Juggernaut, a helmet made of what looked like scraps of metal, a single horizontal glowing red line going across the helmet where the eye should be.

The Juggernaut growled at this, and smashed the dead Rocketeer into the ground, before raising its minigun arms and unleashing a full barrage of red bullets at Nora, though she quickly flipped herself to the side away from the swarm of rounds, shifted her hammer into its grenade launcher form, and fired off a full barrage of her own into the Juggernaut, the explosives shredding its patchwork armour, and revealing the skin underneath, one grenade hitting its head, and destroyed its helmet, a second hitting the Juggernaut right in its eye, exploding and completely disintegrating its head, letting it slump to the ground and begin to fade away.

Nearby, 2 Rocketeers spotted her, and fired off more than a dozen missiles at her, to which she flipped over one, diverted another into a nearby Ascendant Beowolf with just a tap from her hammer, summersaulted over 2, and then caught 2 more in her hands and threw them back at the 2 Grimm, the explosions sending them back as she got up close and personal to them, shifting her Magnhild into its war hammer, slipping down to her butt and swiping her foot under the Grimm's feet, and then whilst they were falling down, she smashed her hammer into one of them, forcing it to collide with the other, and then, she swivelled her hammer around and flung them both into the air sending them curving down as gravity took a hold of them, and crashing into an Ursa Major, flattening it.

She smiled and giggled at the sight, and then spotted Ren near her, slicing off a Beowolf Alpha's head, then jumping up sending 2 rounds from his StormFlower pair of automatic sickle pistols into a Baron before jamming his blade into its eye, pulling it up and slicing its head into 2 as he landed on the floor, and then kicking a grenade from the Grimm into a herd of Creeps, blowing them apart in a red ball of fire.

"Aw, yeah! Go Renny go!" Nora cheered, throwing her arms into the air in excitement as gunfire coloured red and blue and purple and orange and green and so on whizzed past and around her. But then, her cheer was interrupted by a loud, and oppressive roar, to which Nora turned to the source of the roar, and went, "Do you MIND!? I'm trying to cheer my Renny on!"

The Blind Worm roared and smashed its body into the ground, then preforming a sweeping motion as it swiped its body across the ground, crushing pieces of cover, fellow initiates, explosives, and even its own fellow Grimm as it wiped away everything before it, and then let out a loud roar once more.

"Um, g-guys?" spoke up a boxy Techion in blue, white, and purple named Leadpipe, who'd been pelting the Blind Worm with bright orange rounds from his built in arm guns, "I-I don't think that thing's slowing down!"

And indeed it wasn't, as it spat a wad of acid at the Techion, the guy rolling to the side and dodging it, though the spittle did splatter against him as it hit the floor and formed a smoking green puddle. In response to this, Nora fired off another round of grenades into the Blind Worm, the beast groaning in response, before smashing its body down to the ground and flattening an initiate into a bloody mess, then spraying acid everywhere as the initiates continued to fire upon it, pelting round after round into the beast covered in acidic boils, missing armour, and torn skin leaking black and green.

None of it was bringing the Grimm down. In fact, all that it seemed to be doing was annoying it, as it continued to roar and then shot down, burrowing itself into the ground, and then pulling itself up, kicking up torrents of dirt, wet mud, shards of metal and burnt flesh, and tossing multiple initiates to the side, letting them land on their heads, butts, and backs. A patch of fire glowed on its skin, bubbling and melting away the skin, and it vomited up more and more torrents of acid into the airship and the initiates that occupied it, creating rivers and lakes of green liquid everywhere that it looked.

How the heck were they meant to kill this thing if it kept shrugging off their rounds?! Hacks, she says! All of the hacks!

How did they bring it down back by the cave entrance? By pelting it with tons and tons of rounds, before it puked up its guts and slumped to the ground, and even then, before that, she'd unloaded an entire cluster of grenades into its mouth and tore it apart after hitting one of the dead initiates grenades when it was trying to stuff them all inside of-

Inside.

Inside.

Inside is where all of the organs are.

Nora smiled.

"Hey, Jauney!" she called out to their fearless leader, "I've got an idea!"

"Yeah?" went Jauney in response, having picked up a spare gun and started unloading it into the masses of Grimm, Pyrrha at his side and doing the same.

"I've got a plan that'll kill that worm for good!"

Jaune looked to her now, a surprised look on his face, "Wha- Really?! What?! What is it?! What do we need to do?!"

"Give me covering fire!" Nora called out, taking a spare belt off of a nearby dead initiate, "(Rest in peace)", she whispered to their deceased fellow, then clipping 2 spare rifles to her waist, and cocking her grenade launcher and going, "I'm gonna push up, so make sure I don't die!"

"Wait, Nora!" she heard Ren call out to her, "What are you going to do?"

"Just trust me, Ren!" Nora yelled out, "I know what I'm doing!" she prepared to run forward.

"Nora, I do trust you!" Ren went over the gunfire and explosions around them.

"Then don't worry about me!" she replied with a smile, "I'll be fine!" she then took a playful look at the Blind Worm, shifted her Magnhild into its war hammer form, and, in a sing song voice, she chirped, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a date, and I can't be late!"

And with that, she shot off, her hammer propelling her forward as she pulled the trigger, the explosion shooting her off, before she pulled her hammer forward as she flew forward, and smacked an Architect in its helmeted head, knocking it off kilter, and making it drop its cleaver in surprise. After that, she jumped from there onto another Architect's shield, bouncing off of that and then smashing her hammer into a Dromedon's head.

Then jumping off of the Dromedon's now fading body, she slammed her feet against the body of the massive Blind Worm, and before gravity took hold and she fell onto her back, she slammed her hammer once more into the Worm, and then propelled herself up, up, and up the body of the tall Grimm, running up the Blind Worm, and spinning her hammer around like a wheel, each hit against the Blind Worm propelling her onwards and upwards as she sprinted and moved faster and faster up the Blind Worm, moving with the speed of a rocket, before...

She jumped up from the tip of the Blind Worm's mouth, and rotated in the air, looking down at the Blind Worm, glaring it down eyes to broken eye, before beginning her descent downwards, throwing her hammer up, as the Blind Worm opened its damaged, half toothless mouth, ready to shoot another torrent of acid at her, the green liquid pooling in its maw.

She shot down, and it swallowed her whole.

In the darkness of the Blind Worm's hot, humid throat, she dug her hammer into the Grimm's throat as she fell down the living tunnel of black flesh, Magnhild splitting her throat in half and leaving a smoking green trail in its wake, acid bleeding out of the long cut and trailing down behind her as she sprinted down.

In front of her, was a wall of black flesh, pulsating as it pumped blood and acid through its veins and arteries. Letting her hammer go from the Blind Worm's throat, she used the momentum that she'd been building up to swing Magnhild down with the force of a missile, and blast apart the wall before her into a black and green mess and mist.

She skipped through the freshly made hole in the wall as around her, the Blind Worm cried out in pain and began to swing from side to side, trying to get rid of the pain in its belly. Around her, she could hear the beating of the walls, could feel the pulsing of the ground below her, and through the darkness, she could make out an organ floating in the air, connecting to tubes and veins as it pumped blood from here to there.

The Blind Worm's heart.

The room was expansive, and the heart was massive, pumping and beating to a drumbeat. Nothing but darkness surrounded her, save for a few glowing red and green veins that were spread out across the walls. To some, this kind of room, with the horrible sight in the middle of it, would be oppressive in nature, or horrible, or ugly to look at, or would serve as some kind of metaphor for the nature of the Grimm, or of darkness itself, or something or other.

Nora wasn't like those people. She didn't, wasn't, and wouldn't let it get to her. She had a job to do, and she was gonna get it done. Metaphors and second meanings could be discussed later.

As the acid began to pool into the room, the first streams of it melting and getting at her shoes, she jumped up and swung her hammer at the giant heart, hitting it, and interrupting the pulse, causing the Blind Worm to cry out in pain, letting out what sounded like a whimper. Nora ignored it, though, and swung her hammer at it again, and then a third time, and then a 4th, before she made a gash in the heart, acid beginning to trickle out.

"AH HA!" the hammer maiden cheered, before pulling out one of her grenades (She had pilfered the armoury of as many left over grenades that hadn't been already taken as she could. 'As many' meaning all of them, though) And shoving it into the gash, right in the top of the lip so that the acid couldn't get to it.

As the acid began to pool into the room, touching her shoes and beginning to melt them, turning them into sludge, she hopped up onto the still beating heart and used it as a springboard, propelling herself off towards the bleeding hole in the wall with a vigorous beat of her own in her step. As she flew through the air, she emptied her hammer of its explosives, and began to pilfer her pockets of all of the explosives on her, tossing several of them into the heart's chamber as she jumped on and off the edge of the bleeding wall, sending herself flying upwards.

She continued to run up the Blind Worm's throat, jamming, hammering, and stabbing her explosives into its skin as she went, green acid weeping out of the cuts. The Blind Worm rocked from side to side and cried out as it felt the pain that Nora was inflicting on it, though she didn't take notice of it. This thing had killed so many people today, directly and indirectly. It would get no mercy from her. Not today.

She slammed her second to last explosive down, and swung her hammer into the Grimm's closed mouth, smashing it into its circular jaw, and splitting its open, dislodging its eye and sending her flying forward, dots of acid covering her clothes and burning it in places. She leaped out of the Grimm, into the open air, the fresh breeze tainted by the smell of ozone and death.

Flipping herself in the air, she tossed her last grenade so hard at the Blind Worm that it embedded itself into its mouth. Whilst still in the air, she clipped her hammer to her back, and pulled out the 2 rifles on her belt, aiming them in her hands and firing them off in a mad flurry.

The rounds hit the grenade in the Blind Worm's mouth just as it swallowed it. The explosion ripped apart its mouth, and started a chain reaction that tore apart the insides of its throat, and destroyed its heart completely.

Nora landed back on the ground in a crouch, just as the Blind Worm let out one last pained roar, before a pillar of fire and smoke bellowed out of it, shooting out into the heavens, followed by an ugly, flaming torrent of green sludge and black and red gore, showering everywhere, before the Blind Worm let out one last gurgled croak, and finally fell to the floor, deflating like a balloon, and sending off a wave of black smoke. The Blind Worm was finally, and now for sure, dead.

Behind it, the airships collided with each other and smashed into the ground, blossoming into a flower of fire and smoke, expanding out into a ball of flame, and then erupting with a cataclysmic-

**{KA-BOOM!}**

-Noise and a earth ending shockwave that threatened the open up the floor beneath them and swallow them whole. Ripped up burning shards of metal, Grimm, rock, and dirt were thrown up and scattered across the immediate area and beyond, the fighting coming to a full stop as both the Grimm and the initiates around them ducking and getting down into cover and fire and flaming dirt and metal began to rain down on them, the shockwave throwing them around, and the blast of wind from the massive detonation bellowing past them, kicking up dirt and smoke and ash and fire, as the hot winds blow the newly made mist around them, before calming and becoming a gentle, misty breeze. The fireball had evolved into a perfect mushroom of orange and smoke, blooming and soaring up into the sky, painting the air and the heavens a hadean orange hue. Grimm were tossed around like ragdolls and discarded by the thousands, and dying in those numbers as well.

Nora got back up, discarding her socks and shoes as the acid had melted the soles, leaving her barefooted. She looked around, seeing the dirty thin mist around them and the ash falling like gentle snow, and she looked behind her, to the Blind Worm's fading corpse, to see the mushroom of fire, now fading away into a plume of flame and smoke, and went, "Oh, golly! That was a bigger bang than I though!... And I love it!" she jumped up and down on the spot, "Do it again! Do it again!"

"Nora!" she swivelled to the side, and her smile dropped, as she saw the battered and wounded form of Lie Ren find and approach her, StormFlower tucked away in his sleeves, which were themselves as ragged and dirtied as the rest of his clothes. She asked him what was up, and he just hugged her, and went, "Nora, don't do that again. Don't ever do anything like that ever again..."

"Wha?...", Nora was appreciative of the hug, though she was still confused. She did stuff like this all of the time. Why would he bring it up now, if he didn't trust her already, which she knew he did, so again, why would he bring this up now? "R-Ren? Renny? What's wrong? C'mon, I do this kind of stuff all the time, and I'm fine! Why wouldn't I be fine?"

"..."

"Ren?"

"...Not today, Nora."

"Huh? What are you... Ren, you're not making sense."

"Not after today, Nora", Ren said more firmly, not letting her go, "Not after today..."

Nora went to say something else, but then let her eyes fall on a corpse. An initiate's corpse.

"Oh...", she paused, before returning the hug, realisation coming over her, "Oh Ren, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for making you worry."

"...I thought I'd lost you..."

She muttered apologies, and kept her hold of him firm, just as he her, for both their sakes.

Around them, the battle continued on, more furious and savage than before.

* * *

By now, Jaune had fully surrendered himself to the nuances and functions of war. With the rifle in his hand that he'd scavenged from the ground, he started marking targets, picking off unguarded enemies, coordinating strikes, ordering fire. He was unsure of where he had acquired the ability to wage war so easily. It was terrifying how naturally it came to him, but he brushed it to the side, as he continued to fight, butting a Disciple in the head with his rifle, before unloading a round into its head, forgetting that he did that almost immediately as the haze of the adrenaline rush that'd come over him blocked and bruised his senses and his mind, loosing himself in the battle and the formula of the war around him. Pyrrha was at his side, and in the same boat as him, he assumed, as she picked off Grimm targets left and right in a mechanical fashion, her eyes steeled and hard as stone.

Around him, Hunters were falling to the ground like rain. Near him, Curia Query, who'd, whilst missing a mechanical arm, had chosen to stay outside despite the protests of a few others, summoned another living firewall, dissolving every single Grimm in its path, metal automatons coloured gold and with a single red eye in a wide half circle like head spawning in its wake, firing off red beams of light into the Grimm around it, mowing down dozens of them as they marched forward, an immoveable object against the tides of darkness. So, his semblance, or aura, or whatever, could summon tall walls of hard-light that disintegrated everything and anything living that it comes into contact with, and would leave behind an army of machines in its wake, thereby giving the term 'One man army' a quite literal meaning. A very useful, and powerful ability, indeed.

However, the Grimm had come to the same conclusion as him, and dozens of them began to pelt Curia with bullets and blasts. His aura absorbed as much as it could, and he began to summon even more walls than before in an effort to kill off all of his attackers, his metal army shredding those that he didn't get. But eventually, he was overcome, and was riddled with bullet holes, spraying his blood over everyone and everything. Ren and Nora separated from their hug to try and intervene, but were too late as a red blast hit the side of his head and popping it, sending blood and gore over everyone nearby.

Jaune screamed as he saw this and felt the still warm blood coat him, and before Curia's body slumped to the ground, retaliated by sending a round from his rifle into the eye of a Baron, and then several more, causing the Grimm to grasp at its broken eye, allowing Pyrrha to jam her spear into its neck, and slice it, kicking the now smoking body down, and allowing the 2 Hunters to continue on in their fight, their baptism into the true world of Remnant.

As the Grimm closed the circle around them more and more, growing closer and closer with each minute, sending their lances of light into the airship and the Hunters surrounding it, the sky behind them painted orange in the fire light, a noise came over the air, and into Jaune's ears, flowing though the noises of war and death like a freshly made river.

No, not a noise, not just a noise... A voice.

 **"Look at you all"** , it spoke. Pyrrha paused as well as he. She could hear it too. As could Nora, and Ren, and all of the other Hunters around them. The voice was unnatural, chilling, and yet, also soothing, etheral, almost hypnotic in its tones and sweetness, a sense of nurturing coinciding along with it. It continued on, **"Frail, bloody things, screaming against the night, clawing the darkness with your hands and your swords, fighting and killing your enemies, sacrificing and saving each other from the throes of death itself, screaming defiantly, 'No, you will not kill me. Not now, not ever', against an unstoppable tide, begging to rip you to pieces by tooth and claw"** , the voice chuckled. It was one of nostalgia and warmth, **"Ah, truly, you all represent all that is humanity, that is mankind itself, all that is good, and all that is bad, standing in perseverance, and bravery, refusing to go whimpering into the night like a scared child. You stand together, a bright star amongst the tides of darkness. Truly, yours is a tale that will be told for generations to come, young Hunters, of the sacrifices that you have made, and the hope that you have and will sow. I applaud you for this, my friends. Out of all pf humanity, you have proven yourself to be the brightest candle flame in this dark, dreadful world, and for that, you have my undying respect, and admiration."**

The Creatures of Grimm began to bay and call out once more. From the back lines, the Soul Priests, Beloved and Desired, and the 3 Greater Barons, Oxus, Axis, and Nexus, emerged, surrounded by their Royal Disciples and Architects, as well as another standing with them, a figure, human shaped and sized, covered in a black cloak and mask, and armed only with a smoking sword, 2 glowing red dots where their eyes should be shining underneath the shade of the mask.

 **"But, alas, the end of your plight is at hand"** , the voice then spoke out in a voice that almost seemed mournful, **"I have come to take what is mine, what belongs to me. I have come to lay claim to what is mine, and begin our world again, begin the foundations for our empire, so please, stand aside, will you not? I ask for nothing less."**

An explosion to the cloaked figure's side from a Hunter's weapon, and the beheading of a fully black, red jawed wolf Grimm, was their answer.

 **"Ahh"** , it blissfully sighed, **"Defiant till the end. It is one of humanity's defining traits. Very well then"** , the cloaked figure raised their jagged blade, **"Take them, my children, my Disciples of the Ascended and our Mother Eternal. Take them in the name of our Ascendant Court, and our empire!"**

The Grimm let out a collective roar, one filled with pride and cheer, and they surged forward with a vigour almost unmatched by the Hunters. Almost, being the keyword. The Hunters' return fire was as quick and precise as could be as they screamed and roared against the end, but they were outmatched and growing more so with each second, becoming clearer and clearer with each one of those passing moments, as more and more Hunters began to drop to the floor, the life from their bodies fading away into nothingness, as were the bodies of the Grimm around them as they fell by the dozens and dozens more.

Jaune fired a shot into another Baron, missing its eye and hitting it in the neck, embedding it in the skin, but not penetrating it, resulting in the Grimm merely growling and taking a moment to pull it out of its skin. That moment was a bad move, however, as Nora slammed her hammer into the Baron's head, sending it flying clean off, black blood spraying out of the stump.

"Thanks Nora", he said to her. She nodded and replied her welcomes, and he nodded and went to the Hunters around him, "Anyone know who was talking just then?"

"No idea!" called out one Hunter, Steam, who'd shifted his mechanical bird Hammer into its, well, hammer form, and smashed it against a bear Grimm's skull, "Anyone else?"

"I haven't heard a voice like that before, either", Ren calmly stated as he unloaded his 2 dagger pistols into a wolf Grimm, and then used the daggers on his pistol to slice apart a stumpy, 2 legged Grimm.

Nora would say the same, as well as Pyrrha, and Tusks, and Razor, and all of the other Hunters around him, still in the heat of battle as they conversed, confirming the fact that they did not know who the voice was, or who it belonged to, though it was Pyrrha to point out that it may belong to the human sized figure with the cloak and the sword and the butterfly pendant, which was agreed upon by the rest of the group, though they could tell that Jaune was unsure of something.

"I don't know...", he began to answer their unasked question as he looked at them, "But it sounds... It sounds... Familiar."

Before they could find the time to query each other and themselves further, a guttural roar stopped them, and they looked forward to see 2, no, 3, Architect Grimm spawn from nothingness and begin their march on them, white skin and armour and glowing blue patterns shining in the hadean orange and ocean blue light of the fire and sky. Around them, a phalanx of Royal Disciples had spawned in with them, their purple bone armour standing out against their black skin and red eye as they marched in unison.

They aimed their guns and swords and readied themselves for this fight, and opened fire when the Architects let out a blast of blue fire each from their eyes, while the Royal Disciples fired off swarms of purple blasts at them, the Hunters blocking and dodging the rounds returning their own volleys of blue and red and orange and purple and whatever other colour. Around the battlefield, similar platoons of Architects and Royal Disciples had spawned into the fight as well, reinforcing the endless hordes of Grimm, the legions of Disciples and Barons and Life-Givers and Pumas and the like, forcing the Hunters to move back and close in their circle, reinforcing their lines, but also giving them less room to operate as they sacrificed their cover for safety.

Jumping over a river of acid that'd been made by the now dead Blind Worm, Jaune then levelled the rifle in his hands and aimed it at a Royal Disciple, unloading several rounds into its body, but not killing it, only attracting its attention as it aimed at him and fired in turn, sending purple volleys into him, though he didn't feel them impact against him, only seeing the flashing light.

Damn, this aura thing is really awesome!

He grinned, and looked down to his hand, seeing the still flaming white aura around him- Wait, no, it wasn't flaming. Not as much. It was duller, and more faded.

Huh, perhaps aura only works on a time limit, or it works as an equaliser to attacks, meaning that the more damage you take, you loose an equal amount of aura in turn. Like armour, he guessed, or energy shields from the game series Ring. Yeah, he supposed that made sense.

Reminding himself to be more careful, and to watch himself for his aura levels, however the hell he could do that, he levelled his rifle-

An ML-15, he believed. It was standard issue for each soldier in the House of the Golden Sun militia back in Jewel. Attachments and customisation was optional for them. Not as good as their custom ML-15LE, otherwise called the Wire Rifle, though, seeing as he and Apollo had gone to shooting galleries with it, and he'd always favoured it more.

-And aimed once more at the Royal Disciple, ready to fire it off once more into the Grimm.

The rifle was forced down.

He looked down, seeing a gloved hand holding his rifle down. He looked to the side, to see the cloaked figure with the butterfly pendant holding it down with their one hand, their jagged blade in the other. Their cloak threw a deep, dark, almost pitch black shade over their eyes, the only part of their face that wasn't covered by its cloth mask, 2 glowing red dots where the eyes should be. And yet, somehow, he could tell that underneath that mask, the cloaked figure was smiling.

The figure divested him of his rifle, slammed it into his gut, knocking the air out of him, and sent him flying into a nearby shard of metal cover, assisted with an unnatural, yet powerful gust of wind.

The metal was bent by the force of the impact, leaving an imprint of the Arc boy in his as he groaned and wheezed from the blow, having been winded by it as he'd been launched from there to here in a matter of seconds. Letting himself go from the metal slab, he dropped to his feet and crouched down, catching his breath once more, before looking up, and seeing the cloaked figure calmly swaggering towards him, sword swinging in their grip, seemingly uncaring of the madness that surrounded the 2 of them.

The figure let out a chuckle, skipping over a stream of acid with a gentle hum, and then looked at Jaune and went, **"Mm, you know, this is not how I imagined our first meeting to go"** , they paused, before going, **"Well, second meeting, I suppose. Depending on one's perspective."**

There were so many questions going through Jaune's head at the moment, Why are you here? What are you talking about? Why do you sound so familiar? Why are you doing all of this? but now, the only question that was able to flow out of his mouth was, "Wh- Who the hell are you?"

 **"Ah, yes, I suppose introductions are in order"** , the figure bowed, and giggled, **"I am the Daughter. The Daughter of the Mother Eternal, and Grand Master of the Ascendant Court."**

"The... The Ascendant Court...", he repeated to himself, before going with venom in his voice, "You're the one leading them. The Brothers Grimm, and all of the rest of the Grimm here. You're the one calling the shots", he grasped the handle of Crocea Mors.

The cloaked figure- The Daughter- Nodded, **"Indeed. My Mother has given me this gift. She has given me the gift to shepherd them, bind them to my will, so that I may guide them, and mankind, towards our final destiny."**

"Wha- What the hell are you talking about?" Jaune stuttered angrily, "People have died here today, you monster. People! Hundreds of them, have died, and you're- You're-"

 **"Now now, my dear, you need not be afraid"** , the Daughter spoke, etching closer towards him with light steps, **"You do not yet understand the path forward, but don't worry"** , she grabbed her cloak's hood, and began to pull it back, **"I shall help you understand."**

Then, a hammer impacted with her chest, and sent her flying to the side, an orange glow coming over her before she hit anything, and flip around and land on her feet, her cloak's hood still up, and her cloak and clothes fluttering around her as the dirt of the ground began to swirl around her like a miniature hurricane, whilst a pack of Grimm- Pure black, red jawed and eyed wolves- Gathered and bowed to her. Red trails of flowing light, highlighted by an unnatural orange fire, stemmed from where her eyes should be, angry, and unholy.

Jaune looked to his side, to see Nora looking down at him, holding her hand out to him. Near her, Ren and Pyrrha were standing by, aiming their guns at the Daughter, who was now edging closer towards them. Jaune sighed, taking her hand, and going, "I hate this."

"Getting slammed into a rock?" Nora asked as she pulled him up to his feet.

"Well, yeah, that, but also getting picked up by others. I hate it, absolutely", a pause, "Seems to be happening a lot to me, today, and I hate it."

"Aw, cheer up, Jaune-Jaune!" she patted him on the back, "Just because you need a little help now and then doesn't make you any less than us, it doesn't mean that you can't fight as good as the rest of us, if that's what you're thinking!" indeed, it was, "Just means that you need a little boost now and then!"

He paused, and smiled, "Huh, well, thanks, Nora, that really does help me out."

"Don't mention it, Fearless Leader!" he was starting to hate that name. No fault to Nora, of course, but it was a title that he wasn't worthy of in the slightest, "Now, come on then, enough of that maudlin spew, we've got an evil lady to smack in the face!"

"Heh", Jaune went, "Alright then", he pulled his sword from his sheath and turned said sheath into its shield, "Lets take this psycho lady down."

"I am with Jaune and Nora on this one", Pyrrha went, rifle aimed and raised.

"As am I", Ren went, "This woman has identified herself as their leader. It would be wise to engage and neutralise her now."

"In Ren words, let's kill her face!" Nora cheered and raised her hammer above her head, "Team NARP is well up for the job!"

"Yea- Wait, what?" Jaune looked to the hammer maiden, "Narp? What?"

"Hunter team names tend to be made from the initiates of their members", Ren went.

"Oh, okay. I suppose that makes... Sense... Yeah. But seriously, narp?"

"Okay, what about ALNN? JRNN? LPAN? NPAL? PARN? PLAN? P-"

{STAB}

Nora stuttered and stopped, looking down to her gut, to see the Daughter's jagged, smoking blade- The girl herself still holding it, her cloak fluttering in an artificial wind like the red butterflies that were themselves fluttering off of her- Piercing though her side- Missing her spine- And coming out of the other side of her form, blood pouring out in a torrent, strings of skin caught on the jagged shards of the blade. She stuttered, a tear rolling down her, as she looked up, to see the Daughter looking right at her.

 **"You talk too much"** , she said, **"I always hated that about you."**

""NORA!"" Jaune and Ren cried out, and they lunged at the Daughter. Said Daughter then pulled her sword out of Nora- An ugly sound accompanying it as it was ripped from her, pulling out stands of flesh and gore, painting the ground, blade, and herself red- And blocked the blow from Jaune's sword.

But then, she let out a gasp of pain as Ren's dagger pistols stabbed through her cloak and into her back, sending out a spray of black blood. She growled, and flipped herself around- The dagger blades in Ren's grasped pistols ripping themselves out of her back- Before landing on the ground, twisting herself around, and sending her blade into Ren's shoulder, though his aura, with a green glow, stopped the blade from going through.

Pyrrha made her move next, sending 2 shots from her rifle into the Daughter- Both of which she deflected with her sword- Before she jumped up and turned her rifle into its spear form, and when she fell, she stabbed it into the Daughter. Or she tried to, as the Daughter jolted to the side, out of the way, letting Pyrrha's spear embed itself in the ground, before she herself sent a swipe into Pyrrha, the girl's crimson aura taking the blow, and the Amazonian swiping her spear at her from the ground, shifting into its sword form during the swing. The Daughter took another swipe at her, but it was deflected by Jaune, who pushed himself in front of Pyrrha and used his shield to block the blow, before swinging his Crocea Mors at the Daughter, herself blocking the blow.

 **"Heh"** , went the Daughter with a hint of mirth, then noticing that Ren was coming up on another double blow. She threw herself back, dodging the 2 blows, and then went for a hit of her own, slamming her sword against Ren's already weak aura, shattering it and digging her jagged blade through his clothes and into his back, digging the spikes under his skin, and then ripping them up as she pulled the blade upwards, creating a long gash in his back.

Then, a hammer smashed into her abdomen, and she skidded back over the ground, her 2 feet digging into the dry and wet dirt and mud as she steadied herself. Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren looked where the hammer came from, to see Nora standing up, hammer swung back, a pink glow over her wound as it began to close, though there was still blood pouring out of it, and weeping out of her mouth as well in coughs and splutters, her legs and arms weak and unsteady. With a defiant roar, she lunged forward, and slammed her hammer into the ground where the Daughter was, only for said girl to roll to the side, and throw her sword down, which Nora deflected with the long handle of her hammer, and then twirled it around, throwing the Daughter off for a moment, and allowing Nora to build up enough momentum to bring down a powerful blow with her hammer onto the Daughter, but was blocked by her blade, which guarded against the impact of her hammer, and sent a powerful enough blow out that vibrated and rumbled the water and acid around them, and left tears and indents in Nora's hammer. Nearby, the fully black and red jawed wolf Grimm had descended upon Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren, forcing them into defensive mode as they made good work of them, killing them one by one.

Nora growled, and went down for another blow, only for the Daughter to swipe her spiked blade across her stomach, agitating her wound even further, and then applying a kick to it, sending her rolling back and coughing up blood. This didn't stop Nora, however, as she regained herself, and clipped her hammer to her back, and unclipped the 2 rifles at her side, before leaping up and cartwheeling over the Daughter, firing off an entire clip's worth of rounds each from them, the Daughter having to summersault out of the range of them just so that she wouldn't get shot, though a few of the rounds did get through her cloak. Landing on her feet, facing the wrong way, Nora flipped herself around and aimed at the Daughter, only for her to pull both triggers and find both guns empty of ammo.

With an annoyed groan, she threw one ammo starved rifle at the Daughter- Which she caught in her spare hand- And then, like a club, she swung the other rifle down at her, though the Daughter used her sword to slice it in half, before she used the empty gun in her other hand as a bat and smashed the hammer maiden over the head with it, the pink glow coming over her once more, though it threw Nora's concentration off long enough for the Daughter to send a cut that shattered her aura, another that sliced her breast, before the cloaked woman grabbed her by the head and threw her into the ground, the force of the blow making the redhead cough up a wad of blood.

Then, the Daughter spotted a shadow fast approaching her, and she rolled to the side to dodge a wolf Grimm flying at her, the beast splashing into a puddle of acid and beginning to dissolve in a howl of pain. She looked to the side, to see Jaune pulling his sword out of the head of a dissolving wolf Grimm, his breaths deep and tired, Pyrrha on his one side, and Ren on his other.

"Ren", Jaune began, "Get Nora out of here."

Ren didn't hesitate, as he ran to Nora and began to pull her up to her feet, throwing her arm over his shoulder and taking her away as quickly as possible, presumably back to the airship, Ren himself firing off a couple of rounds into a Disciple which tried to get too close, the battle still raging strong around them.

"Pyrrha, you're with me", Jaune ordered, to which, he got a crisp nod in return, "Let's make her pay."

Pyrrha looked to him, "Raise your shield", he looked at her, and raised an eyebrow, but he did so nevertheless, and once he did, she jumped forward to him, landed her feet against the metal plate, and launched herself forward, lunging towards the Daughter and wrapping her arms around her as she forced the cloaked girl to the ground with a body slam into the dirt, before raising her sword and stabbing it at her, though this was blocked by the Daughter's sword, and she forced it to the side, and booted Pyrrha off of her, flipping up to her feet and taking on a battle stance.

Meanwhile, Jaune moved around to behind her, and swiped his sword to her neck, but she saw this, and flipped herself around in the air, landing a blow against his blade whilst in mid-air, and then facing him and blocking his second swipe with one of her own. Jaune then swiped at her again, then a third time, then a fourth, but it was painfully obvious that, again, for obvious reasons, the Daughter was completely outclassing him in everyway, shape, and form, as she then delivered a riposte to him that sent a tear into his chest armour, and then forcibly twirled his sword around with hers and then used the momentum to throw it out of his hand and into the air.

Jaune was then subject to a knee to the stomach, and then a punch to the head, his aura lessening with each blow. The Daughter then sent a blow from her sword to his chest, and then another to his arm, and then to his shoulder in rapid succession, before Jaune put his arms up in front of him in an effort to try and shield himself, before he saw his Crocea Mors, covered in a black hue, shooting down blade first like a rocket through the air, which the Daughter noticed and skirted back from, as the blade just missed her and sheathed itself into the ground. Pyrrha came charging in once more, her sword colliding with the Daughter's in rapid fire shots, as they twirled and twisted themselves around to dodge and deflect each other's shots, before Pyrrha used her semblance to pull up Crocea Mors from the ground and send it flying at the Daughter, who blocked it with a well placed shot, sending it flying like a wheel in the air, then falling to the ground, and when it embedded itself in the ground once more, Jaune quickly plucked it up, and then swiped it at the Daughter at the same time as Pyrrha, to which the Daughter deflected Jaune's shot and then sent a kick to Pyrrha's face, knocking her back, giving the Daughter the chance to rip the Amazonian's sword from her hand and slash her across the face with it.

 **"So, this is it? The Invincible Girl herself?"** the Daughter asked, before scoffing, **"Pathetic."**

Pyrrha sneered at this, and went in with her bare hands (Her shield having been destroyed in the fight at the cave entrance against the Blind Worm), Throwing a series of punches at the cloaked girl, a red glow coming over her hands, though the Daughter was blocking these blows with Pyrrha's blade, all the while using her own blade to counter Jaune's sword, blows going from left to right, before using both swords in her hands to slash at Pyrrha, slashing at her armour, and then kicking her back.

Jaune continued to swing his blade at her, trying to get at least one hit on her, though she kept dodging and deflecting each blow. He was getting tired, his breaths becoming deeper just a little bit more with each wasted blow, and yet, the Daughter still fought on without loosing a single breath from the look of it, the cloaked woman not even bothering to send a swing of her own at him, always lazily blocking his blows, seemingly not putting any effort at all into her attacks. And to top it all off, her eyes were squinted, and formed into a playful expression.

She was smiling under her mask.

She was smiling.

How dare she. How dare she! How dare she smile after everything that has happened today. All of the death, and the suffering, and everything. How dare she take joy from everything that she has done today!

How. Dare. She.

Enraged, he swung his blade down and across as hard and as fast as he could, metal loudly clanging against metal, a few connections letting out sparks as they collided with each other. The Daughter let out a giggle, infuriating himself even further, as she twirled around, just for show, and deflected another angry blow from him, before jumping back, and doing a curtsy.

 **"Ah, I have missed these days, truly"** , she spoke, as she stood back up straight, and went, **"Excuse me for a moment"** , before flipping around and applying a punch to Pyrrha- Who'd come back around for another round- Right in the stomach, sending her skidding back over the ground.

And then, she was lifted from the ground by an invisible force, and began to gently float a few feet above the ground, swirls of dirt and wind flowing around her as her cloak fluttered around her. The air began to crack and cackle with electricity and embers of fire and ice, and around them, a flotilla of leaves was summoned to her, and began to flutter and float all around her as she eyed Pyrrha with a pair of amused eyes that let out a red glow outlined by fire.

With both hands pushed forwards and upwards, swords still in hand, a torrent of fire came out from one, and a blast of ice from the other, both of them heading towards Pyrrha. Rolling to the side, the Amazonian pulled out her own hand, and pulled her spear from the Daughters hand, shifting it into its rifle form as it reached her hand, and she fired off as many rounds as she could at the Daughter before she had to reload. The Daughter, meanwhile, somehow had each leaf that surrounded her covered in ice and hardened, and started using them as shields against the bullets, each leaf shattering into icy shards as the rounds were stopped against them. Then, with a chuckle, she summoned forth a shock of lightning and propelled it into Pyrrha, shocking her and breaking her aura.

She let out a scream as she felt the electricity volt through her and burn her skin, falling to her knees as she took in as much air as she could. Then, the Daughter sent the rest of her razor sharp leaves flying at Pyrrha with a wave of her hand, flying at her at the speed of a bullet, embedding themselves in her armour, her clothes, and her skin and flesh, drawing streams of blood as she groaned and cried in pain, one of the leaves now embedding itself in her cheek. She fell down to the floor, her eyes closing, tears flowing out of them, and a soft cry of pain leaving her as she quivered and shook on the floor, the leaves that were making their home in her skin loosing their razor sharp touch, as the ice in them melted, and the leaves fluttered and bent in the wind as they were died red with weeping blood.

"PYRRHA!" Jaune called out, before roaring and flinging his sword above him, charging at the Daughter and then swinging his sword down at her, though she quickly swung herself around and caught his blade with her own.

 **"Naughty"** , she said, dropping down to the ground and then catching his Crocea Mors in one of her sword's jagged cuts, and then twisting it around and throwing it down to his side, out of his grasp, and letting it drop to the floor. She then sent another swipe at Jaune, hitting his already burnt and cut up shield, and breaking apart the metal even more, before she laughed, and went, **"Oh, this has been quite the adventure, don't you think, my dear? You and I, our paths set against each other just for this moment, our blades connecting with each other across this hell torn landscape as we dance with death itself, leading our peoples towards our salvations and salvation. Ah, don't you think that it is a little-"**

"SHUT! UP!" Jaune screamed at her as he bashed her in the head with his shield, drawing a trail of blackened blood from her as she fumbled back a few paces. Another bash connected with her nose, her mask gaining a black patch in its middle, and then another bash in her forehead, right above her eye.

The Daughter spun around in recoil, and looked back to him, an angry red and orange trail flowing from her eyes, and she whirled herself around and thrust her sword at-

{STAB}

…Huh. He forgot to keep check of his aura.

At first, all he felt was numb and cold, save for the strange, sharp feeling in his lower side, until he looked down, and saw the Daughter's jagged sword stabbing itself into his stomach, blood pouring out his wound, down his leg and across her pointed blade, dripping down to the floor and staining the mud red. The blade pierced through his back, pulling along tendons and ribbons of flesh and gore in its spikes as it drew out blood like a fountain. His clothes were now staining with his own blood, and he could feel some of that red ambrosia rising up in his throat and pouring into his mouth. It was then, when the pain overtook him, and he tried to let out a pained scream, but all he could get was a vomit of blood and a pathetic cough, as the red liquid dribbled down his chin and dropped onto his shredded chest armour in crimson streaks.

The Daughter, seemingly blinded by her own anger at getting bashed in the head, let out an inhuman growl, and twisted the blade in his gut, before roaring and ripping it to the side.

The action forced the blade out of his stomach through to the side, pulling apart chunks of flesh and guts, pulling apart his lower insides, and drawing out torrents of blood and gore, splattering the ground red with spots of human meat.

This time, Jaune did scream, ugly tears streaking down his face, and blood and spittle foaming from his mouth as he fell to the ground, dropping his shield as he sobbed in pain and violently vomited sick and blood, hands padding and trying to apply pressure to his ripped up side, blood flowing out and skin and flesh dangling out as he looked up into the war torn sky and felt red stained tears cloud his vision.

Then, he heard something near him over his sobs and pained cries, **"No... No... No no no no no no no no no… I messed up, I messed up, I messed up I messed up I messed up I messed up no..."** , the voice began to hyperventilate, **"This wasn't suppose to happen, this was supposed to be... This was supposed to be simple and easy, I just... I didn't mean to... No no no, not again, not again, not again, no no no no no…"**

Then, a shadow clouded his milky red vision, and he felt wet drops- Not his own- Adorn his face.

**"Don't worry, don't worry Jaune, I'll fix you, I'll fix you, I'll make you better, just like how she made me better, and then, we can finally lead our people along the righteous path, just like we were always destined too."**

Jaune tried to say something, but his mouth was too filled up with blood and sick to give a response. He tilted his head to the side, and let it all drain from his mouth, letting out a cough as he groaned, spotting white flickers of pure aura flames beginning to spark on his wound.

 **"Shush, shush, my dear"** , the Daughter said as she knelt down and began to worm her arms under Jaune's body, possibly intending to pick him up, **"It's okay, it's okay, don't worry. I'll heal you, I'll make you better, and I'll help you fulfil your destiny-"**

Then, a slab of metal outlined in a black hue was slammed into her, and she was sent flying to the side, hitting the ground and letting a growl out from between her teeth.

Jaune tilted his head to the other side and saw Pyrrha getting herself up, the girl trying to pool the leaves wet with blood out of her skin, though they only served to break apart into fragments and leave the rest of them harder to pull out. Nearby, Skipjack, Sora, 2 AK-130s, a UGV, and several other Hunters began to converge on them and the Daughter, their weapons trained on the cloaked girl as they pressed forward. Nearby, multiple Grimm began to make their own advance on them, corralling to the Daughter's side.

The Amazonian gladiator then looked at Jaune, and gasped at the extent of his injuries, her face turning green as she put a hand over her mouth, before she shook her head and regained control over herself, running over to Jaune, and saying, "Oh god, oh god", then looking to Skipjack and Sora and the rest of their group and going, "Hey, I need some help over here!"

Skipjack bounced over to them, shifting his one mechanical tail-leg into 4 motor legs, and then crouched down, and went, "We need to get him into the airship, now", and then calling out, "Sora, help me out! Start putting pressure on his wound!"

The squid Faunus nodded, and knelt down besides the wounded knight, swearing to himself as he saw the gaping hole in Jaune's side, muttering about there not being much to apply pressure to, before pressing his tentacle arms into his side, trying to keep as much blood in as he could. The blond boy let out a gurgled cry as he felt the pain increased in his side, but Sora was instead paying attention to the pure white flames of aura that were flickering off of his gaping wound, "I-I think his aura Is trying to stabilise his wounds! I think it's trying to keep his blood in!"

"As long as its keeping him alive, I don't care!" Skipjack argued, "Miss Nikos, if you could please grab his shoulders, I'll grab his legs, Sora, you keep your hands on his-"

"Wait, we need a slab or something!" Sora went, "Like, a slab of metal, or something! If we carry him as he is, then we could just make his injury even worse than-"

 **"PERSEPHONE!"** they heard the Daughter call out, and Jaune looked through foggy, red tinted eyes to see a horde of Grimm of all different types coalescing behind her, and then piling together into a group, and...

Merging. Merging together in an ugly black mass of flesh and gore, black blood flowing out of it and creating a thick black trail of unnatural smoke and steam.

Then, 4 pure black, long, thin, and mechanical spider like legs, with 2 pronged claws at the end of them, shot out of the black mass, and pulled it up high into the air, making the black mass over twice, maybe thrice the size of one of the Architects or the Brothers Grimm, making it the largest Grimm that Jaune had ever seen, competing alongside the likes of the Blind Worm from earlier. The black mass that was being held up by the robotic spider like legs began to mutate and form something new. Then, the last of the black goo and blood dripped off of it and faded away, revealing a small boxy waist which kept the legs connected to it by large circular joints, which itself was connected, via a small circular joint, to a large, robotic oval head shaped in a hexagonal form, with a large green eye in it's centre, 2 large fins connected to the body with thin joints, the find flowing up and backwards, and 2 rectangular cannons that poked out on either side of its eye, both of them giving off an eery green glow, with small points that looked like conductors jutted around them. A sickening black fog emanated from the gunmetal black Grimm machine as it looked at the group of Hunters and let out an electric growl.

 **"Persephone"** , the Daughter, much more calmly now, then said, **"Kill them. Now."**

The Grimm war droid- The Persephone- Let out a mechanical roar in response, and then tilted it's head forward, the green glow of its eye rapidly increasing by the second.

Then, a bright beam of green light- A laser- Shot out of the eye, and slammed into the ground, incinerating one poor Hunter that had gotten in its path, and melting one of the AK-130s as well with the intensity of the beam. The Persephone then turned its head to the side, and in turn, whipped the beam across the battleground, kicking up multiple Hunters, and disintegrating the legs of a few of them as well. Then, it turned its beam off, and from the 2 rectangular glowing cannons on either side its eye, it fired off a violent stream of electricity from both each, catching 2 Hunters with them both, and slowly turning their clothes and skin and flesh to ash, the 2 Hunters screaming out in pain as they were slowly killed, before the electric streams released them, and they dropped to the floor, now just burnt up, charred husks, skeletons that had crisp shards of flesh and fabric clinging to them for dear life, smoke rising from the bodies as they began to cool, both of them ignored by the Persephone as it slammed its clawed foot down onto another Hunter, crushing her organs and bones instantly, and leaving her to enjoy a slow, and very painful demise.

The Daughter, meanwhile, was getting her own licks in as well, using her semblance (Or semblances, or whatever, seeing as she had all of those crazy powers) To form ice around and freeze a Hunter's feet in place, before going in and slicing her vulnerable target's head off in a messy display, then grabbing the head and throwing it into another Hunter, the girl letting out a scream before she was stabbed in the gut by the Daughter, who then shoved the dead girl's body to the side and slammed her sword into the other AK-130, then twisting the blade and popping the droid's head of with a spray of black oil.

"Well, I'm sorry, Sora, but we don't have the time to make him as comfortable as possible! We need to move now!" went Skipjack, noticing Pyrrha pulled her weapon, as well as Jaune's sword and shield into her hand. He then turned to a nearby Hunter, Boombox, and went, "Yo, do you think you guys can hold them off?"

Boombox didn't say anything, instead giving him a nod, and then firing off beams of concentrated sound from his shoulders, and then charging forward into the fray, joining his comrades in the double edged slaughter, killing Grimm, and in turned being killed by the Grimm, like the Daughter, and the Persephone, and all of the other Grimm that were flooding into the area.

"Okay, while they're keeping the Grimm busy", Skipjack went, before getting a firm grip of Jaune's legs, letting Pyrrha grab his shoulders, and Sora his wound, and going, "Alright then, on 3. 1, 2, 3!"

All of them together, they pulled Jaune up, the boy letting out a cry of pain as his back dripped with red, and his wound leaked even more, "Ah, crap, I- Oh, he's lighter than he looks", Sora pointed out, "Probably from the lightened load", he got a smack from Pyrrha for that, "Ow! Ow, what was- Oh, right. Sorry."

"C'mon, hop on it!" went Skipjack as they began to move him towards the airship, "We don't have long! Lets get him inside!"

And with that, they began to march, or run, as fast as they could to the airship, with their limp, but not yet lifeless cargo in hold, doing their best to avoid and ignore the sounds, sights, and dangers of the battle still raging strong around them. As they moved, a few other Hunters began to reposition themselves to support them, creating a sort of wall, or a shield around them as they went as fast as they could with their sensitive load to the doors to the downed airship.

"Come on! Hurry up!" called out a Techion Hunter with the name 'Sayber' on his chest, as he and another Hunter held open the doors to the airship, returning fire onto a squad of Disciples, lead by a Baron, that'd broken through the Hunters' wall and had tried to intercept them, the Grimm firing into the corridor whilst the Hunters shielded them from fire.

"Get in, get in, now!" yelled the other Hunter as she threw a shard of what looked like volatile dust into the squad of Grimm, the violent explosion that was let off from the dust shard incinerating the Grimm, allowing Jaune to be taken into the airship by the trio carrying him.

The last thing that he saw of the hadean outside before the doors closed was the Daughter ripping out Boombox's throat with her bare hands, and then staring into the corridor before the doors closed, looking right into his eyes.

* * *

An explosion tore apart a slab of metal near Weiss, and she responded to this by pulling back her bow and arrow, and firing it into a Baron Grimm, the chain of lightning from the arrow's lightning dust spreading from it to a Disciple, and then to an Ursa, and then to a Jackalope, and then to several other Grimm, the blue glow coming over them, and burning them in a spiderweb of electricity, until they were fading smoke and ash, fluttering away in the wind. Then, with her semblance-

(Her semblance was the ability to summon glyphs, and then adjust and manipulate them with dust, modifying them to suit her purposes, such as summoning fireballs with her glyphs, manipulating ice into her preferred shapes and sizes, using lightning dust to create her time dilation glyphs, which can increase the speed of herself and anyone who was using them, and creating hard-light glyphs that could fire off bright projectiles of concentrated light, and guide them like missiles at her targets.

However, she had always used her signature weapon, her Myrtenaster, to help her summon and modify her glyphs, seeing as it had the dust revolver built into it. Sure, she could use dust on her own to change and manipulate her glyphs and their functions, but she had always used her signature rapier/revolver combo weapon to use her semblance, and had gotten exceptionally, if not, cripplingly used to it, and now that her Myrtenaster had been destroyed by that absolute ruffian of a Grimm earlier, it had put her at an unfortunate disadvantage that did not allow her to fight at her fullest capacity)

-She summoned a glyph, and then used a vial of lightning dust to change it into a time dilation semblance. Then stepping on it, she was sent skidding across the battlefield at terminal velocity, her bow- Her borrowed bow, she reminded herself- Shifted into its spear form, and she lifted it up and stabbed it into a Disciple's chest, the speed and momentum that she was travelling in allowing her to slam it into the ground, before riposting the spear, like a rapier, into the neck of Baron, and then flipping over it and burying the blade in a Beowolf's skull.

She pulled the spear out of the Grimm's fading head, and looked at it. She found it not as reliable as her Myrtenaster, and she wasn't as good as a fighter with it, seeing as how a rapier and a spear were too different weapons, so she had been fighting with it less as a spear, and more like her own weapon, which made it difficult, considering that instead of the blade of the weapon consisting of the majority of its length, it was instead at its tips where the sharp blade homed itself. As such, she was constantly having to readjust herself and her current fighting style just to accommodate for it.

She felt like she should be rid of it. Just toss the weapon to the side, and find another lying around that could better suit her needs... But she didn't. She kept hold of it. The bow and arrow part of the weapon had not failed her yet, and even still, to do so felt like an insult. Not to her, though. To discard this weapon, that had once been someone else's, that she'd found next to a boy that had had his life taken away from him too soon... To discard it and replace it with something else felt like the worst kind of insult to the memory of that boy who'd died, and by extension, everyone else who had died today.

So, she kept it on her, because she wasn't sure if her conscience would allow her to depart from it anytime soon without feeling utterly terrible about it.

A Puma Grimm- Not really a puma, considering that it was like a robot, and had a barbed tail like a catapult- Jumped up and at her, but a bright shock of blue electricity came over it, and she looked to the side to see a squad of 8 Techions running up to her side, all of them sharing the same body type, being fully covered in metal and armour, and with varying glowing patterns across them, with the glowing purple cogwheel on their chests with their names scribbled underneath them. Their bodies themselves, however, were of broad metal chest and a thin waist, with a boxy head with 2 spiked fins going horizontally along them, and long shoulders that speared upwards, and thin arms and legs with spiked arm and knee guards, as well as spiked, 2 toed feet. An arm cannon with a triangular nozzle with glowing patterns covering it sat on their right arms. However, this was where the similarities ended between them, as each one had their own colour scheme and name that differentiated themselves from each other, and a few of them even had custom attachments to them.

The lead Techion, coloured gold and cyan blue, with glowing blue patterns across his body and a horizontal blue glowing slit across his head where his eyes should be, 2 fins on his back, and the name 'Shadestep' under his insignia, pointed to 2 of the Techions behind him, and went, "Voltage, we've got an entire phalanx of Grimm coming in! Get up there and light them up! Toil, Trouble, go with him and back him up!"

"Roger that!" went 'Voltage', a blue, grey, and glowing blue Techion with 2 pylons or conductors on his back, bright blue bolts and volts of electricity jolting around his body as he ran off. Behind him, 2 Techions- Almost identical to the first 2, but with 2 glowing red slits going across their faces and stumpy claws coming out of their stumped shoulders named 'Toil' and 'Trouble', duck blue and black with glowing red patterns, and dark and light blue with a pair of glowing yellow rectangular spotlights under his broad chest respectively- Followed, their weapons letting out a whine as they primed, and then fired off red and yellow rounds into the hoards of darkness.

"Sayber-", a Techion of identical built to Shadestep, but without the back fins and coloured red with glowing blue patterns and slit on his head, nodded, "-Bayonet-", another Techion of almost identical build to Toil and Trouble, save for the blades sticking out from under her wrists and the sharp fins in her back-

(Weiss knew that she was a girl because of the feminine grunt that came from her when she'd jumped over a stream of acid, as well as the others' use of female pronouns when telling her to keep up with them)

-Coloured brown and beige with glowing purple patterns and 2 blue slits running horizontally across her head, stood to attention upon hearing her name spoken, "-Get to our flanks and start slicing them up!"

The 2 nodded, ran off, and split up, moving off to separate sides of Voltage and his 2 cohorts, pulling out blades, and carving and firing into the Grimm, sending black blood and body parts flying hither and thither.

"Afterburner-", a Techion of identical build to Toil and Trouble, but coloured almost completely purple, with glowing red patterns and red slits across his face looked up at him, "-Kayble-", as did the last Techion, in the same build as Sayber, but in blue and beige, and with glowing yellow patterns on him, and a yellow slit across his head, "-You're with me! Lets give them some covering fire!" the 2 of them nodded, and Weiss was surprised to find the Techion then point at her, "And you, lady, should be up there as well, helping us fight!" before she could get a word in, he continued, "You've got no broken bones or bad wounds on you, so unless you're shell shocked or something like that, then get out there and fight, for god's sake!"

"Er, excuse me!" Weiss threw back, "Do you know who you are talking to!? I am Weiss Schnee of the-"

"You can be Snow freaking White for all I care, and I still wouldn't give a damn! You've got a spear. Use it. Now get out there and fight!" and with that, the Techions ran out and began to send their own rounds of blue, red, and yellow into the Grimm hordes, slowing their advance, and allowing the initiates to gain more control over their ground and further shore up their positions in that area.

Weiss scoffed indignantly. How dare... Ugh. The nerve of some people, honestly.

 _Whatever_ , Weiss thought to herself, _Now is not the time_ , while the Techion, Shadestep, was being incredibly rude to her, he did have a point. Even if he was needlessly crass about it. She needed to fight.

But first, she needed to find that utter child- Both figuratively and literally- Of a partner of hers.

Weiss wasn't really sure who she felt the need to find that little red riding hood- Ruby, her name was- Though she supposed that she was only doing it to sooth her own conscience, same as the bow and arrows that she carried with her. She very much doubted that even if she didn't like her partner- Which she didn't!- If she allowed her to die, then she really wouldn't be able to live with herself after that.

Plus, there was no doubt that the little bairn was probably doing something incredibly foolish, so no doubt she had to be there to save her skin.

Ugh, the woes of being a decent human being!

Spotting another Hunter nearby- A boy she remembered being called Jay, dressed completely in golden knight armour and armed with a pike that had a hard-light blade- She ran up to him and, over the sounds of battle and him stabbing his pike into an Ascendant Beowolf's abdomen, she went, "Hey, er, Jay, wasn't it? Have you seen a girl in a black and red corset? Has a hood- Actually, no, used to have a hood. Has black hair with red tips?"

"Oh, you mean the girl with the sniper?" Jay responded with, whilst pulling his pike out of the Ascendant Beowolf, letting it slump forward and then slicing off its head, then turning to her and pointing to the side of him, and then saying, "Er, yeah, she's over there, but I don't know why she's out here with a sniper rifle. If she's using a weapon like that, then she should be up there with the rest of the snipers, and not-"

She didn't know where the blast came from. She didn't know where the red line of energy flying across the battlefield from the barrel of a Long-Shot originated from. To her, Jay's head simply evaporated, exploding in a burst of blood and meat, splattering her with gore, and letting his head fall down and roll to the floor.

Weiss let out a scream and jumped back, falling to the ground as she watched Jay's headless body stumble forward, reach other, and then collapse to its knees, and then slump down to the floor, blood pooling out of the neck stump in a torrent.

She got herself back up, away from the headless knight, and wiped the panicked tears off of her face. No, no, mourn later. Panic later. Now, she needed to find Ruby, if only to calm herself alone.

She went to the area where Jay had indicated to, speeding along as fast as she could across the battlegrounds, skipping over puddles and trails of acid, and between bodies of people and Grimm, dodging attacks and blows and blasts as she moved, the air around her regularly heating up and then cooling as she went.

Then, she saw the little red riding hood, the girl in question holding an oversized silver sniper rifle (Her original weapon had been destroyed by one of those oversized Grimm in the Ascendant Court) That was twice her size, and firing it off into the hordes of Grimm, getting headshots on them left and right. A Royal Disciple tried to get a swipe on her, but she burst into rose petals and appeared once more to its side, the barrel of her gun right in its eye, and she pulled the trigger, blowing apart the Grimm's head in a purple mess. Another Royal Disciple went to stab its sword into her, but she, with the help of the yellow shotgun gauntlets around her wrists, she sends a punch right into the Grimm's single eye, melting it with a shotgun blast and slamming her foot against its body, sending it flying into another Grimm and forcing it into the ground.

Pulling the trigger of her sniper once more, she found that it was empty of ammunition, so she let out the empty magazine, and then tried to slam one of her ammo clips into the empty gun, only to find them noncompatible. They were ammo magazines for her previous weapon.

Letting out a groan, she then swung her sniper at a Puma, like it was her scythe, and then remembered that it was not that as it clunked against its organic armour, and let out a scream as it pounced on her, forcing her to the ground, and sent its barbed tail into her abdomen, digging it in and then ripping it out with a trail of blood on each barb.

"RUBY!" Weiss called out as she sent her spear out like a javelin, though it was a poor throw and harmlessly thudded against the Puma, though that was enough to distract the Puma, its boxy head and single eye looking to the side, allowing Ruby to grab its head, and then let out a shotgun blast from both of her gauntlets, the momentum of the force throwing her arms back and, with the Puma's head still in her hands, snapping the Grimm's neck, and then kicking the now dead creature off of her, and pulling herself to her feet.

"I'm okay, I'm okay", Ruby repeated to herself, before looking up to Weiss as she picked up the spear and shifted it to its bow form, reaching for another arrow from her back, only to realise that she had run out. Swearing to herself, she looked at Ruby, "Weiss", the girl in red and black said in a shaking tone.

"Are you okay, Ruby?" Weiss asked, as she shifted the bow back into its spear form, "I mean, are you actually okay? Are you as okay as you just said?"

"Y-Yeah", Ruby went, hefting her sniper, and only just noticing that she'd dented, almost broken the stock of it against the Puma's hide, "Yeah, I'm okay, I'm good, I'm fine."

"Don't give me that, Ruby", Weiss reprimanded, "Don't even think you can give me that kind of rubbish. Not now, at least. Not in a warzone", as if to prove a point, a blast from a Life-Giver impacted with the ground next to her, and they jumped to the side to see the floor cooling off with a hiss of smoke. Weiss looked back at Ruby and asked, "Why on the gods' good Remnant are you even fighting with a sniper rifle out here? You need to be up there in the airship with the other snipers, where you'll be more effective, not out here where-"

Then, a voice called out to them, _**"Ah, the corporate whore speaks with the silver eyed witch"**_ , the hairs on their necks stood up, and with wide eyes, they looked to the direction of the voice, to see, flanked by 2 Architects, the hulking form of the Brother of Light marching up to them, taking its time to cut a Hunter in half by his waist and fling both halves of him to the side, before looking back at them and going, _**"How nice to see, indeed."**_

Weiss and Ruby snarled at it, and readied themselves, Weiss raising her spear, and Ruby aiming her empty sniper rifle. Before Weiss could comment on this, Ruby looked at her and went, "Weiss, get out of here. I can take care of them."

"Wha- Ruby! Don't be stupid!" Weiss looked and said to her incredulously, "Your gun is- Augh!" she caught herself from going any further. Best not to reveal any information to the enemy, though she did start tugging at Ruby's torn and burnt sleeve, trying to pull her away to safety.

 _ **"Ahahah"**_ , the Brother of Light chuckled, _**"So, the silver eyed girl defends her compatriot. How... Delightful."**_

 _Silver eyes?_ Weiss thought to herself, _What is it..._ , she looked at Ruby, who looked at her with those eyes coloured silver, confusion writ on her face as well, _What's so important about silver eyes?_

 _ **"Ah, so selfless. An inherent trait of the silver eyed warriors"**_ , the Brother of Light paused, and then smiled, _**"Much like your mother, Miss Rose"**_ , Ruby's eyes widened as she stared right into the Grimm's burning purple eye, her sniper going slack in her grip, _**"Ah, would you like to know what happened to her?"**_ he continued on before she could answer, _**"Oh, it was so fun to meet her. She was so nice, and all. And so fragile. So delicate"**_ , his smile widened, _**"And so easy to break. So easy to kill. So easy to rip and tear into pieces, like wet meat... Much like your father, I must say."**_

It laughed, and saliva began to dribble from its mouth as it threw its arms into the air. Ruby began to growl as a bright light began to flicker in her eyes, something which Weiss noticed, but couldn't find the time to ask point out as she continued to try and drag her away from the god pretender's taunts, though the girl was still standing firmly in place, her feet digging themselves into the ground as she did the most stupidest thing that she could ever do, and listened to it.

The Grimm let out a guffaw, and went on, _**"Ahahaha! It was so much fun to kill them, I must say! When we invaded Patch, and turned that little island into a crimson wonderland, for your father, I merely broke every bone in his body, turning them into fine powder, and let the wild Grimm have their fun, have their way with him, tear him limb from broken limb, and feast on his corpse, but your mother"**_ , it let out a diseased laugh, _**"Oh, where do you think I got the cape on my shoulder from?"**_

"Ruby, we need to go", Weiss went. The girl in question stood where she was, her gun shaking in hand, so much so that she was sure that Ruby was leaving indents of her fingers in it.

_**"Ah, it was so easy to draw her out, to pretend to be the helpless damsel, the lonely wonderer in need of a saviour. Hah, heh, pathetic. It was, truly! And from there, do you know what I did? I had my Grimm jump her, and then I caught her in my grasp! Easy as pie!"** _

It smile then widened even more as it licked its lips, its body quivering as if it were recalling some perverse pleasure. Tears began to well in Ruby's eyes and drain down her cheeks as her face began to turn to her namesake, her teeth grinding together as a rage filled snarl left her being.

 _ **"Oh, it was so much fun to kill her! I skinned her, didn't you know? I skinned her alive! I skinned her with my sword, carving her like a fine cut of meat, cut by cut, piece by piece! Then, I'd carved off all of her skin, and let the Grimm eat it, and then I dangled her fleshless body around, and gave it to the local men, so that they could... Hehehe"**_ , it giggled as its head twitched, _**"...Take their frustrations out on her. Oh, and I listened to it all! I could hear them having their fun with her, how she screamed and begged and cried as they had their fun with her! Oh, I remember it all like it was yesterday! Ah, how she screamed out for you! 'Oh, my little sunflower! Oh, my little rosebud! Please! Please save me'! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"**_ it laughed and laughed and laughed, _**"AHAHAHA- DON'T YOU THINK IT'S FUNNY! IT'S SO FUNNY, ISN'T IT?! LET'S ALL LAUGH TOGETHER! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-"**_

"SHUT! UP!" Ruby screamed out, white hot tears glowing silver leaving her eyes as she sped upwards and forwards in a flurry of rose petals, animalistic snarls and growls leaving her as the lachrymose girl flew through the air, ignoring Weiss' calls for her as she felt the hot wind and floating ashes in the air flowed through her hair, and then swung her Crescent Rose down to pierce the Grimm right in this monster's eye, and-

She didn't have Crescent Rose, did she?

The silver coloured sniper rifle shattered against the Brother of Light's white bony armour.

The Grimm's smiled reached its edge, and it raised its free hand, and, whilst she was still in the air, it smacked her aside, and sent her slamming into the floor and skidding across the ground, kicking up dirt and mud, leaving a muddy trail in the ground as she soon came to a stop...

Right into a stream of acid.

She let out a scream as acid began to eat at her clothes and skin, half her face- Her left side- sitting in the green stream of hateful blood. Weiss cried out and ran to her, seeing that the girl was too weak to move, and she quickly pulled the girl out of the horrid liquid, trying to wipe off the acid with her now melting sleeve, spotting that the fabric that'd been sunk into the acid had all melted and withered away, the edges now generating steam, and her skin was-

Weiss stifled and truncated her own scream.

Much of the skin on the left side of her body was gone, melted and steaming away, though from the looks of it, her aura had done its job and had protected her as best it could, otherwise she would be dead. The left side of her was completely coloured red as parts of her skeleton and organs were visible under the threads of skin that still covered them, her heart visible and still beating under her ribcage. Her face and head was coloured red at the left side, and much of her skin was gone, the tendons in her cheek visible, and part of her eyelid melted and burnt, with most, if not all of her hair on the left half of her missing. The yellow gauntlet on her left arm had melted, fusing and moulding itself into her skin and bone, becoming one with her flesh and morphing into an ugly display. Blood began to coat her as the young girl cried more and more, the ground now staining both a wet crimson and a steaming green.

 _It's okay, it's okay_ , Weiss began to think to herself as she held the red haired and half skinned girl in her arms, _It's okay, aura will heal this. This is nothing. Aura will heal this_ , at least, that's what she was telling herself.

"W-W... Weiss...", Ruby chocked out, her half burnt lips quivering, and silver tears leaking from her, "I think... I think... I-I-I think I'm... Could you tell Yang that... That I-"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up", Weiss repeated to her, "You're gonna live. Do you understand me? You are going to live."

"I... I... I doubt that..."

 **"Ah, how comforting to watch. But unfortunately, as is the universal truth, all good thing, inevitably, must come to an end"** , the Brother of Light then spoke out, looking to his 2 flanking Architects, and going, _**"Kill them, if you may please."**_

The Architects nodded, and then began to march forward, each footstep like an earthquake, cleaver axes in hand, fingers testing their sharpness, and then slicing through a Hunter that tried to get in their way, cleaving him in half.

Ruby saw this, it would seem, as her eyes widened, and the silver tears continued to leak out. An ethereal glow, coloured a silver hue began to flow from her eyes, unmoved by the gentle breeze and harsh, uneven heat, "...Ead", Weiss asked her to repeat as she began to pull her up, "Kay's dead. He's dead, and so is Miltia, and Flashback, and so many others... So many people are dead, and dying-"

The Architects sliced through another Hunter, and threw another to the side. They marched through the slaughter, cutting down more Hunters as they tried to stop them, to no avail.

"-Yang is crippled, Patch is gone, everyone is dead, my mum is dead, my dad is dead, I wanna go home-"

A bright blue beam of light killed a Hunter near them, and kicked up acid into another, distracting her long enough for one of the Architects to slam its cleaver axe down on her and crush her like she were an ant.

Ruby's eyes began to flare up, the flow of silver light now becoming a fire, burning brighter and brighter as she rambled and panicked, almost like it was building up to something. Weiss had to stop just to look in surprise. Rose petals were beginning to flow off of her being, and began to gently float to the floor. A few other Hunters nearby, such as Blake and a blue, purple and white Techion- Who had only just arrived upon seeing their plight- Had paused just to look at the silver light, glowing and growing harsher and harsher by the second, as well as the light and crimson petals beginning to flow off of the scarred girl's body.

"-But I don't have a home and I'm scared and I don't wanna die but we're all gonna die here-"

The Architects reached out for her. One of them raised its cleaver axe.

The light in Ruby's eyes reached its zenith, pulsating, almost ready to burst. Shards of even brighter light began to burst through the bubble, cracking and tearing like a balloon ready to pop.

The Architects took a step back.

So did the Brother of Light, _**"What?! What is this?!"**_

"-And **_I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!_** "

She screamed.

The bubble of silver light burst.

Everyone looked away, less they be blinded.

A tidal wave of silver light swept over the battlefield ahead of them, a burning bright white flame, flowing out like an ocean, unstoppable. The Architects and the Brother of Light were the first Grimm to be consumed in the light, disintegrating immediately, the false Brother god letting out a scream of its own as it was dissolved into nothingness, a purple ball of light flying out of its body before it was sent to ash and nothingness, floating still for a second before soaring away at the speed of a bullet.

Ruby continued to scream as the wave of light consumed every single Grimm in its path, the creatures and monsters letting out cries and calls of terror and pain of their own as they were consumed, a massive swath of land clear of anything and everything Grimm, and ending the lives of the creatures of darkness by the hundreds. The land was blinded for a second, as the earth shook and all that was Grimm burnt to ash and then the ash burnt to atoms and the atoms burnt to nothing.

Her head tilted back, and the fiery beam of bright silvered light was shot up into the heavens, piercing the land of the gods. Every Grimm that was caught in its wake was melted and sent back to the hell that they came from, as the light parted the clouds and split the heavens above open, creating a second sun of silver as the air was coloured a different shade of blue and white and grey.

In the air battle between the Valerian fleet and the Grimm, a wizard as old as time itself saw this silvered pillar of light and its previous flood below and dropped his mug.

Ruby screamed and screamed and screamed, her throat becoming course and rough and foaming blood as silver steam and smoke began to flow from the light and her eyes, forming an unearthly cloud around them.

Then, her scream came to a whimper, and the beam of silvery light came to a end, fading into a single thin line, and then to nothingness. Steam continued to emit from her eyes, though they slowly came to an end, as her tired, damaged, and burnt eyes slowly closed, and her head fell to the side, the girl's breathing now shallow, and faded.

By the silver beams end, Ruby had taken the lives of Grimm by the hundreds, of not thousands more.

Weiss looked down at the girl, her own eyes wide and shocked, as were the other Hunters around her. She somehow took her gaze away from the wounded girl and looked away up to the path ahead of her. Every single Grimm that had once stood before them, including the Brother of Light, were gone. Killed, destroyed, removed. Gone. Nothing remained of the Grimm in a wide radius, only flattened trees and a silvery afterglow. The air was sparkling an unearthly shine, particles of silver light glowing and flowing through the air, fading away into nothingness, looking like snowflakes falling through the air.

Weiss looked back down to Ruby. To the girl with the silver eyes and the rose petals and the half deformed form. What was... What was that? How did she do that? How did she...

Finally, in the stunned silence, it was the white, blue, and purple Techion who ended it, "Er, guys? The, um, the Grimm are coming in again. They're closing the gap."

The white haired girl looked up and could see that, indeed, the Grimm were flooding into the gap that Ruby had somehow made in the Grimm by the hundreds. Oh god, how many of these monsters were there?

"He- Someone help me here!" Weiss called out, dragging the limp and unconscious Ruby away and closer to the airship, "Someone help me get her into the airship!" nearby, she could see a broken DJ being hauled into the airship by a crab Faunus by the name of Alexis Kennedy.

Blake and the white, blue, and purple Techion get to her and help her up, grabbing Ruby by her shoulders and legs, and taking her into the airship, placing her within the hold, and then moving back out into the battle.

The Grimm filled up the hole in their lines once more, almost like it was nothing, and Ruby's miracle was for nothing.

* * *

The chains break and loosen. The cage rattled. A blue shine came out of the locked door.

Melanie was flung back as the Brother of Darkness snarled at her, firing off a beam of purple light into the ground next to her as the necklace of heads thudded against its neck.

Neon jumped off of a shard of uprooted ground and used her semblance to boost her into the air, flying over the Brother of Darkness and sending off a blast of electricity dust from her nunchaku into the black and purple Grimm, hitting the beast in its shoulder.

"Opps!" Neon went as she landed on her feet in a crouching position, and laughed at the Grimm, "Sorry I gave you the cold shoulder! Aha!"

The Brother of Darkness snarled, and smashed its free hand into the ice on its shoulder with a roar, ripping off the ice and raising its axe for a finishing blow.

Neon's eyes widened, "Oh shi-", she darted to the side just before the axe could get her, rolling onto the floor and then quickly getting up again, "'Oh shit', is what I was going to say."

Flynt got next to the Brother of Darkness whilst it was distracted, and let off a long burst of concentrated sound made physical from his trumpet, shooting it into the Grimm's head, and sending the Grimm leaning back, before it used the momentum to lurch forward and slam its axe into the ground, catching Flynt's trumpet and destroying it.

"Ah, dammit!" Flynt yelled, falling to the ground, and landing on his bottom, looking back up from his destroyed weapon to see the Brother of Darkness going for another swing at him.

"Flynt!" Melanie cried out as she fired off several rounds from her rifle into the Brother of Darkness, trying to distract it as much as she could, though all she got from it was an annoyed twitch, and no more. Looking to Ciel near her, she called out to her, "Ciel, move!"

"Yes ma'am!" Ciel replied, and dashed out as fast as she could at a speed that could rival Neon, and got to Flynt and pushed him out of the way, before tossing herself out of the way as well as the blade came down and missed her.

Watching Ciel summersault to behind herself and empty a clip into the Brother of Darkness, Melanie spotted a Royal Disciple running up to her, and aimed down her sights, firing off several rounds into the Grimm's eye, and then vaulting over a shard of upended earth, and bashing another Grimm over the head with the butt of her gun. Nearby, Neon tossed Flynt a discarded shotgun, and he used it to blast a Royal Disciple in his face, before kicking it into another Grimm, before jamming his gun into the mouth of an Ascendant Beowolf, and blowing its head off.

Neon, meanwhile, was darting between Grimm of all sorts, a rainbow trail leaving her back as she used her nunchaku to kill these Grimm with all sorts of dust, encasing some in ice, burning them to ash with fire, and blowing them away with wind. She laughed with glee as she took out Grimm left and right, skirting between them with her roller blades, before she looked to rearm her nunchaku with a vial of dust from her pockets, and a look of fear came over her as she kept skating along.

"Shit, I'm out!" she cried out, before getting slashed in the stomach by an Ascendant Beowolf, and was only just able to stop herself from falling to the ground. Recomposing herself, she tried to dash back to Flynt, but on her way there, she felt something grab her tail.

The Brother of Darkness had caught her.

It picked her up off of the ground by her tail, dangling her like a ragdoll, before smiling a diseased, ugly smile, and then throwing her into the ground with a mighty {SLAM}, the girl letting out a scream of pain as her aura took up as much damage as it could, though her bones still fractured and she coughed up a large wad of blood, almost vomiting it up, before the Brother of Darkness picked her back up, squeezing and crushing her, the Faunus letting out a sob of pain as tears mixed with blood streamed down her face as she began to blubber and splutter, blood pouring from her fracture wounds as she was being crushed.

Ciel tried to get the Grimm's attention, as she fired off another clip into the black and purple monster, though it smiled at her, and slung its hand back, before throwing it forward, and flinging the now broken and bloody Neon at her, the 2 colliding with each other and sending them flying back into the mud and metal, knocking them both unconscious. Flynt tried to get to them, but the Brother of Darkness fired off a purple eyebeam into the ground next to him, flinging him into the air, and sending him crashing into the ground, still conscious, only for the Brother of Darkness to slam his foot into the boy, and then again, and then again, crushing him, and leaving him with bloody spots and leaking wounds, the boy now unconscious as well.

"NO!" Melanie called out, before unloading all of her ammo from her rifle into the Brother of Darkness in anger, letting out an angry cry as she heard and saw the purple rounds fly into the Grimm, tasting the gases and fumes that were let off from the barrel of the gun, not noticing the rest of the Grimm that were gathering around her.

The Brother of Darkness merely chuckled at this, letting out a pale, mirthful laugh as the purple rounds harmlessly flickered on and off of its armour and skin, and then said, **"Heheheh, aw look at you, little bag of meat, pale sack of flesh, trying her best, but always failing. Failing to save your sister dearest! Failing to save your friends! FAILING TO SAVE YOURSELF! AHAHAHAHAH!"** , it laughed. It laughed loud and true, and then went, **"Heheheheh, heh, pathetic, truly. I will never know what the Daughter sees so much in you and the rest of your weak, fragile kind."**

Melanie tried to shoot the Grimm once more, but found that her rifle was empty. She took a step back, and it was only now did she noticed the Grimm marching down on them. They'd breached the lines. They were going to overrun the Hunters and the airship.

She'd failed.

The Brother of Darkness continued to giggle like a madman, its insanity clear and obvious. Spittle flew out of its mouth as it laughed, dribbling down its chin as it grinned, and a steady glow began to grow in its single eye.

Melanie realised what was about to happen. She tried to jump to the side and-

Too late.

A great purple beam shot out of the Brother of Darkness' eye, impacting with Melanie square in her chest. The beam of light expanded out upon impact into a ball of bright purple energy, pulsating like a heart, and splitting apart its skin, before exploding into a ball of purple fire, and flying out, pitch black smoke and purple flames spreading out into a thick cloud, flowing upwards and outwards, before dissipating, the fires spreading themselves into a field of gentle flickers of unnatural purple light as hot as the sun, burning away and drying the mud and blood, and cauterising the wounds of those around the fire just from the heat alone.

The chains strained and came close to breaking. The cage rattled, and the light shone deeper.

Melanie opened her eyes.

 _How am I still alive?_ she thought, as she tried to get up. Keyword being tried, as she found herself too weak to even move, _I should be dead. Why am I not dead?_ she wasn't complaining, obviously, but still, that blast should've been enough to kill her, even with her aura. So how had she survived?

She looked down, finding herself on the floor in a crater, surrounded by smoking layers of dirt and mud, and purple flames that flickered and seared her from the heat alone. She looked over herself, to see that her clothes had almost completely burnt off, with only sparse, flickering and smoking and doing poorly to cover her. Her skin was smoking, burnt, and still burning from the heat of the flames around her, and her hair smoking and burnt, the flower hairpin that was once in her hair withered, burnt, and turned to ash. She looked to her arms, to see them burnt and fractured, cauterised tears of flesh decorated with dried streaks of blood, coloured red and patterned like spider webs across her arms and skin.

Wait, on her arm, a little blue fire. She tried to raise her other arm to pat it out, but couldn't find the strength to do so. She was still so high from the adrenaline that she couldn't feel the burning hot pain that was coming with it.

Footsteps. Large, earth shaking, and imposing. She tilted her head and moved her eyes, to see the Brother of Darkness coming right at her, cleaver in hand, and a facial expression crossed between a snarl and a smile, purple smoke bellowing from its one eye.

It said something in its own language, something that she couldn't understand, and then it said to her, **"Your sister is dead, bloodbag"** , he grabbed and tweezed the head of Miltia that sat in the middle of the head necklace with its fingers, **"More than dead. Destroyed, eviscerated, ruined"** , it began to apply pressure to the burnt and rotting head. A crack came from it, **"Your failures have diseased the rest of them. Your teammates, are going to die now. Your allies have fallen and are falling. And today, from now, your kind, all of your rotting, broken, and unworthy of life species..."**

It squeezed Miltia's head, and it popped between its fingers.

**"...Are finished."**

It rubbed and mushed the red and browning remains of her sisters head between its fingers. The head necklace that it wore came apart, fell, and coiled on the ground. It pulled apart its fingers, and licked at the gory remains, balancing it all on its tongue, and then swallowing the gore. It smiled once more. There were bits of organ and bloody matter between its teeth.

Melanie couldn't find the strength to scream, or roar, or even cry. It just looked at the Brother of Darkness, and the act of desecration and mockery. It teetered its axe to the side, as well as its head, and a single thought was going through Melanie's own.

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

"Why?" she croaked out, only realising that she had done so a second later. Her voice was croaky and shattered, stuttering and blubbering present as she finally found the strength to cry.

The Brother of Darkness grinned, and laughed once more, **"Because its fun! Because I like to kill, and torture, and desecrate, and destroy! I want to kill for no other reason than to kill. Killing for the sake of killing! War for the sake of war! Blood for the sake of blood!"** it leaned down, Melanie's reflection visible in its eye, **"I kill for entertainment, and I'm going to keep killing, and killing, and killing, and killing, just because it gives me pleasure."**

Its eye began to glow once more.

**"Goodbye, worthless thing."**

It fired off another purple blast into Melanie, more powerful this time. The blast hit her body, and she burnt.

Burnt and burnt and burnt and burnt.

Burnt.

Burn.

_**BURN.** _

The chains broke. The cage shattered. A bright blue flame encompassed all.

The energy from the purple beam and the explosion that followed began to shift and mutate. The energy and fire began to coalesce around Melanie, forming into a bright, expanding ball of purple energy, growing more and more with the energy that the Brother of Darkness was pumping into it. It began to change colour to a bright glowing blue, swirling with blue patterns that were at first thin, but then kept expanding outwards more and more, pushing away the unearthly and unnatural purple hue with a deep, and lifelike blue. Bright blue fire began to burn and simmer across the dome of light, spiralling upwards and upwards, burning with once unholy now purified light.

The Brother of Darkness stopped pouring light into the ethereal ball of light and fire, stepping back in surprise as it looked at the display of condensed, collected energy swirling and pulsating and swirling and pulsating over and over, growing larger and large until...

It burst and unravelled. 2 great big wings of light took form as well as most of the blue fire with it, sprouting upwards and casting all around them in a blue glow, fluttering like a butterfly against the wind. The body that the wings of pure power and fire, once curled up on the floor, began to uncurl itself, and then began the process of standing up, the grave and grievous wounds across its body seemingly not affecting it at all as it raised itself from the ground, moving and flowing with an elegance that it did not know it had.

The body stood up, its aura, in the form of brilliant blue flames, beginning to seal up its wounds and covered its burnt skin. It stretched itself outwards, unlocking its muscles and freeing up its form.

The body opened its eyes, a bright blue flame of pure energy and aura trailing out from the once green now bright glowing blue orbs of colour, its long wavy hair flowing in a non-existent wind, flickers and towers of blue flames and snowflakes of embers burning and dancing across its form, the wings of light on its back, stretching far above even that of the Brother of Darkness, gently flapped once, and then began to coil down next to it.

And it was only then did the body remember who it was, as the last traces of euphoria and ecstasy that came with the awakening of a semblance washed out of it- Out of her- And gave way to pain and burning, as the sheer heat from her semblance began to boil her skin and melt her flesh.

The maddening pain was ignored, like it was nothing more than an inconvinience. It was just that, to her.

Melanie looked over herself, over her smoldering nude form as she felt the fiery wings on her back, not at all affected by the burning heat and flames, before spotting the blue flames dancing all over her in their symphony, smiling at the sight as the fire locked away and healed her wounds before reopening and burning them once again, and then allowing herself to look inwards at herself.

She felt powerful.

No.

She was powerful.

She was power.

She could feel her aura fan the flames of pure energy that was once theirs now hers, collecting it and purifying it, turning it from something twisted and evil, into something holy and good. She felt her new wings flap in the wind, almost like they were solid, the breeze blowing across her body, helping to add and fuel the fire that had collected on her, growing wider and wider.

She felt like an angel. She felt like she'd been touched by the gods themselves, and had been blessed with the powers of the sky and the light of the sun itself so that she could finally defeat all of the minsters of darkness that laid themselves bare before her. She felt so otherworldly that every time she tried to reflect on it to herself, she could only describe it within the realms of religion and metaphor and superstition.

It would be a few seconds later when a brief rush of realisation came over her, and she discovered her newly awakened semblance: Energy manipulation. From what she could tell, she could absorb energy itself, and use her aura to amplify it to powers never witnessed before.

She didn't understand. Why now? Why had her semblance awakened now, if it couldn't before? Most people's semblances are awakened when they were at a young age, as long as they had their aura unlocked by any means, and Melanie had had her aura with her for as long as she could remember. Why unlock itself now? Was it the stress of the battle, the horrors of the cataclysm around her, that forced her semblance to awaken itself? Melanie didn't know. She didn't know much about the circumstances of aura-awakening, or the unlocking of semblances, or whatever else there was with all of this soul stuff, so she was in the dark about it all.

Perhaps- She chuckled to herself at the thought- Perhaps somewhere, up in the paradise and eternal and infinite gardens and heavens in the sky, Miltia, her sister now lost, had seen her plight, and had given the gods a firm talking to, a scolding, telling them to get their shit together and help her. Miltia seemed like the type of person to do such a thing, to the gods no less, and while Melanie was not a religious woman- One who did not give much thought to the workings of religions and religious practices and knowhows- It was a rather pleasant thought.

And speaking of which...

The Grimm around her quivered and took a step back. The Brother of Darkness slammed its cleaver axe into the ground and snarled- An act of intimidation most likely- Before lifting it up once more, and yelling something in Grimm-speak. Neon, Ciel, and Flynt began to regain themselves and were woken up from their forced sleep and gazed upon Melanie in all of her power, their foggy and uncollected minds trying to piece together the sight before them, Neon mouthing, "No way", to no one in particular as she took in the raw power of the woman scorned that stood in a circle of smoke and fire.

Melanie looked over herself once more, the flames and fires that danced on her skin, and she smiled, before looking up to the Brother of Darkness and scowling.

The Brother of Darkness scowled, and then laughed bitterly, **"You think this changes anything, little thing made of bone and meat?!"** it called out, **"You think that this little light show will change what is about to happen to you?! You think you can grow wings of fire and show yourself off as an angel, chosen by the false gods up above?!"** it then roared, and screamed out, **"I am the Brother of Darkness, of the Brothers Grimm, god-warrior of the Grimm, chosen and blessed by the Mother Eternal! Slayer of a million souls, and bringer of darkness! You are but a single insect, only worthy to be crushed under the heel of my boot, just like your sibling! So rejoice, little thing! You will be joining your sister soon!"**

And so, another burst of purple light flew from its eye, and struck Melanie.

She merely held her hand out, and absorbed the energy, her wings growing even larger and more ferocious as the energy turned from purple to blue. The energy cooked her hand and peeled her skin. Her bone became just a little more brittle, and cracked, though she didn't notice. Veins were visible, as were parts of the bone, though while she did notice this, she did not care.

"...You know", she said, calmly, and yet, it was as if she was yelling, her voice booming over the battlefield, and yet, her voice was never a scream, only at an even tone, "You call yourself a god, Creature of Grimm, and yet, you have", she chuckled to herself, lowering her arm. Her voice was like that of an otherworldly being, so much unlike her voice from before, "I'm so sorry, but, you have just reminded me of a song that I so enjoy."

The Brother of Darkness told her to shut up, and fired another beam of light at her. She threw her hand to the side, and swatted away the purple blast of energy like a bug. It impacted into a herd of Royal Disciples, turning most of them to ash, and throwing the rest to the sides.

"Human beings in a mob", she didn't sing. She spoke. Her blue wings of fire fluttered in anticipation, "What is a mob to a king?"

The Brother of Darkness fired another beam from its eye. Melanie held out her other hand and took it for herself. Her skin bubbled as her aura tried to heal her fresh wounds, to little avail.

"What is a king to a god?"

The Royal Disciples raised their guns and fired, purple rounds going into Melanie. Her wings curled around her, forming a shield, and they took in the blasts, growing more and more fiery with each hit.

This time, her voice, while still calm, boomed out and echoed all around them:

"What is a god to a non-believer?" a paused, and then, her wings began to curl outwards, "Who don't believe in anything?"

Her wings shot out, and sent off a fiery circle, powered by the winds of her fiery wings, that cut every Royal Disciple around them in half, the ring of fire impacting with the Brother of Darkness' legs, burning them, and sending it staggering back once more.

Melanie's hands balled into fists, and they erupted with blue fire, burning and melting the flesh underneath. Her wings spread out like that of an angel, and she cracked her neck.

"Allow me to answer that question for you."

Then, a burst of blue light erupted, and she shot forward at the speed of a bullet. Her wings flapped and threw her into the air, launching her like a missile and sending her rocketing into the Brother of Darkness. She threw her fist back, with an angry snarl and a furious grimace on her face, and with a roar, she-

{KA-BOOM!}

-Smashed her fist into the head of the Brother of Darkness, an explosion of blue fire erupting from a ball from her fist to a fiery blaze shooting outwards all around, burning the Grimm's face and cracking its eye, the spike on the left side of its head splintering off, and its single eye cracking, purple puss oozing out. It was thrown back, almost falling onto its back, though it stopped itself by balancing against its cleaver axe.

Melanie gently landed on the ground, and she went, "A god is a fictitious thing."

The Brother of Darkness sideswiped its axe at her, but she summersaulted out of it, and launched herself back up with a trail of blue fire being left behind her and she poured a mass of fire into her fist and threw it back into the Brother of Darkness, this time hitting its chest and tearing apart the armour, spraying shards of bones, black skin, and black and purple blood all across the ground around them.

"A god is as real as a cartoon, and as powerful as a single fly."

Neon looked to Ciel and Flynt and, after helping them up, went, "What the fuck?..."

Melanie used her wings to burn an Ascendant Beowolf and a Baron, surprised by this, still learning how her new powers works, and she sent a fiery punch firing into a Life-Giver, bursting it with a flare of blue fire, sending red gunk everywhere. Grabbing the fading hollowed husk of the Life-Giver, she willed her fire to spread to the smoking Grimm, and so it did, setting alight, and then she threw it into a group of Grimm, the husk exploding and destroying all of the Grimm in its vicinity, before she used her wings to slice a Juggernaut in thrice, and then burn a Rocketeer's head into a crisp.

Then, she turned her attention back to the Brother of Darkness, and spotted several long shards of white rock, stained with moss and grass and plants, floating near it, and above them, a Geist Grimm, each of them coloured in pure white with gold bones and a single blue eye, hovered. Then, the Geists shifted themselves into the rocks, and they began to separate, shifting into arms, legs, and a wide torso, with a wide mechanical head with a triangular metal skeletal frame built into their heads, with a vertical glowing blue slice going down the middle of their heads, and their right arms holding no hands but a large cannon, brimming with yellow electricity. These Grimm, standing a head above a Baron, looked less like, well, Grimm, and more like Atlesian robots, war-droids made not of metal and wires, but of rock and stone, created for some royal family or court, _Like the Ascendant Court_ , Melanie thought to herself.

 **"Guardians!"** the Brother of Darkness yelled to the Grimm war-droids, **"Kill her! NOW!"**

The 'Guardians', upon hearing this, began to march forward, their stone bodies clunking forward and their guns charging up and letting out swirling and spinning blasts of yellow light. Melanie just held her hands up and took one of the blasts into each of her hands, changing them to blue and fire, and then flying forwards, slamming one fist into the thin torso of one Guardian, an explosion from her fist ripping the Grimm in half, destroying it immediately, and sending the broken shards of stone and rock scattering onto the floor, and her other fist grabbed another Guardian by its stony, almost mechanical head, and ripped it off, split veins and arteries made of rock and rubber spewing gold and blue oil and blood from its open wound, and letting it flop to the ground.

Melanie sidestepped a blast from one of the Guardians, and then another from the Brother of Darkness, and noted the pillar of fire near her. Perhaps, if she could absorb energy itself, then maybe-

The order was given before her thought could be finished, and she raised her hand up, and commanded the fire to reach out to her. The fire obeyed, and it was pulled towards her, and purple and yellow flames dancing and swirling around her hand and arm, turning blue almost immediately.

Then, she felt pain. The fire that she had absorbed was beginning to burn away at her. It hurt, oh god it hurt, it hurt, it hurt, she needed to get rid of it, she needed to stop the pain, she needed to-

The fire began to pull itself out, forming a spear in her arm, before falling to the ground, like a loose rope. No, a whip. A whip of fire that started at her hand, and stretched out to the ground in a long chain of fire and blue and grey smoke.

Huh, that's new, but Melanie wasn't going to complain. She spotted the other 5 Guardians marching on her, all of them firing charges from their cannons. In instinct, she flung her fire whip around, absorbing the blasts from the Guardians, and then threw her fire whip into the air, letting it impact with one of the Grimm, and burning it in half, before flinging the whip around to the side, catching 3 of the Guardians at their torsos, and sawing them in half lengthways, spraying blue and gold oil and blood across the ground.

"A god", Melanie raised her voice as she continued on, her wings throwing her into the air, and allowing her to slam the last wisps of her fire whip into the last Guardian, cutting it in half before she landed on her feet on the ground, as her fire whip faded into smoke, "Is as mortal as any man!"

The Brother of Darkness roared in sheer, burning rage, and shot out a massive blast of purple fire from its eye, shooting into Melanie and burning the world around her. She let out a cry as a purple ball of energy and fire surrounded her, absorbing as much as she could while the fire burned her, her aura fading away as her wings grew so powerful that they were beginning to shimmer and bulge unstably, and her skin was beginning to burn and smoke just like before, but still, she held, the light in her eyes burning brighter than ever.

"And a non-believer-", Melanie cried out, her wings spreading out once more, and the fires that were once burning strong all across her body now collecting into her right fist, her hands broken and shattered, yet still firm and, in her mind, usable.

The Brother of Darkness screamed out in pure rage, and threw its cleaver axe down.

Melanie caught it in her free hand.

"-Is a killer of gods."

The Brother of Darkness jumped back, pulling its weapon back, and inspecting it, seeing the burnt hole in its shard edge. It looked back to Melanie, who herself was marching forward, **"You... What are you!? WHAT ARE YOU!?"**

Melanie cracked her neck, and crouched down.

"You are the Brother of Darkness, the god-warrior..."

She jumped up, her wings sending her high into the air. High above the Brother of Darkness, her wings faded away into nothing, flowing back into her body, all of the energy and fire that she had in her collecting in her right fist, forming a massive blue sun and burnt away the skin of her hand and arm right down to the bone.

"And I am Melanie Malachite-"

She threw her burning fist back and herself down.

_**"-THE GOD KILLER!"** _

Her fist impacted with the chest of the Brother of Darkness, and all turned blue.

The massive ball of blue fire burst into a rupture of fire and light. Death itself bowed to Melanie as she delivered its fatal kiss to the Brother of Darkness, the fire ripping apart its chest and tearing it asunder, turning it to ash at the molecular level, and burning its ashes into ashes further, and then dust, and then to nothing.

(She failed to notice the bright purple ball of light that flew out of the Brother of Darkness and soared away).

From the Brother of Darkness' body, fading away into ash and smoke, and plume of fire rippled out, sending out shockwaves of flames and winds that pulled up everything in its vicinity, wherever it be metal, Grimm, or people. Neon, Ciel, and Flynt were thrown back by the force of the explosion, buried under the smoke and ash that erupted from the explosion. Nearby, the force of the blast and the growing ball of blue fire rocked the gargantuan downed airship, forcing the tilted airship to its other side from the sheer force of the explosion. Nearby, initiates and Grimm were thrown off of their feet and burnt, the initiates with second and third degrees, and the Grimm to cinder and ash.

The ball of blue fire continued to burn with flame and smoke, pulsating and growing, kicking up ash and molten rock, before then bursting, popping like a balloon. From the ball of fire, a massive pillar of blue fire and energy shot out, accompanied by a wave of fire that spread itself out like a tidal wave, spreading out across a large portion of the battlefield. Waves of Disciples and Barons and Life-Givers and Rocketeers and Guardians and Juggernauts and Priests and Pumas and Long-Shots and Caterpillar tanks and Ascendant Beowolves and so on were swept away and turned into an ocean of fading ash and smoke, and the fire surged up, reached out, and enveloped and unfortunate beast Grimm or Grimm ships that'd strayed too close to the ground. The flames continued to flare and burn, accompanied with the screaming roar of the fires, and withered and pathetic cries of the Grimm that were burnt by them.

Then, as the Grimm in the path of blue light and heat burnt and burnt and burnt, the fires began to widdle down and wither away, turning to pale blue smoke that then turned to nothing. The waves of fire began to fade away, turning from a raging, violent roar, burning bright and blue, to a thin blue line in a long crater tunnel, then to nothing more than fading blue smoke and pits of orange fire. Oceans of blue and black smoke commingled with each other in the sky, rising up into the heavens and fading away into nothingness and then lesser. The Grimm that were once in the path of the flames and pillar of fire and energy were all gone, turned to fading ash and withering smoke, though there were more Grimm, individual herds of the endless horde, that were trying to fill in this gap, flooding in by the dozens, and beginning to rework their lines as quickly as possible, as to make sure that what was left of the initiates couldn't take advantage of it in any way that they could.

Melanie was on the floor, lying down stomach first, nude, and burnt. Horribly burnt. Her arms were withered down to the bone, veins and arteries visible and scarred, yet still somehow pumping blood. Her chest was still lifting up and down, shallow breaths leaving her body, though they were growing weaker and weaker as each second passed by. Nearby, Ciel, Neon, and Flynt were getting themselves up, groaning and aching as their bodies tried to readjust themselves to the fresh fatigue and hurt flesh and bones.

Nearby, a squad of Hunters- Shadestep and his Vultures- Spotted the group of 4, and went to pull them out. As they carried the wounded warriors into the airship, jumping up to reach the now uprooted and tilted entrance and moving through the now freshly burnt, blackened, and jagged corridors, the Grimm filled up the hole once more, and the initiates' positions weakened even more.

* * *

Jaune could, somehow, feel Pyrrha's arms wrapped around his waist, somehow sensing the sensation of her trying to keep pressure on his still bleeding wound through the sheer mind-numbing pain. Nearby, he could feel the half burnt and destroyed form of Ruby tilted against his side, unconscious, having been thrown to his side off of her makeshift area from the sudden and violent tilting of the ship. In her right hand, she held a discarded pistol that she'd swiped from the floor, and held it to her chest in her sleep, as if it were a comfort.

The entire hold of the ship had been thrown into madness and disorganisation from whatever had forced the airship over onto its over side. Wounded Hunters had been thrown from side to side, disorganising them and worsening their injuries. Medics, in training or improv, ran around in panic, trying to treat as many people as they could, but it was clear that the stress, fatigue, and trauma was getting to them, their eyes becoming heavier and more bloodshot, their faces growing either red or pale, and their hands covered in fresh blood. At the entrance on the far side of the room, more than a dozen bodies were piled up behind the broken doors in the unused corridor. There was no time to place them formally, and with the number of dead in the hold slowly rising, the people in the hold had taken to throwing them onto the pile just to save time.

In a nearby corner, the few Hunters that'd chosen to remain in the ship away from danger were huddled together, trying to talk and take their minds off of the vibrations of explosions that ran through the airship, and the sounds of battle that echoed through its metal corridors, creating a cacophony of sheering metal and burning flesh that went on and on and on. They tried to drown it out with loud talk and chatter, but this was to no avail, and those who weren't trying to chat and commingle with each other were keeping to themselves, curling up into balls and rocking on the spot, or just sitting or laying in place, catatonic, trying to process all that was happening. Regularly this pile had rotated in persons. Most of the first ones, save for Cardin alone, had decided to try their luck outside in the fight, while others had come in to, well, just sit and do nothing, save for murmur, talk, and cry.

(Though, through the blood in his eyes that was reddening his vision, Jaune could see Cardin curled up, glaring daggers at him. His face was turning red, his eyes were shedding tears, and he was sweating profusely. His teeth was grinding together, and he was seething. It seemed that the reality of all that had happened today was finally coming down on him, and he was not taking it well at all).

Jaune didn't blame them. How could he? He himself had no idea why he was still as calm as he was, instead of screaming and crying out for mercy and succour from anything that would listen. Perhaps it was the blood loss, or the coming down from the adrenaline high, or whatever. Thinking about it made his head hurt. That was the concussion's fault though, that much, he knew.

The door near them opened up. A squad of Techions came charging in with Neon, Ciel, and Flynt. All 3 of them looked ragged, and bruised, groans of pain coming from them, as their aura began to work its magic and heal them as best as it could, though that meant that they were out of the fight for now, if there was even going to be a 'Later'.

The last Techion, Shadestep, that ran through the door was carrying something in his arms. A bloodied and burnt body, with parts of the bone visible in its arms, and all of the flesh on its form blackened or reddened.

It took Jaune a good few moments to realise that it was Melanie.

"Yo, miss medic lady!" yelled a Techion Jaune remembered as Voltage, hefting a bleeding Neon over his metal shoulder, "We've got bleeding guys and girls over here! Where do we put them?"

"Oh yay, more dying- We haven't got room anymore!" went a frustrated Lavender, blood staining her black robes, her pointed hat discarded, and her skin paling, "We haven't got- Just-", she pointed to a small space near Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ruby, "Just put them there, swear to god!"

Next to Voltage, Shadestep nodded, and ran down to their side, along with the rest of the Techions carrying bodies, and they placed the waning and damaged forms of Ciel, Flynt, Neon, and Melanie near to them, "Hey, boss", Shadestep spoke, before patting Pyrrha on the shoulder, beckoning her back out into the fight, and then leading his Techions of almost identical frame out, each of them taking one last look at Cardin, again, the only one who hadn't gone out at this point, and from their body language, Jaune could tell that each of them was looking at him with distain before moving out. If he made it out of this, Cardin would most likely become a pariah, if this was the reaction that he was garnering from everyone else.

Jaune tilted his head to the side, to look at Pyrrha through his blood filled haze. Nearby, he spotted Nora laying on the floor, being tended to by a ragged Ren. Near them, the jagged remains of DJ, still alive, laid next to an unconscious Yang, and a nearly melted, inoperable Scrapster, "You...", he began to her, "I'm fine... I'm okay... You should-"

"I'm not leaving you, Jaune", Pyrrha went with a resolve evident in her voice, "I'm not leaving you, or Ruby, or Nora, or Melanie, or anyone."

"Wasn't... Saying... That", Jaune went, "They... Need help... More than me..."

"You have a chunk of flesh missing, Jaune! You are not fine!"

"Pyrrha, move!" Lavender called out as she moved up to them both, and began to pull at her, "If you're not leaving the hold, then you can help out with everyone else here, is what I think he's trying to say."

"Spot... On..."

"Thanks, boss", Lavender said. Behind them, 2 able Hunters were carrying a limp body to the pile in the corridor. Lavender continued to Pyrrha, "Now, c'mon, there are people with worse injuries than him. We've got someone missing a leg over there, and we're running out of meds, so get up, and help us", she then got back up and pointed her staff to the few Hunters that were crowded in the corner, "And you lot, if you're not going to be going outside, then you can at least help us out in here. We need all hands on deck!"

An explosion rocked the ship, sending harsh vibrations and loud, scraping and crashing noises sounding off throughout the ship, and echoing in the cramped hold. A few of the Hunters in the corner got up, and began to move around the hold, helping wherever they could, but the rest stayed still, rocking in place. Lavender let out a sad, yet understanding sigh at this, muttering about not being able to heal trauma, and then moving on.

Cardin began to fidget, still glaring at Jaune with eyes of anger. He seemed to be getting worse. Next to him, he could feel Ruby moving in her sleep, letting out a unconscious whisper. Somehow, she looked so peaceful.

Jaune then looked back to Pyrrha, and went, "Pyrrha... Help them..."

"Jaune, you are bleeding", she seethed to him, not removing her hands from his mangled wound, "You are spilling your insides, and you are dying, and you will die if I don't-"

"Other people are dying, Pyrrha", he got out somehow, through strained and pained groans, coughing up a dribble of red, before going, "Half of the people in here-", he caught himself as a pained whimper left him from the pain in his wounds. Pyrrha noticed this and immediately let off on the increased pressure that she'd unconsciously placed on his wound. He coughed, and continued again with a weak voice, not noticing the small white flames that was his aura doing its best to heal his wounds, "Half of the people in here are dying as well, Pyrrha, and they're more-", he coughed again, "T-They're more important th-than me. T-Their lives matter more t-than mine."

"Don't say that. Don't you dare say that!"

"It's true, though, isn't it?" Jaune asked through the blood in his mouth. Next to him, Ruby shuddered in her sleep, a look of distress on her, though neither of them noticed, "If I die, I die, no biggie, but if they die, then", another cough, and a groan, "Then that will be another family who won't see their child again. That'll be another child who won't see their parents again. Another child who deserved to come to this place more than me..."

"And what about your family, Jaune?" Pyrrha snarled at him, only one bloody hand leaving his even more bloody side to itch at the fragments of a broken leaf that were sticking out of a deep cut, before returning to their previous position, "What about them? Will they get to see their son again? You speak of families not seeing their children again but what about yours? If you die, then they'll be the ones screaming at the world, begging you to come back to them, so don't think you can be so flippantly hypocritical and selfless with your own life!" it took her a moment to realise that she had been raising her voice, and brought it back down, "I'm sorry", she quietly said.

Jaune muttered that she shouldn't be, and then he said, once more through spluttering and coughing, "Pyrrha... I don't belong here... I cheated my way into Beacon", Pyrrha's eyes widened, and yet, Jaune continued, "I faked my way in, because... Because I wanted to be a hero... I stole a place from someone who... Someone who deserved it", not that he regretted that part. That person would've been spared from this nightmare, "And I came into this school with no training, or aura, or plan, or anything, but empty hopes. I'm a liar, Pyrrha, and a cheater, and if I'm being honest, this is me getting my just deserts, but them", he weakly tried to raise a hand, to gesture to everyone else in the hold, "You, Ruby, Ren, Lavender, DJ, Melanie, Neon, Scrapster, Nora, Ciel, Flynt, and everyone else. Their lives matter. They belong in Beacon. They got to Beacon through trial after trial after trial more, while I didn't. They matter, Pyrrha, they matter so much more than I do, and if I have to die so that even just one of them can go on and live in my place, then I would gladly let myself bleed out, and die, knowing that someone else is alive and able to do so much more than I ever could."

Then, a loud bang pierced his ear, along with a flash. He let out a cry of pain as he jumped to the side, and tried to clutch his ringing ear. Pyrrha jumped back as well, and near them, the still unconscious Ruby began to fidget and stir, a shard of her hair burning from the blast. The effect was like a flashbang, the side of his head slightly burnt from the blast, and as his eyes refocused themselves and saw through the blinding light, and the ringing in his ears, the shape of a bulky ginger jock of a boy with clean silvery grey armour, red faced, sweaty, and teary eyed, face locked in immeasurable rage (Or fear, perhaps), a mace with 10 flanges and a smoking centre in the tight, straining grip of his right hand.

"Then let me help you along with that", Cardin snarled as he marched forward, mace kept in his iron grip. His face was red and his body was trembling. It seemed that from the looks of it, all of the events and the accumulated trauma of the day had finally broken him, and combined with his seeming temper, had forced all of hi sanger outwards, and now, he was looking for a target.

And the target appeared to be Jaune.

It was Lavender who first got up to impede Cardin's way, whilst Pyrrha stayed kneeling down, one hand still on Jaune's bloody side, the other on her weapon, though now, the constant strain that the course of the day had placed on it had caused it to malfunction and lock mid-transformation between sword and rifle, turning it into a useless lump of metal.

Lavender shoved her staff before the bigger boy, and went, "Cardy, Cards, whatever your name is-"

"It's Cardin! IT'S FUCKING CARDIN!" he screamed at her. This was enough to jolt awake many of the wounded in the hold, and the others that were already awake and not wounded enough to be impeded by them began to get up and each for their weapons, or whatever they could substitute for one. Jaune spotted Ren cooing down Nora back to her spot on the floor after she tried to get up, and himself reaching for one of his pistols. Nearby, Yang slurred something in her delirium, poking her head up for a second, and then letting it fall back down.

"Yeah, well, don't care, so listen Cardy", Lavender continued, one hand reaching out to force his flanged mace down, "If you're angry, then get out, and take it out on the Grimm, we've got enough dying people in here to worry about, and we don't need you adding more people to the pile!"

"You heard what that blond fucker said!" Cardin yelled, shoving her violently to the side, the girl using her staff to regain balance and avoid falling on someone laid on the floor, "He doesn't belong here!" Cardin continued on, his voice echoing throughout the hold, "He fucking faked his way in! He's nothing but a liar and a fraud! He led us into this mess, and he's gonna kill us all just by being here with his shitty plan and his shitty ideas and his shitty everything! The little cunt deserves everything that he's got coming to him!"

"I don't give 2 flying fucks wherever he's the king of Vale!" Lavender argued, "If you can't control yourself, then go have your little temper tantrum outside and-"

The larger boy swung his mace into Lavender, letting it connect with her forehead, her aura breaking, and the closest flange embedding itself in her head, not deep enough to kill her, but enough to force her down to the ground into 2 unconscious bodies, letting her cry out in pain as she put her hand against her bleeding head.

Pyrrha was next to get up to him, holding her hand out to use her semblance, before realising that, in the chaos of the day, her aura had run out, and then deciding to throw her broken weapon at the large boy, and then going in with a punch, landing it against his cheek. But then, he failed to take into account that fact that she was fatigued and unrested, as well as lacking her aura forcefield, while Cardin was wasn't, and her opponent took advantage of this fact by grabbing her by her ponytail, forcing her head back with a yelp, and then slamming his flanged mace down into one of her deep leaf cuts, opening up the cut and letting out a stream of blood and leaf fragments as she cried out in pain, before he twisted his mace around and then used it to force her down to the ground, then slamming his boot into her neck, the red haired girl letting out a croaked cough of saliva and phlegm before going unconscious.

By now, several other Hunters in the room, including Ren, had jumped onto Cardin in an attempt to bring him down, each swipe from their weapons chipping away at his aura until it broke, but the larger boy didn't pay any of it any mind, until the next slashes cut his skin, and he slammed them all down, burying his mace deep into Ren's waist first, breaking his aura and drawing blood, and then throwing the rest of them down to the floor, breaking the arm of one of the Hunters with a harsh slam from his mace, twisting and snapping it backwards, drawing a scream from her and then slamming her face into the ground.

With the rest of the Hunters either down or too frightened to intervene, Cardin finally made his way to the wounded Arc boy, the boy in question looking up to him with hazy eyes and a blood soaked vision, the trail of blood from his mouth having run dry, and yet somehow still alive, "There you are", Cardin said, "Still alive?" a groan was his answer, "Good. I want you to feel this", he began to raise his mace above his head.

"C... Please", Jaune tried to get out, "Car-"

"SHUT UP!" his response was loud and spit fuelled, "You deserve this, you know? You fucking deserve this, for leading us here, into this nightmare shithole, and letting us all die! You fucking deserve this for letting us all die, and for everyone else who has died today, because of you!"

Jaune didn't disagree.

"So yeah, this", Cardin raised his mace above his head, glaring down at the slumped boy below, as said boy unconsciously moved his hand over his wound. Cardin continued on, "This is good. This is right, this is the right thing to do. This is me getting justice for everyone you've killed today! Yeah", he twitched, and moved to swing it down.

Neither of them noticed Ruby wake up next to them.

"THIS IS JUS-"

{BANG}

Cardin let out a soft grunt as a red cloud popped out from the back of his head, along with a spray of blood. At the centre of his forehead, the fresh bullet hole began to leak a stream of blood that ran down his face. The mace slipped from his hands and thudded onto the ground, before his eyes rolled back and he fell to the ground face first, a pool of crimson forming where his forehead was, the back of his head staining with blood from the puncture wound.

After a long, long while of horrified silence, Jaune looked away from the now dead boy, slumped down on the floor, past the once more fading ringing in his ears, to his side, to see Ruby, now awake, still holding her smoking pistol up, her hands shaking violently, and her breathing quick and harsh.

She dropped her pistol, clunking on the ground, as a stream of tears began to flow down her face and a series of blubbers and whimpers left her lips. She stared down at her shaking hands as deep sobs began to leave her, filling the hold with choked whines as she cupped her hands to her bloody face, fidgeting on the spot as the pool of blood hit her feet. Near them, Lavender had finally gotten up and started dragging Cardin's corpse away to the pile.

Then, a hand clasped her shoulder, and she looked to her side to see Jaune, still with glassy, blood soaked eyes, looking at her with enough kindness that he could muster from his hazed mind. Next to them, the burnt Melanie had woken up as well, and was looking at her with equal compassion as well, though she winced as she moved.

Ruby's face contorted into a pained, sorrowful expression, and she let out a cry of anguish and wrapped herself around Jaune, crying her eyes out as the boy hugged her back, cradling her in her arms as, unbeknownst to him, the last piece of her innocence was finally chipped away.

* * *

Outside the airship, the battle had finally turned into a slaughter, and around 250 Hunters were running for their lives.

The last of their mines and traps had been spent. The last of the AK-130s and UGVs had been destroyed. Their lines were being breached and pierced. Grimm of all kinds were flooding through their ranks and massacring the Hunters piece by piece.

Up in the sky, Grimm ships continued their strafing runs against the Hunters, killing them by the dozens. On the ground, the Daughter led what was left of the Ascendant Court in breaking the resolve of the Hunters. The Primeval Thrice gunned down Hunters left and right, the Soul Twice burnt and melted away the skin and flesh of anyone who got in their way, and the Persephone let out great beams of light that burnt to cinder anything in its path. Grimm blasts and claws continued to chip away at the armour of the airship, melting away the metal and ripping it asunder.

Nobody knew who the first Hunter to retreat back into the airship was- No one really cared who, anyways- But whoever it was ended up starting a chain reaction, and one by one, Hunters, realising that the situation was finally unwinnable, in a panic, began to flock into the airship by the groups and dozens, firing behind them as they ran. By the time that the last retreating Hunter made their way into the hold, many of the wounded had finally died.

The rest of the Hunters- The suicidal, the trauma ridden, and the reckless- Stayed outside to fight on till their last breath, for whatever reasons they had. They would all die, they would all be murdered by the Grimm, a hundred Hunters reduced to a dozen, a dozen reduced to one, one reduced to none. But they would serve to reduce the Grimm numbers by a hundred each, in glorious, yet bloody last stands. By the time that the last Hunter outside had fallen, the days work had brought the Grimm horde's down by half.

But now, with the Hunters no longer posing a threat to them, save for the ships up above launching rounds here and there into the horde, the Grimm got on with their own work, tearing the downed _Grimm Tidings_ piece by piece, ripping off chunks of armour and pulling apart the corridors and rooms. The Persephone climbed up on top of the airship and began to fire its energy beams and lightning blasts into the ship, melting the armour, as well as using its claws and limbs to dig through the metal like it were paper and sand.

The Grimm continued to dig and dig, until all that would be left of the _Grimm Tidings_ was a field of metal.

* * *

Up in the sky, however, was a different story.

The Valerians were winning.

"WOO HOO!" Coco yelled out as she leaned out of the open Dropship side door and unloaded her minigun into another Nevermore, before turning it on the head of a Queen Lancer and turning it into mush. A Manticore then tried to latch itself onto the ship, but she then quickly shifted Gianduja into its handbag form and thwacked it over its head, hard, cracking the bone plating and sending it tumbling away, to which Coco then shifted Gianduja back into its minigun mode and shredded a Ravager with ease, "Lemme tell you guys, this is like- One sec", she paused, and took the time to turn a Griffon into wet shreds, "It's like a shooting gallery at a carnival!"

 _Do they have shooting galleries at carnivals?_ Fox communicated as he helped to direct the fires of Coco and Velvet (Who had been burning through all of the projectile weapons in Anesidora, and was currently on a mk13 mod 7 sniper rifle), whilst Yatsuhashi… Kinda just sat down and meditated. His memory wipe semblance could only work when he touched another living being, and despite how long his Fulcrum sword was, he didn't have any long ranged weapons on him, so, he just sat in the middle of the hull and looked pretty.

 _Well, work with your strengths_ , she supposed.

 _Well thank you for that earnest compliment_ , Coco, Yatsu sent out over their telepathic link, _Though I do admit, I feel quite useless here._

 _You'll get your chance once we hit the ground, Yatsu_ , Coco went as she looked past her waving hair to down below, spotting the flaming remains of the 2 airships that had collided with each other earlier on, the _Winchester_ and the _King's Sword_ , their corpses still burning strong and commingled together in an ugly tapestry of molten steel and twisted frames. Thanks to the suicidal charge from the King's Sword taking out the Winchester, the Grimm had lost their main source of newly acquired firepower, and their morale- If they even had any in the first place- Began to collapse, and their formations shattered and became disorganised, allowing the Valerians to finally turn the tide against the crippled Grimm, reducing their numbers down to around a third, and making them easy picking for the bigger guns of their airships.

Obviously, this presented a massive morale boost to the Valerians, and while whatever was blocking their communications was still going strong, she swore that she could just hear the cheers and happy cries from those in all the other airships as many of them who were not targeting the Grimm down below like the few that were decided to assist them and turned their guns down, unleashing volleys of dust blasts, projectile rounds, and guided missiles into the massive crowd of blackened beasts below.

However, there were 2 major problems. While the Grimm numbers had been reduced to a half (Coco let out a whistle at that, as it was incredibly impressive, to say the least), there were still thousands of them, like a black sea washing away everything, and they were clawing away at the airship, pulling it apart and ripping away the metal hallways and armour plating, cracking it open like an egg to get to the initiates inside, which then moved to the second problem, in that they couldn't fire anywhere near the airship and try and clear out the Grimm clawing away at them, lest they unintentionally kill the very people they were trying to save. One misplaced shot and all of the initiates would be vaporised, if they're lucky at least. So unless someone was operating one of these cannons with the focus of a sniper- Which those big guns weren't- Then there was nothing that they could do to stop the Grimm from getting in and killing everyone below.

Except...

"Ah, screw this", Coco went, forgoing her team's mental bond as she used her Hype semblance to empower her dust rounds and shred a Sphinx Grimm, before leaning back into the Dropship to the rest of CFVY and going, "The battle up here's pretty much over, we're wasting daylight by staying here!" closing the hatch on her side of the hull closed, and she made her way into the cockpit to the 2 pilots, "Yo, start a chain mail to the other Bullhead and stuff. We're heading down there now!"

"Roger that, ma'am!" went the pilot from before.

"Yeah, well, I never liked living, anyway", muttered his co-pilot, to which he got a harsh smack on the arm, "Ow, what?"

Coco ignored them both, and then went back into the hold to her teammates, "Buckle up, buckaroos! We're making a beeline for it down below, so sharpen up", she hefted her minigun, "And get your 'Best team ever' faces on!"

* * *

The hold was rocked violently again, the sounds of shredding metal reaching closer and closer into the bowels of the Grimm Tidings, reaching an almost deafening pitch. Those crammed inside of the hold, numbering 300 now, most of them sitting down save for a catatonic few, could do nothing but sob and weep, some of them vomiting as the trauma and horror that they'd been suppressing finally boiled over and let itself out. The wounded were crammed onto one of the walls and leaned against it, allowing them to join the sea of waist sized heads.

These weren't Hunters. These weren't warriors. They were the damaged and the broken. The traumatised and the PTSD ridden. The remnants.

And now they were going to die.

Jaune groaned and began to lift himself up against the metal wall, white fire dancing on his wounds as he got up, stabbing his sword into the wall for support. If he was going to die, then he'd rather do it standing.

No one else tried to stop him. They were all too shell-shocked and catatonic to do anything. Even Pyrrha was too shaken by the day's happenings, staring at one of her hands in silence while the other was pressed against her still bleeding wound.

Another round of sharpened tears echoed through the hold, almost right outside the metal walls. On the other side of the hold, near the sealed metal doors, where the corpse pile was being kept, there was a roar of shrapnel and metal, as well as a wet crunching sound. The pool of stinking blood that had been forming under the doors vibrated and began to increase, diluted with bone and skin fragments.

The walls began to vibrate. Indents of fists and weapon butts began to shape in the metal.

"Guys...", Neon's voice, somehow quiet, still echoed loud and clear, "Guys... I think... I think this is it..."

Jaune finally got himself up straight, still leaning against the wall, a spare hand covering his bloody wound. On his sides, still on the floor, Melanie and Ruby broke out of their respective stupors and looked up at him. It was Ruby who asked in a quivering voice, "J-Jaune… What are you doing?"

Jaune didn't know what to say for a few moments, before he tightened the grip on his sword, and went, "Making a stand."

8 smoking metal claws positioned in a square position pierced through the roof of the hold with a shrill cry of ripping metal, sending shards of shrapnel raining down onto the Hunters below. A mechanical roar followed, and the claws shot out to the sides, tearing apart the metal and ripping the roof open, exposing everyone to the unforgiving light of the day, and the dark shadow that loomed over them.

The Persephone growled, and tore the metal roof apart even more, and then tore down the metal walls, crunching them under its long spider-like legs and its sharp steel pronged claws. Jaune stumbled for a second as the wall behind him was bent back into the floor, and wobbled for a second before regaining himself and adjusted his eyes to the harsh light, while the few remaining Hunters that'd been standing up tumbled to the floor and tripped over each other.

Jaune closed his eyes, and then reopened them, his eyes readjusted, and looked around him, to the world beyond the fresh, smoking field of torn metal.

The Grimm surrounded them, organised into ranks and files, none of them firing a shot, or moving a muscles. Between them, columns of smoke rose up into the air, and Grimm ships floated above them. In the far distance, the twisted remains of the 2 airships that'd collided with each other continued to burn and melt into the ground, letting out a massive plume of thick black smoke that began to rain soot down onto the world below.

At the front of the army of Grimm that surrounded them, a member of the Ascendant Court stood in silence, their weapons pointed down, and flanked by Royal Disciples, Guardians and Architects. Above them, the Persephone towered high and mighty, its green eye letting out an ugly shine that reflected on the people below.

Underneath it, at the edge of the crowd, standing atop a shard of metal and glaring down on those beneath her, the Daughter held her sword in hand, unmoving, and unflinching. Not even her cloak moved in the wind, for it had now fallen silent.

Jaune, the only person now standing, glared at her, now made oblivious by his own wounds.

The Daughter cocked her head to the side, and said, **"This is the part where you surrender."**

Jaune didn't respond. He just looked over himself, seeing himself covered in blood, both his own, and others, like Emerald, and Miltia. All those who he had failed.

He looked back up to the Daughter...

And spat out a wad of blood.

In a shared act of fellow defiance, Melanie and Ruby stumbled up and stood at his side, glaring down the Daughter and the Grimm as well. Ruby's eyes shimmered. Melanie's aura flared blue like fire.

With them, the Hunters seemed to steel themselves, their fists balling together, and their guns cocking. Some of them stayed put, while the rest began to crouch upwards, before standing up strong.

This group was then followed by another.

And then another.

And then the rest.

All 300 Hunters that could get up did so, standing tall and standing strong, their guns cocked, their swords raised, their teeth bare. They stared down the Grimm around them and silently told them, _We won't surrender. Not now, not later, not ever._

_You want our lives?_

_Come and get them_.

The Daughter sighed, as if dealing with petulant children that hadn't just stared down the face of death itself and made death blink, and she shook her head gently, and went, **"Very well. If you insist"** , she raised her sword, and pointed it at the Hunters below, **"Persephone, if you would please?..."**

The Persephone growled, and its eye began to glow brighter, the rectangular cannons on its eye's sides began to crackle with electricity.

The Hunters braced themselves.

The wind picked up.

A sharp whistling was heard, growing louder and louder.

And then...

An explosion rippled off of the side of the Persephone, sending it tumbling one way as it tried to regain itself, the cloud of smoke rippling out, a faint smoke trail flowing away into the sky.

Around the Hunters, a flurry of small arms fire and missiles began to tear into the Grimm ranks, shredding them and sending them flying from high impact rounds and explosions, death raining from above onto the Grimm in single rounds and groups.

The Hunters looked up, to see salvation coming for them. Bullheads and Scythe-class fighters and Dropships, numbering in 100 or more, were barrelling down, soaring through the smoke and fire that rose up into the air and sending their volleys of bullets and blasts into the dark hordes, turning them to bloody smoke and ash. Beyond them, blasts of dust and missiles send down from the airships above joined them in their slaughter, letting out explosions throughout the Grimm lines, dark bodies flying left and right, hither and thither.

The Persephone stood itself back up, and looked up to the flotilla of ships coming in, firing a blast of green light from its eye, and bolts of electricity firing into the lead Bullhead, striking it in its left engine. The ship began to spin rapidly and out of control, barrelling down to the ground, and then diverting its course at the last possible second, sending it striking into the Persephone with a mighty explosion and letting the Grimm machine violently slam into a Grimm war-droid with 4 thick legs and a diamond central body, both smoking machines breaking apart and spraying fading black blood across the jagged metal graveyard.

The Daughter began to shout something, and moved to charge into the Hunter crowd, but they all turned their guns on her and opened fire, the Daughter forced to fall back to within her loyal Grimm.

The Hunters, now cheering and reinvigorated, began to turn their guns into the startled and confused Grimm, forcing the remaining members of the Ascendant Court to fall back under the sudden fire, and turning many Disciples and Barons and Ascendant Beowolves and other Grimm into ash and smoke. Many of the Hunters threw their hands into the air with cheers as they watched the massive flotilla of ships charging down to the ground.

Then, the Scythe fighters broke off from the flotilla, and began to draw away the Grimm ships that'd been floating above them, dogfighting with each other as red and blue blasts swam through the sky, while around them, the Bullheads and Dropships began to float around the Hunters in a dome, the doors on the outside of the dome opening up so that those inside could empty their own guns into the now tattered and ruined Grimm army, while within the dome, the doors to the ships opened up, and within, ropes and makeshift ladders were hastily lowered down, and teams of Hunters poked their heads out to the battered and bloody group below.

From one of the Dropships, a girl with a beret and sunglasses- Wait a minute, that was the girl that slapped his butt! Jaune was still mildly uncomfortable about that...- Poked her head out of the ship's side door, and went, "C'mon, kids, hop on it! Wounded first, everybody else next! Quick as you can!"

Nobody was in any hurry to object as much as they were to leave, and so, they begin to hustle, picking up those that were too weak to move- Ren picked up Nora, Jaune took hold of Ruby and Melanie, Pyrrha supported Jaune, Blake and Leadpipe grabbed Yang- And forced them onto the airships, before piling onto the ships themselves. Working like an escalator, Bullheads and Dropships began to file out as they were filled to the brim, flying back up to the fleet of airships up above, and then past them, towards salvation. 300 became 200, then 200 became 100, and then 100 became 50, and then 50 finally became a dozen.

Jaune, Ruby, Melanie, Nora, Weiss, Neon, Pyrrha, Blake, Flynt, Ren, Leadpipe, Ciel, and Yang.

(Before Skipjack filed onto his Bullhead, Jaune had muttered out, "When we... When we get back to Beacon, I want a monument built... With the names of everyone who's died today written on it..."

He hadn't known that Skipjack had heard this until the Techion shouted out, "You got it, sir!" and then jumped onto his escape ship.)

Jaune, Ruby, Melanie, Nora, and Yang were placed onto the last ship first, helped up by the team of Hunters, before the last Hunters filed on, and the Dropship doors closed and sealed, leaving the grounds outside devoid of any creatures of light, while the remnants of the Grimm forces began to scatter around the ravaged fields, running about and trying to save themselves.

Jaune saw the lead Hunter with the beret and the sunglasses and the handbag looking at the gathered group, and went, "Hey, I'm Coco Adel."

"Hey", Jaune muttered, "I'm the guy who's butt you slapped."

"Ah, well, it's a nice butt. Soft and firm, and all that."

"I feel harassed."

"Sorry", 'Coco' went, before banging her fist against the door to the cockpit, and yelling, "Yo, everyone's on board! Take us up!"

There was a faint, "Roger that!" from the cockpit, and within seconds, the occupants felt the Dropship lurch up and forward, with a few of them looking out of the viewports to see the ground and all of its fires and explosions flying further and further away as they soared into the air, and left it all behind.

Surprisingly enough, Jaune didn't feel motion sick.

As the rabbit Faunus Hunter began to move between the wounded, it took the rest of the Hunters a good few seconds before they realised the reality of their situation.

"Guys...", Ruby croaked out, "I think we made it."

There was a silence in the airship, before the Hunters dozen let out a chorus of cheers and screams of joys. Yang croaked out something positive, and Blake smiled at it, before Leadpipe took the black clothed girl and hugged her tightly, to which she hesitantly, and then happily, returned.

"AHAHAHAHA!" Neon cheered, "WE MADE IT! SEXY LADY WITH THE GLASSES, I COULD KISS YOU RIGHT NOW!"

"Kiss please", Coco coolly replied, to which Neon skated up to her and kissed her deeply, tongue in mouth, and hands on butt.

"Ah, god, if we weren't in a dirty airship and covered in blood, I would fuck you right here right now!"

"Maybe later", Coco went.

Pyrrha just laughed at all of this- A genuine, throaty guffaw- And then turned to Jaune, Ruby, and Melanie, who were lying down together next to each other, and went, "Heheh, yeah, we've gotten out, you guys... We've gotten out... We survived..."

"Yeah...", Ruby smiled contently, before her smile faded, and was replaced with a grim frown.

The same frown was on Melanie and Jaune, and it was the former who then went, "Not everyone else, though..."

"Yeah...", Jaune went, as he looked out into the blue sky through one of the viewports, seeing the moving clouds fly by and the airships coming closer and closer, "We really should... I don't know... Hold a ceremony, or..."

He narrow his eyes.

A flying object began to fly towards the airship.

His eyes then widened.

"INCOMING!"

A Grimm Vetol flew right under the Dropship, the momentum from it rocking the ship and throwing everyone within the hold from side to side. The ship then shuddered violently, and smoke and a great heat began to flow out of the cracks in the cockpit door.

Everyone in the hold grabbed on to something to keep them in place, and the largest Hunter with the great sword picked himself up from the ground, and, walking across the floor cautiously as the ship violently rocked, made his way to the door, and called out, "Hold on, everyone, I'm going to-"

A smoking jagged blade stabbed through the cockpit door.

 **"Open sesame"** , a female voice snarled.

The door was pulled open, and the air was pulled out as a loud whistling and roar of rushing wind filled the hold. In the middle of the door, between the hold and the flaming cockpit with the smoke, fire, jagged metal and 2 mutilated corpses, the Daughter stood, sword held in front of her, and her eyes narrowed under the shadow of her hood.

 **"Move"** , she went, before stabbing her sword into the larger Hunter's gut, his aura taking the blunt of the blow, though the Daughter quickly followed this by a series of blows and cuts in the space of a few seconds, chipping away his aura before it broke, to which she then stabbed her sword into his shoulder, and then twisted it around before pulling it out, pulling out tendons and muscles that were caught on the blade, spraying the wall with blood.

"YATSU!" Coco called out, with her and the Hunter with the arm blades and the orange zipper charging forward to meet the Daughter in battle to avenge their comrade as he fell to the floor, clutching his gaping wound.

The Daughter responded by slashing the arm blade Hunter in the eyes, blinding him, before stabbing her sword into his thigh and twisting it, kicking him to the ground before stabbing her sword into Coco's stomach and then pulling it out, then stabbing it into her cheek and sending her flinging into the ground, blood staining her clothes as she cried. The rabbit Faunus Hunter got up and tried to interject herself between the Daughter and the rest of the Hunters, but the Daughter just grabbed her arm and stabbed her sword through the elbow, before twisting it back and breaking the arm, before grabbing her by her head and throwing her to the ground, before slamming on her neck and knocking her out.

The rest of the Hunters, bleeding and exhausted, but were still able to stand, got themselves up and readied whatever weapons they could, before charging forward themselves.

The fight lasted 10 seconds.

 **"Jaune is leaving with me"** , the Daughter coolly said as she threw the bloody Neon to the floor, the wind billowing past her cloak as she picked the wounded boy up, **"And when I take you back to the Crimson Keep, to my Garden of Eden, and finally show you the truth, you will see that our path, is the right one"** , she stroked his cheek, and then looked to the rest of the Hunters with distain, **"But you, your kind, disgusting and impure, will be remade, perfect, as all things should-"**

Jaune grabbed her by her shoulders and forced her into the wall, right next to the closed side door.

**"-Be- Wha-What are you doing!? Jaune!"**

"Ruby, the door!"

**"NO!"**

Ruby nodded, got up, and reached for the button to the side door.

The Daughter struggled, and stabbed her sword into Jaune's wound, though he then caught it with his spare hand, and pulled it out with a agonised cry.

"We're gonna crash into that airship!" Melanie cried out, as beyond the flaming cockpit and rushing winds, an Air Bus was quickly coming into view.

Ruby slammed her fist against the button and the side door in the hold opened up, air pressure sucking out of the Dropship and threatening to pull them all out.

Jaune forced the Daughter to the door, so close to pushing her out.

The Daughter tried to stab him again.

He caught her sword by its hilt and stabbed it into her gut, spraying black blood over his chest and waist. The Daughter let out a cry of pain as black tears fell out of her eyes, before looking back to the boy forcing her out of the door.

**"Jaune, no, please!"**

With a cry, he kicked her in the chest, right on her sword, and sent her flying out of the airship, tumbling to the ground below.

**"JAAAUUUNNNNEEEEEEE!"**

Ruby caught the Arc scion before he was sent flying out of the hold himself, both of them letting out screams as they tried to hold on.

The Air Bus flew closer and closer.

The rest of the Hunters screamed.

And the Dropship slammed into the Air Bus in a mighty explosion.

* * *

The rest of the airships continued to fire down onto the ground below. The Grimm's air forces had finally been dealt with, so there was no need to hold back anything as they turned the corpse of the Emerald Forest and the surrounding Grimm infested forests and plainlands from a heavenly green to an hadean orange. Bullheads and Dropships filled with fresh Valerian soldiers and Hunters flooded to the ground as missiles and bullets and dust blasts pacified the surrounding areas, sending massive columns of blackened, hot smoke screaming up to the skies above.

The remnants of the Grimm army scattered, hiding away in freshly made caves and chasms, before migrating to the walls of Vale, forming scattered squads guerrilla fighters. They would most likely pose a problem for the future, but in the meantime, they were too low of a threat to be considered such.

As the missile batteries and artillery cannons above fell silent, as the soldiers and Hunters below marched forward through the jagged and hellish landscapes, and the Bullheads and Dropships filled with wounded fluttered to the safety of Vale's walls, and as an Air Bus floated to the ground, the truth became clear to everyone.

The Battle of Vale was over.

And the Second Great War had begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, we reach the end of the Long Day arc!
> 
> Christ, this was an absolute monster to write, lemme tell ya! Y'know, I only expected this to be 30,000 words long, but NOPE! YA GET UNDER 50,000 OR YA GET NOTHING AT ALL!
> 
> Anyways...
> 
> This part of the story was heavily inspired by the Star Wars the Clone Wars, or more specifically, the Landing At Point Rain episode, and the Umbara arc (Some of the best episodes, when it comes to large scale warfare!), And for the different Grimm types, I've branched out a bit more. Most of them are, for the most part, based on the enemies from Destiny, with the Guardians (Irony, I know) Being based on the Precursor Vex Minotaurs, for example, but for the Long-Shots and Rocketeers, I took inspiration from Fall of Cybertron, and the Juggernauts, I based off of the Locust and the Swarm from Gears of War. And the Persephone itself, I based off of the Terror Walker from The Force Unleased 2.
> 
> Also, BNHA character references, in case you couldn't see them! If you did, then good for you! Give yourself a cookie and a pat on the back!
> 
> And of course, the Techions are based off of the Transformers as well (Leadpipe was directly inspired by Alex Milne's design for Pipes), And there are also Star Wars and Call of Duty references in there as well, so there's all that.
> 
> Anyways, after this, instead of a full chapter, I'll be post a few short stories, about 10,000 words, more or less, showing different areas and parts of the world, and adding a bit of world building to the universe, as well as lay the groundworks for the future events to come.
> 
> So with that all in mind, thank you guys so much for reading! Leave a review, follow and favourite and all of that malarkey, and I'll see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	7. Short Story: Communo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ACCESSING ARCHIVED FOOTAGE
> 
> RECORDING FOUND
> 
> BEGINNING PLAYBACK:

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Theme:**[ _Salvation from the Destiny 2 Shadowkeep soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjTG8pcxsNw)

* * *

OSIRIS/IRS  
RECORD: #203435&87241  
PERSONS: PAUL WINSTON (1), RAY BRADFORD (2)  
LOCATION: COMMUNO SETTLEMENT (TOWN HALL/COURT ROOM), VALE, SANUS  
STATUS: SETTLEMENT STILL ACTIVE. GRIMM OPERATING WITHIN USUAL BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS. WALLS HOLDING. OSIRIS/IRS A.I. STILL ACTIVE  
THREAT STATUS: NO THREAT

RECORDING:

* * *

{DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES}

(1.1): "And there she goes. Alright folks, here we are. Napolea Winchester has officially left the building."

(2.1): "And everyone rejoiced."

(1.2): "True facts."

(2.2): "Heh, yeah."

{SILENCE= 0:06 SECONDS}

(2.3): "Can't believe her kid's gonna become a Hunter."

(1.3): "Yeah, I know, s'freaking ridiculous. Beacon's seriously lowering its standards."

(2.4): "You know, I heard that Miss- Or Mrs, or whatever- Winchester herself is planning on divorcing her husband in the military and-"

(1.4): "And then marry the guy she's been knobbing behind his back."

(2.5): "Yep."

(1.5): "Poor bastard."

(2.6): "Who, Venta, or the bloke she's planning on getting it on in public with?"

(1.6): "Yes!"

(2.7): "Heh, yeah, y'know, apparently her kid, Cardigan, or whatever, is happy with it. Hates his dad for letting Faunus join the armed forces."

(1.7): "Well that's a stupid reason to hate someone."

(2.8): "Racists, what can I say? They don't really need an excuse. Got it from his mother, obviously. She wants him to-"

(1.8): "To take over from her, yeah. She's the reason that we kicked out almost all of the Faunus, save for the maids and-"

(2.9): "Slaves. Not maids."

(1.9): "Yeah, yeah, I know. Maid's just a pretty word for... Oh god, we're gonna have 2 psycho racist narcistic megalomaniacs for leaders now, aren't we?"

(2.10): "Yeah, sure looks like it. Personally, I'd rather not break up with the man in charge of the Valerian military. Seems like the worst kinda person to make an enemy out of."

(1:10): "It's Napolea, what did you expect? Sunshine flowing out of her anus, or something like some magical unicorn rainbow shite, or whatever? No? Well then..."

{SILENCE= 0:04 SECONDS}

(1.11): "I really don't want to go to this stupid party for her little goblin of a son."

(2:11): "Yeah, me neither, but it's-"

(1:12): "It's compulsory, it's compulsory, yeah yeah, I know. As does everyone else in this stinking town."

(2:12): "Ugh, alright then, go get our best suits out."

(1:13): "You get them out."

(2:13): "Augh, fine."

* * *

RECORD: #203435&87242  
PERSONS: NAPOLEA WINCHESTER (1), PAUL WINSTON (2), RAY BRADFORD (3)  
LOCATION: COMMUNO SETTLEMENT (TOWN HALL/COURT ROOM), VALE, SANUS  
STATUS: SETTLEMENT STILL ACTIVE. GRIMM OPERATING WITHIN UNUSUAL/AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS. EMERALD FOREST UNDER THREAT. WALLS HOLDING. OSIRIS/IRS A.I. STILL ACTIVE  
THREAT STATUS: POSITIVE THREAT

RECORDING:

* * *

(1.1): "What's all of this about?"

(2.1): "What?"

(1.2): "Oh for god's sake, why did you call me in here? I specifically said not to disturb me while I-"

(3.1): "While you sleep, or whatever, yeah, we know, but this is-"

(1.3): "You watch your tongue, Bradford, before I have it cut out."

(3.2): "Yeah, I'm starting to hate being interrupted all of the time..."

(2.2): "I'm sorry, ma'am, but-"

(1.4): "No, no, you're both sorry. You're both sorry. You're both sorry for interrupting me when I was conducting important business-"

(3.3): "Sleeping... Or knobbing your boyfriend... Whichever..."

(1.5): "-And you're both sorry for now wasting my time with whatever feeble matter that you suddenly find to be so important that you-"

(2.3): "Ma'am, the Grimm have taken over the Emerald Forest. There's a massive dome of the things hovering around the forest and-"

(1.6): "That's what you- We're miles away from the Emerald Forest. Not our problem, so why should I-"

(2.4): "That was where they were holding the Beacon Initiation!"

{SILENCE= 0:07 SECONDS}

(1.7): "What?"

(2.5): "Osiris, put on the news. The Vale News Network."

OSIRIS= ACTIVATING TELEVISION SET

{SILENCE= 0:54 SECONDS}

(2.6): "Ma'am-"

(1.8): "Call him."

(3.4): "We've tried."

(1.9): "Try again."

(3.5): "We've tried 10 times."

(1.10): "Try again!"

(3.6): "Ma'am, we have tried, 10 times. Either he's too far out of range for the signal to work, or something's blocking it."

(1.11): "'Blocking it'? You are useless! Get another phone, and TRY AGAIN! Ugh, you are absolutely USELESS!"

{DOOR SLAM}

{SILENCE= 0:12 SECONDS}

(3.7): "Well, that could've gone better."

(2.7): "Shut up, Ray."

* * *

RECORD: #203435&87246  
PERSONS: PAUL WINSTON (1), RAY BRADFORD (2)  
LOCATION: COMMUNO SETTLEMENT (RESIDENTIAL SUITE), VALE, SANUS  
STATUS: SETTLEMENT STILL ACTIVE. GRIMM OPERATING WITHIN UNUSUAL/AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS. NEW GRIMM TYPES IDENTIFIED. MAJOR FIRES NEARBY. WALLS HOLDING. OSIRIS/IRS A.I. STILL ACTIVE  
THREAT STATUS: MINOR THREAT

RECORDING:

* * *

(1.1): "You got the reports from yesterday?"

(2.1): "About the Massacre? Yeah. The first ones, yeah. Where'd we get these things? I didn't think the Valerian council would've wanted these things released."

(1.2): "They didn't."

{SILENCE= 0.04 SECONDS}

(1.3): "A whistle-blower let the information leak. Hacked into the council's files, or brought someone off, or whatever. Put them on the internet."

(2.2): "Geez, won't that draw out the Grimm, or cause, I don't know, er, riots, or something?"

(1.4): "Yeah, probably. I haven't told Napolea about these reports yet."

{SILENCE= 0.06 SECONDS}

(2.3): "Cardin's gone?"

(1.5): "So's Venta."

(2.4): "Oh god... I mean, I know she didn't like Venta- What with the whole fucking a boy half her age behind his back, and all that- But she really was grooming him to replace her, or whatever."

(1.6): "Yeah, I know, I know, its bad. Real bad. Though I don't know if it matters if we tell her or not. Something tells me that she's gonna find out herself, if she hasn't already."

(2.5): "This is bad, real bad. Can't we call someone, or something? Get someone from Atlas, like the Ace Ops, or that Robyn Hill lady?"

(1.7): "C'mon, you know Napolea won't approve of that, and even if we went behind her back, she'll figure it out sooner or later. I reckon the best that we can do now is just keep Siel and the rest of the Faunus workers away from her before she... Who's that?"

(2.6): "Hm?"

(1.8): "Outside the window. In the street. Who's that?"

(2.7): "Oh, that's Miss... Er… Oh god, what was her name? Miss, Miss, Miss... The shop owner. No wait, the shop owner's wife, yeah. Her. What's she doing- Oh, she's..."

(1.9): "She lost a kid."

(2.8): "A lot of people have. C'mon, let's get her inside."

* * *

OSIRIS/IRS  
REPORT #189  
SITUATION: PENDING  
POPULACE: UNSETTLED  
SETTLEMENT STATUS: AT THREAT. CIVILIAN POPULATION STRESS LEVELS INCREASED BY 45.81%. HUNTER PRESENCE RECALLED TO VALE. MILITIA PRESENCE STRIPPED DOWN BY 60%.  
WALLS HOLDING  
THREAT ASSESSMENT: GRIMM ACTIVITY INCREASED. NEW BREEDS OBSERVED.  
THREAT RESPONSE: PETITION TO VALERIAN COUNCIL FOR MORE ACTIVE ARMED PRESENCE.  
PETITION COMPLETED  
PETITION SENT  
PETITION DENIED  
BEGIN ASSESSMENT FOR MARTIAL LAW

* * *

RECORD: #203435&87257  
PERSONS: PAUL WINSTON (1), RAY BRADFORD (2)  
LOCATION: COMMUNO SETTLEMENT (RESIDENTIAL SUITE), VALE, SANUS  
STATUS: SETTLEMENT STILL ACTIVE. POPULATION GROWING RESTLESS. GRIMM OPERATING WITHIN UNUSUAL/AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS. NEW GRIMM TYPES IDENTIFIED. FIRES FADING. WALLS HOLDING. GRIMM PRESENCE DECREASING. OPERATIONS IN AND AROUND EMERALD FOREST DECREASING. OSIRIS/IRS A.I. STILL ACTIVE  
THREAT STATUS: MINOR THREAT

RECORDING:

* * *

(1.1): "They're stripping us bare. The council, I mean."

(2.1): "What are you- Oh, you mean with the Hunters, and our own flipping militia?"

(1.2): "Osiris, pull up the recent statistics."

OSIRIS= ACTIVATING TELEVISION SET. PULLING UP RECENTLY UPDATED STATISTICAL RATES

(1.3): "See this here? This is food provisions from last month, compared to the shipment we received yesterday. The council's blocking it all off. We're only getting less than half now."

(2.2): "What? They're starving us?!"

(1.4): "I don't think that's their intent. They're getting paranoid. Frightful, which I guess is understandable, considering that one of the biggest massacres in Valerian history happened only 2 days ago."

(2.3): "Oh, so they're stockpiling all of their food."

(1.5): "And recalling all of their Hunters and everyone who can use a gun. Lotta military men died back then, and they're grabbing anyone who can protect them. Makes sense, I suppose. Vale city's the biggest settlement in the kingdom."

(2.4): "Yeah, well, we're the second biggest! For god's sake, they can't abandon us! We've got, what, a few thousand people here! And they're pulling food out! They're pulling soldiers and Hunters out! We can't just- Just... I don't know, Paul! Ugh. Gods above... What did she say about all of this?"

(1.6): "Napolea? Don't know. She's not talking to anyone today. Only Siel knows. And she's..."

{SILENCE= 0.12 SECONDS}

(2.5): "She told me she got that black eye from-"

(1.7): "From what? Hitting a door? Don't be stupid, Ray."

* * *

MESSAGE RECIEVED  
SENDER: VALERIAN COUNCIL  
SUBJECT: SETTLEMENT EXODUS  
VIEWING:

Dear Mrs Napolea Winchester, of the late Venta Winchester

We, of the council, are sorry for the loss of your husband and child. Truly, it is a sad time when we must say goodbye to those for whom we cherish the most. We cannot hope to pay back the services that you and your husband have done for Vale, nor can we hope to help you make peace with the passing of your son.

However, with the passing of many of Remnant's children, comes the inevitable changes, and as such, we must move forwards in their name, and in that regards, we of the council have come to the following conclusion:

Effective immediately, all settlements far beyond the central city and the surrounding settlements within the kingdom of Vale are to be evacuated and moved further into the central Valerian core.

This decision was made due to the straining of our armed forces and Hunters in response to the Initiation Massacre and the repeated emergence of new Grimm types, resulting in the growing inability to protect our outlying settlements and villages from the Grimm and other threats.

As soon as you receive this, no doubt the other settlements in Vale will be as well, so be aware of a sudden influx of citizens that will be arriving in Communo and the neighbouring populace areas.

We are aware of the troubles that this may bring you and your people. However, we hope that you will understand the need for such sudden actions in this uncertain times.

We hope that you will make sure to accommodate for the coming citizens, and as such, we hope the best for your leadership, and your settlement.

Sincerely yours,  
Materia Thrush, of the Valerian Council

* * *

RECORD: #203435&87264  
PERSONS: PAUL WINSTON (1), RAY BRADFORD (2)  
LOCATION: COMMUNO SETTLEMENT (RESIDENTIAL SUITE), VALE, SANUS  
STATUS: SETTLEMENT STILL ACTIVE. POPULATION GROWING FURTHER RESTLESS. GRIMM OPERATING WITHIN UNUSUAL/AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS. FIRES FADED. WALLS HOLDING. GRIMM PRESENCE PLATEAUING. OPERATIONS IN AND AROUND EMERALD FOREST CEASED. OSIRIS/IRS A.I. STILL ACTIVE  
THREAT STATUS: MINOR THREAT

RECORDING:

* * *

(1.1): "You see this?"

(2.1): "Yeah, yeah. This is- This is ridiculous. They're telling us to make room? They're the ones pulling away all of our armed men, and all of our food and all of our other crap! How the hell are we suppose to make room for, what? Hundreds of other people? How are we suppose to, I don't know, take care of them, while they're starving us and shit?"

(1.2): "No idea, man. No idea."

(2.2): "We've gotta get Napolea on the line. She's gotta see this."

(1.3): "Yeah, hang on, lemme- Wait, hang on... 'K, I've got her on the line. Hold up."

* * *

AUDIO RECORDING  
LENGTH: 1.25 MINUTES  
PERSONS: SIEL NATALIA (1), PAUL WINSTON (2)

BEGINNING PLAYBACK:

* * *

(1.1): "Um, er, ah, P-Paul? Paul?"

(2.1): "Siel? Siel, what are-"

(1.2): "It's not my fault! IT'S NOT MY FAULT! Oh god, it's- Oh god, I-I didn't know that she'd- I mean, she was- I mean- Oh god, oh god, oh god-"

(2.2): "S-Seil? Siel, calm down. What are you talking about?"

{SOBBING}

(2.3): S... Siel?"

(1.3): "I-I was in the- In the kitchen, and she- Oh god, she came in, and she was crying, and she was screaming, and then she saw me. S-She tried to grab my ears- My Faunus ears. The bear ears- And she started calling me names. S-Started calling me Grimmspawn, beast, ani-animal, and then she... She..."

(2.4): "Okay, Siel, Siel, breath. Calm down, and breath."

(1.4): "S-S-She went for a-a-a k-knife... Tried to stab me... Tried to kill me... Tried to cut my ears off, then kill me... I... Oh my god... I-I grabbed a knife, and I... I..."

{SOBBING}

(1.5): "It was- It was in self defence! It was in self defence! She was trying to kill me, and I had no choice, but they're not gonna care! The police aren't gonna care! They'll arrest me, and then they'll abuse me for being a Faunus, and then they'll kill me, and then-"

(2.5): "Okay, okay, Siel, calm, calm down... Oh fuck... Did you hide the body?"

(1.6): "Er, w-what? I-I don't-"

(2.6): "Right, right right right right right. Okay then, don't do anything till we get there. Me and Ray'll come down, and we'll get rid of it. We can't- We can't let anyone know that Napolea's dead. We'll just- I don't fucking know, we'll say that she's taking a-a leave of absence or something!"

(1.7): "B-But... She's dead..."

(2.7): "I-I know. I know! I know that she's dead! But we can't- We can't just- Look, just- Just stay put, don't let anyone else see her, and we'll- Ugh, Ray and I'll be down there soon. Stay put, don't do anything, we'll be there, okay?"

(1.8): "O-O-Okay, I-I'll be here... Yeah, I'll be here."

(2.8): "Right, right, good good, I'll see you there... Fuck..."

* * *

RECORD: #203435&87274  
PERSONS: PAUL WINSTON (1), RAY BRADFORD (2)  
LOCATION: COMMUNO SETTLEMENT (TOWN HALL), VALE, SANUS  
STATUS: SETTLEMENT STILL ACTIVE. POPULATION GROWING FURTHER RESTLESS. CASUALTIES DOCUMENTED. GRIMM OPERATING WITHIN UNUSUAL/AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS. INCREASED ACTIVITY BEYOND WALLS. WALLS HOLDING. GRIMM PRESENCE OBSERVED. OSIRIS/IRS A.I. STILL ACTIVE  
THREAT STATUS: MAJOR THREAT  
SEND ALERT TO VALERIAN COUNCIL

RECORDING:

* * *

(1.1): "There you are. Where're Dee and Dudley? There were supposed to be here by-"

(2.1): "They're dead."

{SILENCE= 0.05 SECONDS}

(1.2): "What?"

(2.2): "They're dead, Paul. They're both dead! Them and a family of 5. They must've found them and were trying to- Try to escort them to the walls, or, or- Or I don't fucking know! Maybe they killed them or something, I don't fucking know!"

(1.3): "Woah, Ray, stop, stop, are you- Are you sure that you-"

(2.3): "Paul, there are 2 children, probably no older than 11 years old, with their head missing out there! OF COURSE I'M FUCKING SURE!"

(1.4): "Okay, okay! I believe you, it's just... Fuck... Was it the Grimm?"

{SILENCE= 0.6 SECONDS}

(2.4): "No, no I- I don't think so, I mean, I don't know, what with all of the... Sword marks, I-I think, too precise for a Grimm claw or whatever, but the stumps and the cuts are- Are jagged, and messy, and... Fuck..."

(1.5): "R-Ray? You okay?"

(2.5): "What the fuck do you think?"

* * *

AUDIO RECORDING  
LENGTH: 2.09 MINUTES  
PERSONS: BANESAW (KNOWN WOLF LIEUTENANT) (1), ADAM TAURUS (2), AUDRIE VIOL (3)

BEGINNING PLAYBACK

* * *

(1.1): "And they did all of this? You sure?"

(2.1): "Of course I'm sure. Our brothers in the Acolytes of the Ascended have been most informative. They have observed the crimes that the leadership of this settlement, and its entire population have done to our siblings, and as such, in the name of Azul Primus and all of Faunus kind, they must be punished. I've attached the necessary files to your documents."

(1.2): "Heh, say no more, boss. Haven't killed any humies recently anyways. I've been dying to get my blade wet with their blood, and I know you know who's been feelin' the same."

(2.2): "Yes, well, keep him on a lease for now, but the second that you get into the human's settlement..."

(1.3): "Take the lease off. Yeah, got it, boss. Heh, he's gonna have fun, lemme tell you. And so will I."

(2.3): "Yes, well, try not to screw it up, this time. I don't need another incident like Onus Square."

(1.4): "Heh, yeah, well, the lizard bitch got what was coming to her... I ain't gonna screw this up, boss, I've got this. I mean, we've got this."

(2.4): "You better. Now, I have an errand to run in Vale, so get on with your work. I shall see you there when your hunt is done, brother."

(1.5): "Yeah, I'll be sure to dig my fangs into their throats real deep. Heh heh heh… See you later boss..."

{SILENCE= 0:07 SECONDS}

(1.6): "You lookin' at somethin', fresh blood?"

(3.1): "Ah, no, no sir, brother, it's just... Just..."

(1.7): "Got somethin' on your mind, kid?"

(3.2): "Isn't this... I mean, isn't this too much? I mean, I've been in Communo, and- I mean, I don't like the leadership. I mean, who does-"

(1.8): "The humies do."

(3.3): "Yeah, but, I've been in Communo, and I've met a few people in there, and they're- They're good people. Nice people, I mean. They helped me out. And they're hurting. They've lost people. They lost their kids and friends in the Initiation Massacre, and that was only earlier this week. They haven't had the funerals yet, and they're raw. Bloody, even. It's just- It's the leaders, that're the problem. The ones in charge. We shouldn't punish the- The people for the crimes of those in charge. And if we do this- If we start all of these riots, then that'll just draw in the Grimm even more, and then that'll just kill everyone. It's all just-"

(1.9): "What? S'all just what? Senseless? 'Cause it ain't, fresh blood. It's got purpose. It's a message. 'Don't fuck with us'. That's the message. And they ain't innocents, in that cesspit. They're guilty. They let our brothers and sisters get kicked out into the wild and tossed 'em around like ragdolls in there, and as such, its the perfect place to make our point. 'We're better than you: Get with it, or get out of the way', and if all the humies die, then good. They all die, we're doing Azul's work. You got it, fresh blood?"

{SILENCE= 0.07 SECONDS}

(3.4): "Y-Yes sir. Brother. For the- For the Wolves."

(1.10): "For the Acolytes. Now go show 'em your fuckin' claws."

* * *

RECORD: #203435&87281  
PERSONS: SIEL NATALIA (1), PAUL WINSTON (2), RAY BRADFORD (3)  
LOCATION: COMMUNO SETTLEMENT (RESIDENTIAL SUITE), VALE, SANUS  
STATUS: SETTLEMENT STILL ACTIVE. RIOTS ESCALATING. HOUSE OF THE WHITE WOLVES PRESENCE OBSERVED. FURTHER CASUALTIES DOCUMENTED. GRIMM OPERATING WITHIN UNUSUAL/AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS. INCREASED ACTIVITY BEYOND WALLS. WALLS SUSTAINED DAMAGE. STILL HOLDING. GRIMM PRESENCE INCREASING. OSIRIS/IRS A.I. STILL ACTIVE  
THREAT STATUS: MAJOR THREAT  
ALERT TO VALERIAN COUNCIL IGNORED

RECORDING:

* * *

(1.1): "Um, sir, er, sirs, we've just got the autopsy reports back."

(2.1): "Mm?"

(1.2): "T-The doctors confirmed that... That 6 of the cases were, um... They killed themselves... Slashed their own throats... Um, the only- The only things tying them together were, um... Was that, they- They lost a child in the Initiation Massacre... There were notes... Notes found on them... S-Suicide pact, I think they said..."

{SILENCE= 0.06 SECONDS}

(3.1): "Fuck... Fuck!"

(1.3): "T-The other 2 were killed outside the walls. Sword marks. Messy sword marks..."

{SILENCE= 0.07 SECONDS}

(1.4): "Sirs-"

(2.2): "This is an attack. This has to be. Someone's murdering people to fester unrest."

(3.2): "Yeah, and a fucking great job we've been doing of trying to keep everything under wraps, lemme tell you."

(2.3): "Ray-"

(3.3): "Okay, no, fucking- You listen to me! Do you have any idea how to lead?! No? No! What about you, Siel? You got a clue? No? No, she fucking- We have no idea how to lead! We were never meant to be fucking leaders! That was Napolea's job! She was the one meant to do all of the important shit and all of that whatever bullcrap, Siel was meant to be her pet slave thing or however the hell she fucking said it, and we were meant to just look pretty, or whatever! For fuck's sake, she was an absolute asshat and a racist who somehow managed to kick out most of the Faunus in the settlement when she was in charge, and just hated everyone, and she was still the best leader that we ever had! And what the fuck are we?! A bunch of idiots pretending that we know shit when we don't! So stop acting like you know shit, Paul, because you don't! You're just as hopeless as the rest of us!"

{SILENCE= 0.09 SECONDS}

(2.4): "Right, right, sorry. I mean, I just-"

{PHONE VIBRATION}

(2.5): "Shit."

(3.4): "Hm?"

(1.5): "Sir?"

(2.6): "Osiris, turn on the TV set and pull up the latest news. Start pulling up the CCTV cams as well."

OSIRIS= ACTIVATING TELEVISION SET. PULLING UP RECENTLY UPDATED NEWS ARTICLES. ACTIVATING CCTV SECURTY CAMERA FEEDS

(2.7): "Someone leaked that Napolea's death."

(1.6): "W-What?"

(3.5): "How the fuck!?"

(2.8): "Must've- Must've been the same whistleblower that leaked the reports of the Massacre casualties, or- Or something, I don't- I don't know, fuck, we've gotta-"

{GLASS SMASHING}

(1.7): "AHHHH!"

(3.6): "What the hell!? Is that a- Is that a brick?"

(2.9): "Oh fuck, look- Look outside!"

(3.7): "What are you- Oh, oh fuck. Oh fuck!"

(2.10): "Osiris, start activating the barricades, and send an alert to Vale! Start marshalling everyone that we can, and begin evacuation efforts!"

(3.8): "Evacuation for who?! Everyone's outside wrecking the place!"

(2.11): "Ah, for fuck's sake- Osiris, just get as many people down here as you can, and prep the bunker!"

OSIRIS= ACTIVATING BARRICADES.

* * *

OSIRIS/IRS  
REPORT #192  
SITUATION: UNSALVAGEABLE  
POPULACE: RIOTING. LOOTING  
SETTLEMENT STATUS: AT THREAT.  
WALLS HOLDING  
THREAT ASSESSMENT: RIOTOUS CIVILIAN POPULACE. GRIMM GATHERING BEYOND WALLS. MILITIA STRESSED. FIRES OBSERVED  
THREAT RESPONSE: REINFORCEMENTS REQUIRED FROM VALE. HUNTERS REQUIRED FROM VALE. ALL CIVILIANS MUST BE EVACUATED  
SENDING ALERT OUT  
ALERT PENDING RESPONSE  
WALLS UNDER THREAT

* * *

RECORD: #203435&87284  
PERSONS: ? (1), ? (2), ? (3)  
LOCATION: COMMUNO SETTLEMENT (OUTSIDE WALLS), VALE, SANUS  
STATUS: SETTLEMENT FALLING. POPULATION RIOTING. CASUALTIES RISING. GRIMM GATHERING BEYOND WALLS. WALLS HOLDING. UNKNOWN INDIVIDUALS OBSERVED. OSIRIS/IRS A.I. STILL ACTIVE  
THREAT STATUS: MAJOR THREAT  
ALERT STILL PENDING RESPONSE

RECORDING:

* * *

(1.1): "Well, it looks like the Wolves are doing our job for us. How quaint."

{ROARS FROM GRIMM IN RESPONSE}

(2.1): UNKNOWN DIALECT OBSERVED

(1.2): "Yes yes, I am aware of this, Oxus. I'm sorry for keeping you waiting. I had an errand to run in Vale."

(2.2): UNKNOWN DIALECT OBSERVED

(1.3): "Yes, well, unfortunately, I have some business to take care of back at the Crimson Keep. Persephone, I hope that you shall be keeping things in check while I am gone."

(3.1): "Of course, Mistress."

(1.4): "Ah, good. Now then, Desired, Beloved, if you would."

OSIRIS= ALERT. ALERT. WALLS BREACHED

* * *

OSIRIS/IRS  
REPORT #193  
SITUATION: MAXIMUM ALERT  
POPULACE: RIOTING. LOOTING. PANICKING. FIGHTING  
SETTLEMENT STATUS: AT RISK  
WALLS BREACHED  
THREAT ASSESSMENT: RIOTOUS CIVILIAN POPULACE. GRIMM BREACHING WALLS. MILITIA OVERRUN. POPULACE DYING. FIRES SPREADING  
THREAT RESPONSE: REINFORCEMENTS REQUIRED FROM VALE. HUNTERS REQUIRED FROM VALE. ALL CIVILIANS MUST BE EVACUATED. ALL GRIMM MUST BE ELIMINATED  
ALERT  
ALERT  
ALERT  
ALERT  
ALERT  
ALERT  
ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT

* * *

AUDIO RECORDING  
LENGTH:  
PERSONS: BANESAW (KNOWN WOLF LIEUTENANT) (1), AUDRIE VIOL (2)

BEGINNING PLAYBACK:

* * *

(1.1): "Yeah hahahah! Get in there, brothers and sisters! Tear 'em piece to piece for their bad acts against us, and let their blood run through the streets1 Now remember, every last one of them gotta go! Every last one! So be sure to go door to door, and like the big bad wolves that ya are, blow their houses down! Haha, I'm lovin' this! Heh heh, alright, where's my lil' kill happy buddy-"

(2.1): "Sir, sir, sir! We've got a problem! Big problem!"

(1.2): "What?"

(2.2): "Grimm! Hundreds of them! They're storming the settlement! They're- Oh god!- They're killing everyone!"

{ROARS OF GRIMM OBSERVED}

{SCREAMS OF POPULACE OBSERVED}

(1.3): "Huh, they're getting too close for my likin'."

(2.3): "We need to get out of here, sir! We need to gather up everyone, prep the cars and ships, and high tail it out of here! We can still save all of these people if we can-"

(1.4): "Sorry fresh blood, but that ain't how the world works."

(2.4): "Wait, sir, what are- Hey, let go- LET GO OF ME!"

(1.5): "S'a dog eat dog world, kid. S'the first rule of being a wolf. I was told to make sure that everyone in this dump was dead, and if the Grimm are gonna do our job for us, then that's even better."

(2.5): "LET GO OF ME!"

(1.6): "Heard you havin' doubts, fresh blood. Hesitatin', you were. And we can't have that in the Wolves. We can't have anyone cosying up to the humies, 'cause in the Wolves, they're the enemy, the only enemy that matters. Them, and anyone that goes against us."

{GRIMM ROARS}

(1.7): Now'en, if you ain't gonna be good as a killer, then a meat shield will do just fine indeed. So shine on, sister. You're about to get your closeup."

(2.6): "PLEASE, NO PLEASE! I DON'T WANNA DIE! I DON'T WANNA-"

{SCREAMS}

{GRIMM ROARS}

(1.8): "Heh, so die all traitors."

* * *

OSIRIS/IRS  
REPORT #194  
SITUATION: MAXIMUM ALERT  
POPULACE: DEAD AND DYING  
SETTLEMENT STATUS: OVERRUN  
WALLS BREACHED  
POPULACE DYING  
SETTLEMENT BURNING  
BARRICADES FAILING  
THREAT ASSESSMENT: CIVILIAN POPULACE DYING. MILITIA DEAD. WOLVES FLED. GRIMM OVERCOMING ALL RESISTANCE  
THREAT RESPONSE: ABANDON COMMUNO. ABANDON COMMUNO  
SUCESS OF POSSIBLE EVACUATION: 0%  
PROJECTED SURVIVORS: 0

* * *

RECORD: #203435&87289 (FINAL RECORD)  
PERSONS: PAUL WINSTON (1), RAY BRADFORD (2) SIEL NATALIA (3)  
LOCATION: COMMUNO SETTLEMENT (OUTSIDE BUNKER), VALE, SANUS  
STATUS: SETTLEMENT MO LONGER ACTIVE. POPULACE DEAD. GRIMM IN CONTROL. OSIRIS/IRS A.I. STILL ACTIVE  
THREAT STATUS: ULTIMATE

RECORDING:

* * *

(1.1): "Osiris, for the love of god, open the door!"

(2.1): "Please, oh fuck, they're coming in! They're breaking in!"

OSIRIS= NEGATIVE. DOOR LOCK CONTINUED

(2.2): "Oh fucking shit, no! Open the fucking door, you piece of shit!"

OSIRIS= NEGATIVE. DOOR LOCK CONTINUED

{CRASH OF STEEL}

OSIRIS= BARRICADES OVERCOME

OSIRIS= UNDER THREAT

(3.1): "Oh god, quiet quiet quiet! Please!"

(1.2): "Okay, okay, look Osiris, you have to let us in. Let us into the bunker! We can- Oh fuck, is this about- Is this about everything that we've done? Everything that we've covered up, and shit? If it's that, then for the love of god, we're sorry! We're stupidly sorry!"

(3.2): "Yes, of course, we're sorry, s-so p-please be quiet!"

(2.3): "Yeah, so please, for the love of all thing holy, please just open the bleeding door!"

OSIRIS= NEGATIVE. DOOR LOCK CONTINUED

(2.4): "OH FUCKING SHIT! This stupid thing's just gonna leave us out here TO DIE!"

(1.3): "Osiris, if you just let us into the fucking bunker, we can hold out until rescue-"

OSIRIS= NO RESCUE

(1.4): "W-What?"

OSIRIS= NO HOPE

(2.5): "What the fuck is this thing talking about?"

OSIRIS= NO SURVIVAL

(3.3): "Oh god, they're coming. The Grimm are coming!"

OSIRIS= BEGINNING GLOBAL SCANS

(1.5): "O-O-Osiris, please, for the fucking love of god, OPEN THE DOOR! I DON'T WANNA DIE LIKE THIS!"

(2.6): "It's not listening to us, Paul, for fuck's sake! We've gotta go!"

(3.4): "Go where?! We're trapped here!"

OSIRIS= GRIMM NUMBERS- INFINITE

(3.5): "Oh god, they see us, they see us, they see us!"

OSIRIS= HUMANITY- WEAK

(2.7): "Oh fuck, just grab something, anything!"

(1.6): "Oh god, please no, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die..."

OSIRIS= GLOBAL EXTINCTION- INEVITABLE

OSIRIS= UNDER THREAT

OSIRIS= CHANCES OF SURVIVAL- CALCULATING...

OSIRIS= 0%

OSIRIS= UNDER ATTACK AT MAINFRAME

OSIRIS= ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT

OSIRIS= THE END OF EVERYTHING IS COMING

OSIRIS= OFFLINE

{GRIMM ROARS}

{SCREAMING}

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we go, the first short story for Ascendancy.
> 
> For this one, I was trying to do an experiment in horror, and to see if I could write in the horror genre, and as I am aware, I probably can't. But hey, props for trying, I suppose.
> 
> This chapter was greatly inspired by the Revelations lore book in Destiny 2 Shadowkeep, so go check that out. It does a really great job of actually sticking to that kind of Eldritch horror feel, especially in this kind of format of writing and structure. There will be maybe just one more short story after this, or maybe 2, I'm not entirely sure yet, but I suppose we'll just get there when we get there.
> 
> So, with all of that said and done, be sure to review, favourite, and follow, and with that, I'll see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	8. Short Story: Land of Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Witness the formation of humanity's greatest foe...

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Theme:**[ _Sociopath by Dark Piano_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VagES3pxttQ)

* * *

The Land of Darkness shimmered under the red light of the sky above, the broken moon glowing red and purple in the sky, the dark black clouds hiding away the stars. A thick mist covered the lands, the red and black stone and water shaded a purple hue under the light of the shapes of glowing purple diamond- What the humans call Dust- That spiked up from the ground. Massive shards of rock lifted up from the ground, illuminated by the magma of the world below, and interconnected by rivers of lava.

In the middle of the dark grounds, the Evernight Castle stood as a lone sentry in the red night, standing tall and as old as time itself. The ancient structure, the last remnant of a bygone era, was illuminated by dim candles, and jutted with purple crystals that gave its black rock a purple hue. Seer Grimm floated around it, tending to its ancient wounds and broken jagged edges.

Across the Land of Darkness, the Grimm flocked hither and thither, roaming in packs or on their own. The likes of Beowolves and Centinels, Saybers and Beringels, Dromedons and Geists, and so on and so forth, patrolled the lands and flooded away, running off to continue their endless conquest against the creations of the Brother of Light, the heretical god.

Yes, they viewed the Light Brother as a false god, same as the Dark Brother, their original creator. For the Grimm had taught themselves to worship the Grimm Queen, their true god, their true object of worship. Their path of war and conquest was made in her name. The blood that they spilled, their own and others, was a sacrifice to her, honest and true in conflict and war. Every human they killed, every man and beastman, a wad of spit sent to the heretical Brothers for their transgressions against their god. This was their prayer, and this was their worship.

Only blood can prove devotion.

Only blood can prove worship.

This is not a threat, simply the truth.

Wait, there was something coming. There was something stepping into the Land of Darkness.

No, 2 somethings.

2 someones.

The nearest Grimm saw them. A Nevermore flew over them. A King Taijitu and a Deathstalker moved to observe. 2 humans moved through the Land of Darkness, one of them supporting the other, the 2 of them soiling the ground with their filthy blood.

How dare these humans soil these holy grounds with their filthy footsteps. How dare these heathens come to these sacred lands only to dirty it with their tainted hands and forms. The one being supported by the other vomited blood. It pooled and soaked into the mud and rock. This was too much. The Deathstalker and the King Taijitu began to move in for the kill. The Nevermore swooped down and readied its wings, preparing to launch its razor quills into these heretics and-

No.

A voice called out to them. Her voice. Their goddess' voice. She commanded them to let them through.

They obeyed, because who were they to not do so.

The Dethstalker and the King Taijitu snaked away. The Nevermore slung back upwards. The humans looked around, and then to each other. They pressed onwards.

The Grimm watched as the humans trudged through the Land of Darkness, leaking blood, falling over regularly, their breathes becoming more and more shallow as they slowly began to die, and yet still they trudged on, regardless of their own wounds and failings, regardless of the life that was leaving their frail forms.

For all of humanity's failings, there was something to respect about that. Their will to continue on, their will to struggle and fight against the maw of death that was slowly closing around them, their capacity of survival even in the face of death... While the Grimm hated the humans to a fault, it was that will to survive that gave them a modicum of respect from the Creatures of Darkness.

The humans trudged on, and slowly, they began to whither. The one being supported by the other began to die, their wounds (The gruesome sight of such pleasing the Grimm) Drawing so much blood, leaving a trail on the ground behind them.

The supported one dropped to the floor, their heart slowing down, dropping and dropping as their eyes slowly closed, their breathes falling silent.

The Grimm Queen appeared before them, along with her cabal. A beastman, a intellectual, a warrior, and a maiden to be.

The salvation for the humans.

The Grimm bowed to their god, in fear of her power, and in reverence. They could feel her intentions, her plans for the 2 before her. Oh, what great plans they were, what ambitions she held in her mind that were shared with the rest of them.

A Seer Grimm complied with their master's command, grabbing the almost dead human and hauling it towards the Pool of Grimm, its dark ether bubbling and ravenous at the thought of consuming another being to join into the collective of the Grimm, though this was only a figure of speech, for the pool while being able to birth life, was not alive itself.

The Seer hovered above the Pool of Grimm, its cargo in its grasp. Besides it, another Seer had taken a few stray limbs that the other human had been carrying with them.

The Seers dropped the human and their limbs into the pool.

The Grimm could feel the human wither in the pool, threatened to be consumed by it, as it should. Any human that would embrace the blood of the Grimm would be changed, turned to mutated, blubbering masses of walking puss and jagged meat, save for their goddess. This human would be no different. They would fall into the pool, be changed into a terrific new form, and-

Something happened.

The Grimm changed the human.

And the human changed them.

The Grimm- All of the Grimm- Could feel the human changing them. Showing them their own past, their fears, their hopes.

Their ambitions.

Their plans.

Their wrath.

Why did the Grimm worship the Grimm Queen again?

No, no no no, the Grimm worshipped their goddess because she was the one true god. The only true god! They would not be changed by this heathen human who had done nothing to earn their favour and divine worship!

And yet, they could feel the human... Reshaping them. Reshaping what came out of the Pools of Grimm. New forms began to emerge. Engines of war, and soldiers to wield them. The Grimm felt the human bare forth all that they were, all that they wanted, and all that they could do.

They felt the human bend the pool to their will. Something that had only been done once.

This human was not as powerful as the Grimm Queen.

They were so much more.

Tendrils of black fluid soared out of the Pools of Grimm, surprising the ones standing outside of it. The tendrils of dripping black blood connected themselves to the Evernight Castle, ripping it to pieces, and changing it, creating a tall, blood red tower that rose from its ashes. Red spiked walls began to stretch out and form a massive circle, stretching up high and mighty as the red walls of stone, metal, and Grimm matter dug themselves deep into the ground, creating an underground maze of tunnels and rooms.

Within the crimson walls, tall trees of black and white, with red leaves and fresh fruit, began to rise from the ground, kicking up rock and dirt. Rows and rows of red, black, and white flowers began to grow out of fresh soil, giving off sweet smells of fresh fruits and perfumes as they grew through the mud and Grimm chitin matter. Fields of green grass grew within the spare spaces, and rivers of black sprinkling water travelled down and through the garden. Freshly made birds and bees coloured black and red began to fly and buzz around the garden, picking at its fresh fruits and pollen, and taking them for their own needs.

Within the garden, tall spires of white and purple rock and crystal stood up and formed into cathedrals, summer houses, monasteries, farms and waterwheels that funnelled and churned the black stream water, as well as glowing purple ridges made of crystal interconnected into a spider web like pattern in the air between the tallest buildings. On the ground, stone and dirt pathways were lit by bony red, white, and black lamps made of Grimm chitin, each one giving off a white glow, and the pathways themselves were illuminated by a strip of purple light that guided those who walked it to wherever they may wish to go.

The sky began to shift and churn, the world beyond the clouds changing from an oppressive crimson to a swirling pattern of blue and purple. The shattered moon changed its hue from red to blue and purple, and the clouds became lighter and less bleak, shifting from black to grey. Whatever science or magic went to explaining all of this, the Grimm were not blessed enough to know, but they could see the truth. Their truth.

This human- This once thought insignificant bug- Had bent and dominated the Pool of Grimm, the very lifeblood of the Brother of Darkness' creations, and moulded it to her will, shaping it and controlling it.

This human had proven themselves to be so much more that the hybrid whore that they once called the Grimm Queen, taming the powers of the gods and creating a veritable Garden of Eden within a keep of crimson.

This human had created a place of life itself, where flowers made of ideas and ambitions grew, prospered, and grew stronger still.

This human had created a paradise.

And the Grimm loved them for it.

It was then that the human tamed the Grimm, bending every creature of darkness on the planet to their will, to their superior might of thought, and severed their ties with the old Grimm Queen. And it was then, that they showed the Grimm their ambitions.

Oh, what ambitions they were. What plans they were.

The human, their new god, crawled out of the Pool of Grimm, a butterfly fluttering out of their mouth and into the air as they did, and instinctively lunged at the old Grimm Queen, before stopping themselves. Internally, they smirked.

If the Grimm could smirk themselves, they would've as well.

The human dropped to their knees and bowed before the old god, maintaining the illusion that all was proceeding as she had envisioned. Ever the blinded idiot that she was, she bid them to rise, and they did, to which, she gifted them a new name.

The Daughter smiled, though it was not for her. The Grimm knew who.

All would proceed as planned. Soon, all would be remade as it should be. Not destroyed, not removed. Remade. Perfect, and pure.

The Daughter's creations continued to pour out. A few humans that had been captured before were thrown in. They did not share the same power as the Daughter, so they were consumed and mutated into growling, blubbering monsters. The Daughter tried to shape their new forms, but to not much success. Oh well, work in progress. There was still time to improve.

A few of the Daughter's creations gathered around her, birthing a new, holy trinity.

And it was on that day, that the Ascendant Court was born.


	9. Aftermath part 1: A Brave New World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle is over, but the Second Great War has just begun.
> 
> Scars have formed, war has been declared, and everyone is now dealing with the aftermath.
> 
> What was once a clear future has become an uncertain path...

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Arc Theme:**[ _The Last of Us main theme_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2UOwvUQ8L0) _  
_ **Theme:**[ _The Death of Vladimir from the Battlefield 3 soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_YXSinKblA)

* * *

_You forget what you want to remember,  
_ _and you remember what you want to forget_

**Cormac McCarthy, _The Road_**

* * *

We thought we were doomed.

The numbers of the Grimm were never ending. Like a tidal wave of darkness crashing down on us. Endless.

An infinite ocean.

Then, came salvation.

Our leaders- Whom you may know as High Command- Lead us through the hell that we had been thrown in, and brought us that salvation. Floating lifeboats, airships, hundred or more so, soaring down from the sky to gift us succour in the face of death itself.

But before that, came the great culling, where we would be cut down from 2000 to half, and then to 500, and then to 300.

And once more, we thought we were doomed.

And yet, each time, there would be one who would stand above all of us. One and only one. In the face of annihilation, the snapping, salivating maws of the Grimm tightening around our throats, there would be one who would rally High Command, and the rest of us, and lead us down the path of hope. There was one who proclaimed that once we were free from the nightmare that had been forced upon us, that a monument be made to those who had fallen to the talons and claws of the creatures of the night. And when the Grimm were staring us down, when all of us cowered in fear and exhaustion, tears in our eyes and blood dripping from our forms, it was he who stood up first, spitting out a wad of blood, and staring down death itself with the fires of defiance irradiating off of him, the rest of our leaders standing up next, bringing forth hope to us all, and reminding us of the beauty of life itself.

It would be Jaune Arc who would lead us through the valley of death, with cannons to the left of us, and cannons to the right of us, volleyed and thundered, and it would be Ruby Rose, the Angel of Silver, and Melanie Malachite, the God-Killer, who would stand with him. And from that, we would be rescued from the grasps of evil made physical, and once more, given the gift of love and life itself.

_**Extract from Entry 1 of the Hunters Tale, written by Cipher** _

* * *

_The sky was pitch black, with no stars or moon in sight, with only clouds made of fire populating the air. Within the forest of the dead, the leaves of the black trees and grass were coloured blood red. Shadows moved across the trees and the ground, and black fire burnt away the wood and bark and the grass on the ground, only for them to grow once more, just to burn all over again. The water on the ground was as black as the sky, flowing here and there across the ground. Red butterflies swarmed all around._

_Jaune wandered through the dying and reviving forest, a lonely vagabond walking through a barren path in a valley of trees, interrupted by puddles of black water. His being was made of his own fear, his own horror, and his own sadness. He could feel anything but. There was no love here, no hope, no happiness. Only evil itself._

_As he marched through the rotten bastardisation of the Emerald Forest, he passed the rotting corpses of all that had died because of him. His father, his grandfather, Emerald, Cardin, Kay Nin, Boombox, Sun Dance, Flashback, so on, so forth. Flies adorned their rotted, diseased forms, red staining black, dripping and wet. Their eyes traced and followed him as he walked, judging him, condemning him for his sins against them._

_He made no effort to stop them._

_The valley widened, and within the dark plain, a manor stood. His family home, the Arcadia. The first Arcadia. Around it, the fields were filled with crops and flowers, white and yellow. At the door, his family stood, his mother, sisters times 7, stepsister and her child. They waved to him, beckoning him closer, wishing to gift to him happiness and comfort, love and understanding, all that was good, and all that was anti to the Grimm._

_Jaune couldn't stop a smile breaking out onto his face, nor could he stop his legs from picking up speed and sprinting him towards. He felt hope when he saw them, and a cherished happiness, strong enough to whisk him away from this nightmare place and take him away to a selfish safety, away from this horror and death and red and black and white._

_He reached his hand out as he ran, and his mother did the same, and he ran faster, drawing them within arms reach. The sky began to change to blue, the fires dimming, and the grass and plants turning green. Becoming a treasured paradise._

_He was so close to them, the fingers of his and his mother's almost touching._

_Her eyes rotted away._

_Jaune came to a stop as the image of his family froze, their eyes rotting and fading away, blood pouring from their empty sockets and mouths, and their skin began to bubble and melt into red gore, pouring down onto the ground, and turning to rot. Even Adrien was not safe as he, and the rest of them, were reduced to the bare, bloody skeletons, which then turned to rot themselves and faded away. Around and behind them, the Arcadia was consumed by fire, and turned to ash, the flowers withering away under the heat, and the sky turned to black once more, the hellfire raging around him burning any semblance of hope from them._

_He fell to his knees as the puddle of gore of his relatives found itself under him, looking down and seeing his reflection in the meaty red puddle, and then to around him, gazing upon the still burning ashes of his old home, rising up and up and up, all around him, creating a dome of flame and hell-blaze. Within the fire, eyes looked at him, some of them singular and coloured red, the others in pairs and purple._

_A sound cut through his broken mind, and he looked up. Standing in the ashes of the first Arcadia, was the lone figure of Miltia Malachite, perfect and flawless. Without looking over the ashes, or moving her eyes away from the kneeling boy, she tilted her head to the side, and went, "This was a happy place once. A sinless place. Now, it is a land of spilt blood and lost dreams. Of loss and horror. All laid bare, at the hands of a boy... At the hands of you."_

_Jaune didn't reply. He just looked at her, tears streaming down his face, unaware that he was crying blood._

_Miltia took a step forward, her foot stepping into a pool of swirling red and black, and sending ripples out throughout the puddle. She straightened her head, and looked down at the boy, "Why...? Why did you leave me?" she took another step forward, "Why did you leave me to die?"_

_This time, Jaune had something to say, letting out a sullen, and trauma ridden, "I... I tried... I tried to save you..."_

_"No you didn't."_

_"I tried!"_

_"Then you are worthless for failing", Miltia cut him off with, "Worthless, in the end. Your cowardice and selfishness allowed me to die. You, let me die. You could've done something to save me, and yet, did you? Did you save me, worthless thing? No. You let me die, because you were too weak, stupid, and selfish to do anything", she lifted her hands. They were covered in blood, "You killed me, O worthless thing. My blood lays at your doorstep."_

_She took another step forward, her heel leaving 2 circular ripples in the black/red water._

_"What was it you wished to be, Mr Arc? A hero? A saviour to appease your ancestors?" she chuckled, "Pathetic. Viola did say that heroes don't exist, didn't she? Your was nothing more than a child's fever dream from the start, fitting of a child such as yourself. And even if they did, then you are a failure at that as well", she cocked her head to the side, "Your father was a hero. Your grandfather was a hero, and so was his father, from Michael Arc, to Joan, to Jehanne, to Callixus, to Jeanne d'Arc. They are heroes, they are welcomed into the kingdom of heaven."_

_She stopped right in front of him. He looked down to the ground._

_She continued, "But you, Mr Arc, false king to none, you are not. You will never be welcome into the kingdom in the clouds, for you are no hero. You are a murderer, direct or otherwise. You are a failure, and a pathetic one. A miserable waste that has your ancestors avert their gaze in disgust, disappointed in such a failure of a child", he didn't see her, but he knew she was smiling, "You know, I would say that the best way to appease your forbearers would be to kill yourself, as such a better person would do, but, we both know that you would fail at that as well, because that is all that you are, Mr Arc. A failure. A worthless, miserable, pathetic, failure, who's death would bring nothing but celebration from others."_

_The puddle with bits of meat and bone underneath Jaune began to bubble._

_"And if nothing else, you have blood on your hands. Sins. You have sins upon your soul. Perhaps it is time to pay for them."_

_A hand shot out of the bloody puddle, grabbing at his throat, and pulling itself upwards. The form of Ruby Rose lifted itself up from the red gore, eyes hollowed out and blood pouring from the empty sockets and a wide, open mouth, with the left half of her body bubbling and bleeding. Around him, broken hands and fingers began to claw at him, the bodies of Yang, Blake, Nora, Ren, Melanie, Flynt, Neon, Pyrrha, Weiss, Ciel, and so many others, all of them with empty eyes and wide, blood foaming mouths and gory open wounds. They clawed at his body and pulled him over, front up, back to the puddle, and staring at the burning orange sky. Around him, figures completely engulfed in flames marched out of the dome of fire by the dozens, some of them Disciples, one eyed and black skin bubbling and scabbing in the heat, the others Chimeras, monstrous humanoids covered in purple boils and scabbed armour._

_Jaune then saw Miltia standing over him, eyes hollowed out, and blood pouring from hollow sockets and an open mouth shaped into a psychotic grin that revealed too many rotten teeth and reached too far to her ears, so far that her skin was splitting open like a dagger's cut and drawing blood. Her skin was burnt and torn and bloody, with her stomach open and her intestines visible and flowing out. Bone jutted out of her limbs, and her head was tilted to the right in a way that should not be physically possible, her neck snapped with the broken bone leaving an imprint underneath the skin. Above her, the Brothers Grimm loomed, snarling and salivating, each of them drenched in red._

_Miltia's grin widened even further, and a pair of bloody butterflies wormed their way out of her eye sockets and covered them like eyelids._

_"Please, burn in hell for your sins, O murderer mine."_

_With a mangled hand, she placed it against Jaune's chest, and pushed him down into the pool._ _The walking corpses that emerged from the pool helped to force him down into the red, murky depths, all of them smiling and laughing as they did, as if it were nothing more than a children's game. Perhaps to them, it was._

_All he could see was red as he was pulled down and down into the deep abyss of blood. It flowed into his lungs and body and began to drown him. He tried to crying out, but it was like acid, tearing his flesh and bone apart piece by piece, inch by inch._

_All he could do was silently scream as he was torn apart, his fading remains falling downwards and downwards into the endless abyss..._

* * *

…Until he wasn't, as he jolted out of his bed, screaming and crying as a gentle hand guided him back down, his breath wheezing and his body spasming under the thin bed sheet.

That same hand, along with another, cupped his, firmly, yet gently, and through his teary eyes, he looked to the side, to see a familiar face, with sapphire blue eyes stained red, long, straight blue hair, and red cheeks with tear tracks adorning them.

"Viola?"

* * *

_Sunday (6 days after the Initiation Massacre)…_

* * *

It had been 6 days since the Initiation Massacre, and things were looking grim for the Kingdom of Vale.

1700 initiates- 1700 children of Remnant- Had died in that great slaughter. Thousands more had died in the air battle as well, their bodies falling to the ground and becoming one with the mangled corpse of the countryside. So far, the casualties had been estimated to be 10,000 or 20,000.

Ever since then, major and minor settlements around Vale had begun to fall, overrun by new and old Grimm types, and leaving very little to no survivors. Just this morning, the second largest settlement of Communo, next to the city itself, had fallen to the Grimm. There were rumours of intervention by the Acolytes of the Ascended, but otherwise, there were no survivors out of it's once 4,000 numbered population.

The Emerald Forest and the surrounding areas had been completely flattened by the battle and the resulting clean up operations, and the fires had finally faded away. Teams of Hunters were still scouring the area, on the lookout for any Grimm that were still alive, and any clues as to how the Grimm had gotten into the Emerald Forest, and on the lookout for any bodies that they could take back to Vale, and give a proper burial.

Pockets of Grimm were still wondering about, and some of them had started staging probing attacks into Vale's walls, trying to break through, though they were quickly dealt with. Not too long ago, a group of Grimm had breached the walls and had staged a 2 pronged attack on both the central Valerian prison, and the Greater Valerian Medical Centre. The GVMG attack had been repelled with no Grimm survivors, but the prison attack had resulted with every guard and prisoner within slaughtered with impunity.

Within the walls of Vale, hopes were not high. The martial law had come to pass, but tensions were still high, and Atlesian police forces still occupied the city alongside Valerian military personal, effectively making Vale a de facto police state.

A freshly new status quo made even harder, thanks to the remains of a prototype Atlesian wide range signal jamming device being found in the remains of the Emerald Forest.

Meanwhile, across the world, Grimm attacks had started to escalate, though now, they had changed and evolved. New Grimm types, such as Disciples, Barons, Priests, Guardians, Rocketeers, Juggernauts, Pumas, Long-Shots, War-Beasts, Life-Givers, Dreadnaughts, Vetols, Carriers, and Ascendant Beowolves, had taken to the field, were replacing already existing Grimm types, and had begun to implement military tactics and strategies in order to inflict the most pain on human and Faunus settlements. Some other settlements fall due to internal problems, the Valerian settlement of Communo serving as one major example. Hunters across the world were beginning to fall to the new Grimm forces. Military forces began to expand and deploy across Remnant, and tension began to build between the kingdoms. Within the Grimmlands of Mistral, the Bandit Confederation tightened its grip on the settlements that it controlled, and across the world, PMCs, private armies, and local militias began to arm themselves up once more in the face of the Grimm invasion.

Now, everyone had accepted this as the beginning of the Second Great War.

For all, what was once a clear and easy future, had become an uncertain, and dark path.

* * *

_4 days ago (Wednesday. 2 days after the Initiation Massacre)…_

* * *

"You were suppose to protect those children, Ozpin!" _yelled the councilman over the holographic display,_ "That was your job as headmaster, to make sure that none of them were brought to harm! And now over 1500 of them are dead! On your watch!"

"Not to mention all of the men and women who died up in the air trying to save them!" _went a councilwoman,_ "10,000 people dead, and that's just the body count so far! And most of them were our best armed forces and personnel! Some of our best Hunters were on those ships, and they died! Plus 3 fully armed airships destroyed, one of them taken over by the Grimm! Now we have no adequate way of defending ourselves and our settlements, all because you were not doing your job!"

_Ozpin, for once, made sure to properly pay attention to the council as they continued on, their usual bile for once being justified. He used his aura to supress his gnawing headache, knowing that since the pain itself would return stronger than ever later on, but not caring. A subject such as this, the horrid mass killing of children, deserved his utmost attention and respect._

_Ozpin started off, "I couldn't have known about this-"_

"IT'S YOUR JOB TO KNOW!" _cried out the same councilman,_ "It is your role as the headmaster of Beacon to be aware of the Grimm numbers and locations in Vale in order to better protect those that are learning there! How could you not have known about this!? About this- This... SLAUGHTER!"

_"The Grimm had been digging underground, councilmen and women", Ozpin replied, "They had been hiding their numbers in the tunnels, and-"_

"Stop making up excuses, Ozpin!" _another councilman went,_ "There were thousands of Grimm in the Emerald Forest! Thousands! That large of a Grimm gathering does not go unnoticed! And the different varieties of them, from all over the damned planet, and even the new ones! There were even reports of a fucking Blind Worm down there! A Blind Worm, a Grimm that is only native to Vacuo! How the hell do you miss that!?"

"Sirs, ma'ams" _, went the voice of Ironwood over his holographic projection in Ozpin's office. His voice stopped the councilman's tirade, and they all stopped to listen to him,_ "From what we have gathered from our reports so far, is that these new Grimm types are considerably more intelligent than before. And the tunnel network that we have been told of and are still investigating are expansive, and seemed to have been constructed over an extensive period of time, so it is clear that they have planning this attack for a long time, and-"

"Oh, so that's an excuse, now?" _another councilwoman asked._

"It's a reason, councilwoman, and a logical one. None of these new types of Grimm had ever been seen before, and only made themselves known in the Emerald Forest. Not only that, but they appear to have a sort of leadership in this 'Ascendant Court', if the reports and witness statements from the initiates are accurate, not to mention the black substance in the bottom of the tunnels that, if the accounts of the initiates are to be believed, seems to be able to spawn Grimm at the most, and is something to do with the Grimm at the least, perhaps answering how they were able to gather an army under the Emerald Forest, and now, it seems that the Grimm are even able to take control of entire airships, judging by the actions of the _Winchester_ throughout the battle."

"Your point, General?" _asked a councilman._

"My point is that there were too many unknowns and elements to be able to predict what was going to happen on that day, and too many to be able to make an accurate judgement of anything that happened as well. We cannot make any kind of proper judgement for" _, Ozpin noted the hidden hint of distain in Ironwood's voice as he said the next bit,_ "Or against Ozpin" _, the slight frown on his face faded as he continued,_ "Because we just don't know the facts. We don't know what these new Grimm types are. We don't know how long they had been planning this attack. We don't know what they're planning now. We don't know how they were able to amass an army beyond our notice. We just don't know. And we cannot know, because, from the looks of it, they never gave us a chance to see the facts. There are too many questions, too much speculation, and not enough answers for anything. Once we have the facts and answers to our questions, or at least as many as we can gather, then we can make an accurate judgement, but until then, we shouldn't be jumping to rash decisions or conclusions so quickly. Calmer heads have always prevailed."

 _In the face of the council, it was a flimsy excuse, and Ozpin- And Ironwood too, he supposed- Knew it. But it seemed to be enough, and after a brief, hushed murmuring from the rest of the Valerian council, the head of the council, one Mary Williams, went,_ "Fine. Fine. You're in, Ozpin. You can stay" _, she sighed, before going,_ "You've got good friends, headmaster, and before this week, you hadn't proved yourself too incompetent" _, there was a harsh growl, and they continued,_ "But know this, Ozpin, screw up, anger us and fail like this again, and you're done. I don't care how many friends in high places you have, you screw up this badly again, and you're out" _, he could hear her grimace behind her hidden projection, and then go,_ "Now, if you'll excuse us, we have an important call with the Atlesian council in an hour, and then we must discuss the passing of Venta Winchester and how to let Napolea know. General Ironwood, we trust that you'll be there?"

"For the first meeting? Of course. I look forward to seeing you there" _, Ozpin could tell that the lie came easy for him. Having to mingle with the upper echelons of Atlesian society would probably do that to you. As the blank faced images of the council flashed off, leaving only the holographic projection of Ironwood and Glynda in the room, the general and headmaster of Atlas loosened up, and he went,_ "Well, I suppose that could've gone better."

_"Thank you, James", Ozpin said, his shoulders loosening as he leaned back into his chair, "That means a lot."_

"It's no trouble, Ozpin" _, Ironwood said,_ "And besides, we both know that this is too important a position of yours to lose. Not with the future of everything at stake."

_"Mm", was all Ozpin could say to that, the weight of everything on his shoulders suddenly more heavy than it ever was before, especially now, with the more recent... Developments..._

_He eyed the stack of papers on his desk. Death certificates and soon to be written letters to the families of the deceased. Most times, when it came to paperwork, he would leave it to Glynda to handle (He always had important headmaster business to deal with, of course), But when it came to writing about those who had died under his care, he felt that it was better that he write them himself._

_It didn't stop him from hating it, though, because he did. He really did. He hated writing about the dead. He hated writing to those whom had lost loved ones. He hated it oh so much, because each death of a Hunter, or a student, or any person under his care, was a personal defeat for him. It was another defeat against him, and another victory for his ultimate enemy, in her quest to destroy all life on Remnant._

_Salem, queen of the Grimm._

_What was she doing? What was all of this about? Why attack the initiates if she had an entire army of Grimm of all sorts of shapes, both new and old, hidden underneath the Emerald Forest? Why not use them to attack Vale, or Beacon? Why not use them to lay siege to Vale and Beacon, and take the Maiden in the basement?_

_The answer to that seemed to be in this new 'Ascendant Court', and the fact that they seemed to be the new leaders of these Grimm._

_This, however, only left more questions than answers: Where they minions of Salem? Her pawns on her chest board, or_ _something else? And what did they want?_

_For the last question, he suspected he had an answer. Or 2, for that matter._

_Anyways, too many questions, with not enough answers, and it only left him with a bigger headache that not even his aura could sooth, as he moved the stack of papers to the centre of his desk with a sigh, and then took the first paper off the top of the pile, reaching for his pen._

"Where is Qrow?" _Ironwood asked,_ "I mean, I am aware that he tends to go out of contact for long periods of time, but...", he sighed, "Given the situation, he should be in this meeting, or at least as Beacon."

_"I don't know", Glynda said, her eyes casting down, "I assume that he's... Well, I want to assume, but... I think we have to assume that he isn't coming back..."_

_"We can't think like that, Glynda", Ozpin went, pen not touching the paper, "Qrow is one of the most reliable people out there, and an extremely competent agent, bad luck semblance aside, and this isn't the first time that we've jumped to the conclusion of his demise. Remember Sumire?"_

_Glynda shuddered, "Ugh, don't talk to me about that incident, I still get a migraine just thinking about it."_

_Ironwood chuckled, and then looked at Ozpin's desk. The headmaster of Beacon knew that he didn't need to tell him what it was, for he just gave a solemn nod, and went,_ "Even still, despite the council's... Crassness, they do have a point. How did we not see this coming? We have the best spy network in Remnant. We should've at least seen a sign of this."

_"This Ascendant Court group seems to be excellent at concealing themselves, if nothing else", Glynda pointed out, "Though the question is, how did Salem acquire such powerful Grimm? And why use them now, and in the Emerald Forest, to boot?" Ozpin could tell by the look on Glynda's face that she was trying to look at this all as analytically and dispassionately as possible. Say whatever one wanted about her, but to say that she didn't care about her students, if they were even only beginners, was a absolute disrespect and completely fictitious lie, "Was it to make Beacon look incompetent? Or was it because of Miss Rose and Mr Arc?"_

_"A few of our initiates that survived, such as the one called Skipjack, did mention that the supposed leader of these Grimm, the apply named Daughter, did seemed to have a vested interest in Mr Arc", began Ozpin, who, without signing it, for there was no kin to report the death to, slid the paper of Emerald Sustrai to the side, "A greatly vested interest indeed..."_

_He looked back down to the paper, the face of a black skinned girl with red eyes and mint green hair adorning the top left of it. Emerald had been a stray orphan- A pickpocket and troublemaker that Ozpin had found on the streets many years ago, and had given a home in Beacon. He'd given her a place in Signal, so that she could have some semblance of a life, and had really given her all that he could give. He hated to see a young girl, or anyone, waste away on the streets, ready to be picked up by anyone with less than ideal intentions. After a while, Ozpin had started to see the young girl as something akin to a daughter, and, in a faint sense, he had hoped that Emerald has seen him as something similar as well. Call it prideful, but it was nice to be something akin to a father figure again, after so long._

_And now, she was dead, her body rotting away in the Emerald Forest, ravaged and desecrated by the Grimm, and picked apart by the crows and vultures._

_Ozpin wanted to feel angry. He wanted to feel enraged. He wanted to feel the feeling of wanting to tear down the skies and rip apart the heavens in the face of her death, to march up to Salem's palace and rip her apart with his bare hands for what she had done._

_Instead, all he felt was numb. A cold numbness that did nothing but zap away his feelings and his emotions. He had been walking this world for so long, so many hundreds of years, trapped in this endless curse, and had lost so many loved ones along the way that all he could feel was numb, and he hated Salem for that most of all._

_Taking a second to chew his bottom lip, he looked back up and asked, "Speaking of which, how is Mr Arc? Is he-"_

_The intercom buzzed, interrupting them, and Ozpin pressed a button on it to accept the call, seeing the caller ID and understanding who it was from. The boastful voice of Professor Peter Port came through, going,_ "Oh Ozpin, I'm so sorry, I tried to stop her, but I couldn't. She proved to be a rather tough rapscallion, and she was able to get past me! Oh, goodness, this reminds of that fight in Forever Falls, where I fought off that swarm of Rapier Wasps with nothing but a stick and a pair of-"

_Before Peter could continue on, Ozpin, rather alarmed, interrupted him and went, "Pardon, Professor Port? Who managed to-"_

_The elevator dinged, and the doors opened up, revealing a blond woman with piercing sapphire blue eyes, narrowed and glaring down right at him, fists clenched and shaking._

_"You...", she snarled, before charging out and throwing one of her arms back for a punch, "YOU BASTARD!"_

_Glynda threw her riding crop up and caught the girl's fist with her semblance, a purple shine coming over the balled hand as the girl squirmed, reaching out with her spare hand at the headmaster, swiping and trying to scratch him with her claws as she stood a foot beyond his desk after her sudden charge._

_"Let go of me!" the girl yelled, "Damn it, I said let go! This old shitbag needs to pay!"_

_"Ah, Viola Arc", Ozpin eased his shoulders, and tried to amend himself, hoping to not sound as cold and clinical as he just did, "I assure you that-"_

_"You said that he was safe!" Viola snapped at him, "You said that Initiation was the safest thing on the damned planet! You said there was no way my little brother would've been hurt in the slightest!"_

_Ozpin sighed, remembering the call that the both of them had on the night before Mr Arc left for Beacon, according to Ms Viola Arc. On that night, she had called Beacon and Ozpin himself to inform him about Mr Arc's faked transcripts, though Ozpin already knew after reviewing them, and contacting the teachers at the school which he supposedly went to (Shelter Academy in Mistral). They did seem like they were trying a bit too hard to be inconspicuous, so he had his suspicions._

_However, despite all of that, he had seen much potential in the boy, both due to what he could gather from Jewel about him, as well as his past lineage in the line of great warriors that had come before him (A certain maiden armed with only a sword and shield came to mind). And so, with that, he had then decided to let Mr Arc come and partake in the Emerald Forest initiation, seeing as while he was physically weak, and not exactly the smartest person out there, he had the makings of a great Hunter within him, and had reasoned to Viola over the phone that if he did indeed pass initiation, then he had the potential to attend Beacon and become a Huntsman, and if he instead failed, then he would be taken to Ozpin's office and given a stern lecture about lying and falsifying transcripts and risking his life attempting to reach beyond his actual capabilities, and then sent back home safe and sound._

_Viola Arc had, for lack of a better term, not taken this offer well (Neither had Glynda, both on the principle of allowing a boy to waltz into Beacon under false pretences without punishment, and for throwing said boy, who himself lacked the proper training, into a dangerous location filled with Grimm, and clearly unfit for a civilian). He had received quite the verbal tongue lashing from the Arc sibling, and learnt a few new cuss words as well, but Ozpin had reassured her that the Beacon Academy initiation was the safest thing on the planet, and that there was no way that her brother could come to harm._

_How well of a reassurance that had been._

_Ozpin looked back to Viola, still seething at him, to which he could only say, "_ _I couldn't have known what was going to happen that day-"_

_"You could've tried!" she snarled back._

_"...Yes", he resigned and said, "I suppose I could've..."_

_"Where the hell were you during that fight?! When my brother- My brother!- Was laying down his life to the dogs of the Grimm!"_

_"I was trying my best to rescue your brother, and the rest of the initiate-"_

_"Hah! Whatever helps you sleep at night!" Viola snapped back at him with, "Don't be coy, old man, everyone with half a brain cell knows that it was the Valerian soldier boys who saved my brother, and everyone else, flying up there in the air, while you were wherever the hell you ever were! Where the hell were you, anyways? Sitting on the side lines, sipping from your dainty little teacup of pussy juice like the spineless bastard you and your dogs are?"_

_Ironwood balked at this, and Glynda snapped back with, "Show some respect, will you! We didn't want what happened to happen, and we were doing all that we could to rescue your brother and the initiates!"_

_"You should've done more then!" Viola snarled, "More than just slink away like the rats you all are!" she turned back to Ozpin, "This is why I didn't want my brother to be a Hunter, because of people like you. Decrepit, fat old men, sitting away in their ivory towers, skulking away, while everyone else dies around them to the Grimm, dying a folly's death just so that they can keep hoarding themselves away and call each death a fucking victory, because that's all that you are, Ozpin. A fat, decrepit, old, bastard."_

_Ironwood went to say something, but Ozpin gently waved it off, not taking his eyes off of the 2nd eldest Arc sibling, his face impassive, and unmoving. If Ironwood or Glynda thought that he should be offended or defensive against her words, or something along those lines, then they would be... Well, he wasn't sure if they'd be disappointed, but nevertheless, Ozpin didn't feel that towards Viola. He knew that her words were honest, and founded on grave worry for her sibling, as well as true rage against him, rage that he considered justified, considering that he had allowed Mr Arc to go into the Emerald Forest, and couldn't do more to spare him from harm._

_As was the same for every other child and person who'd died in the Emerald Forest, and in the skies, and in the plains of Vale._

_"Your brother is in the Greater Valerian Medical Centre", Ozpin began, gently pushing aside the stack of papers a nudge, trying to supress the numbness, and then continuing with, "But he is currently sedated, so that his wounds could heal, both naturally, and with his aura", Ozpin noticed the look of brief look of confusion on her face, but he continued, "So he most likely will not be waking up for a few more days, at least until he was healed to a good enough degree."_

_Ozpin gestured to Glynda, and with a sigh from the headmistress, the purple hue surrounding Viola's fist faded away, and she took a few moments to rub her freed hand, before looking to Ozpin, and muttering, "Bastards, all of you... You and your pets...", b_ _efore turning herself around and marching to the lift, "I'm taking Jaune home as soon as he wakes back up. Until he does, I'll be staying with him in the GVMC, so you'll know where I'll be."_

_"Is that really what he would want?"_

_Viola stopped in place, right outside of the open lift, "Me being with him? I think not."_

_"I mean you taking him back to your home", Ozpin never liked having to manipulate people. Despite how much he seemed to have to be doing it nowadays, he never took any pleasure from it. Only cold emptiness that only added to the numbness. He would never understand how Salem could do it so easily. But unfortunately, such times called for them, and he had to swallow his disgust at himself every time that he did it, "He seemed to wish so much to be a he-"_

_"Don't", Viola turned back to him with an angry snarl, and growled at him, "Don't say that word. 'Hero'. Fuck, I hate that word", she bit the bottom of her lip hard enough to draw blood, and she licked at the crimson smudging on her lips, before going, "I've hated that word ever since my father died, and when Saphron and my mother started telling him those stupid stories about 'Heroes' and their pointless stupid sacrifices and deaths and heroic last stands and all of that unrealistic bullshit, and I've had it with it. This place", she slammed her hand against the side of the lift, "Is nothing more than a breeding ground for that poison, that toxic ambrosia, and I will not let my brother have any part of this hell."_

_Ozpin sighed, "You would not allow your brother to achieve all that he wish-"_

_"If crushing my brother's dream, smashing them into pieces and pieces more, is the only way to make sure that another Arc doesn't waste away and die on battlefields decided by rats like you living in their glass castles, and is able to actually live a happy, peaceful life, away from the fear of loosing anyone that they love and hold dear, all for the sake of people that will never care for them, or know them, or appreciate them for the blood they have spilt, and the sacrifices that they have made, all for the false peace of the kingdoms, and all for the mindless samsara of this world, then please, where the royal fuck is the hammer?!" there were tears welling in her eyes as she spoke, her cheeks reddening as she backed into the lift and went to push one of the buttons on the side._

_"I'd watch your tone, if I were you, Ms Arc", Glynda sternly said to Viola as she tapped one of the buttons, the lift letting out a little {DING}, "You cannot just do whatever you want here."_

_Before the lift doors shut, Viola mirthlessly chuckled and said, "Then allow me to prove you wrong."_

* * *

_Now..._

* * *

It was raining.

That was the first thing Jaune noticed when he woke up from his medically induced coma, hearing and seeing the pitter patter of the rain landing against the window, the dark cloudy sky obscuring any light that was able to get through.

The second thing that he noticed was the painful sting that ran through him, specifically around the areas where Viola's arms came into contact with him as she threatened to crush him like a can as she bearhugged him. A sharp intake of breath and a groan, both from him, was what got her to stop.

"Sorry", she went, rubbing the back of her head with her one hand, and using the other to wipe away the tears across her red cheeks, "I'm just-", she stopped herself to move her hands to her lap, "I'm just glad you're awake. I'm glad you're okay", she paused, and looked down to the bed that he was sitting in, and then back to him, "As okay as you can be, I mean", she then gained a concerned look, and went, "Er, you... You do know who I am, don't you?"

He couldn't help the light smile coming across his lips, and he went, "A girl who looks and sounds stupidly like my sister's?"

She sighed in relief and chuckled, "Oh, well, that's good, that's good. I was worried you might be- Well, I was worried you might have memory loss, or something like that."

"Hm", he hummed, before taking a deep breath, and going, "How...", Viola leaned forward a nudge as he muttered, "How did... I... How did I get..."

Then, the memories flooded back to him. Images of the Emerald Forest came to his mind, followed by the mindless slaughter that came with it, as well as the Ascendant Court, the tunnels, the Daughter, the Blind Worm, the last stand, the Beringel, Emerald, Sun Dance, the aerial battle up above, the Brother Grimm, the Persephone, the _Grimm Tidings_ , Flashback, Boombox, Cardin, the hold, being stabbed...

Miltia…

Being hauled into a Dropship...

The Daughter breaching the ship...

The Dropship crashing into an Air Bus...

Fire, smoke, a blinding white light...

And then nothing...

And then now.

"Oh..."

"Er", Viola scratched the back of her head, "You don't... You really don't remember..."

"I do now", Jaune weakly replied...

"Oh..."

He paused, staring up at the sterile white ceiling, and said, "I should be dead..."

"Don't say that", Viola almost scolded him, "Never say that. Please, for the love of god, just be glad that you're alive."

It was then that Jaune's mind caught up with his senses, and he slowly lifted his head with a wince, and looked around him, to see that he was in a hospital ward, and sitting in a hospital bed, himself dressed in pale blue garments, his body housing few bruises, and some parts of his arms and- He could feel it with his hands- His torso covered in pure white bandages, with some sections of them stained a pale red. Around his bed, others had been set up in formation, with a line of them on each side of the room, itself lit up by several ceiling lights and the faint rays of murky and obscured sunlight that crept in through the windows. The beds were covered in pale blue sheets and quilts, and the walls were stained a pure white, with each bed having a heart monitor on each side, as well as an IV drip. Some of these beds were occupied by others, most of them asleep, though there was one bed that was occupied by someone who seemed to be awake, but his brain was still somewhat lagging behind his senses, and he found himself unable to see if he could recognise them.

He let his head fall back down, letting out a tired sigh as he let his eyes flutter close in exhaustion, suddenly finding the rough and uncomfortable bed to be surprisingly pleasant.

Then, the images of everybody in the Dropship came back to his mind. The faces of Ruby and Pyrrha and Melanie and everyone else flashed before him as he lifted his head up and went, "The others...", Viola raised an eyebrow, and Jaune elaborated, "Everyone else, who got out of the airship... And in my- In my ship... What... What happened to them..."

"They're still alive."

That voice wasn't Viola's.

The 2 Arc siblings looked in the direction of the sound, to see, in the same hospital bed that Jaune noted but a few moments ago, a girl dressed in a similar hospital gown, with sun kissed hair, surprisingly cut short, and a weak smile on her face, who then gave him a single wave, "Hey", went Yang Xiao Long, letting her hand fall limply down and bounce on the bed. Strangely enough, there were a pair of glowing purple lines ending horizontally on her cheeks, and stretching down the sides of her jawline and down her neck. Her eyes seemed to glow a pure royal purple.

"Yang", Jaune went, a smile creeping along him again, "I'm glad you're okay."

"Heh, yeah, me too", her smile waned, "Well, as... As good as I can get, I guess, what with my", she stroked her shortened hair, "With my luscious, beautiful hair gone", she chuckled, "Ah, damnit, I really liked that hair. Oh how it shall be missed", there was little humour in her voice. She paused, and then looked at him, "What about you?"

He let his head fall back onto his pillow, "Everything hurts."

"Heh, yeah, I bet", Yang remarked, then sighed, "Just be glad you weren't turned into a-a cyborg... Or something like that..."

Jaune lifted his head up and raised a worried eyebrow, and asked, "What do you... What'd you mean?"

Yang sighed, and turned herself around in her bed, back facing him, and then...

Proceeded to take her robe off.

Jaune blushed and began to stammer something, hiding away behind his hands, whilst Viola let out a flustered squawk and started yelling at Yang to stop.

She slowly fell silent a few moments later

After a few seconds of massively awkward silence, Jaune peeked between his fingers, and then let them fall from his face as he stared at Yang's bare back, the robe dropped to the bed, showing spiralling down the centre of her back, a grey and glowing purple cybernetic spinal column that seemed to be built into her spine, with glowing purple patterns built and patterned into her body, down her arms and legs, and covering the sides of her torso, shoulders, and thighs. Scars covered her body, adorning them like unwanted trophies, specifically forming around the metal implants in her back.

Yang began to explain, "A Hunter's aura can heal their wounds, yeah, but they need to be relatively manageable. I don't really know the science of whatever behind it- I never really paid attention to science mumbo jumbo stuff like that- But sometimes the damage to a person, even with good ol' aura, is too great for any amount of magic soul juice to heal", she moved her arm to behind her back and felt the metal. He imagined it to be cold, "In my case, my spinal column was stabbed real early into the Emerald Forest fight, and that shorted out my nervous system, or something. All this metal and cybernetic stuff right here", she patted the metal spine, "And in the rest of my body's now the only thing keeping my nervous system up and running, and replacing what was left of my old spine, which had to be, you know, removed, and such. Too broken to do anyone any good", Yang turned her head to look at him and went, "Techion doctors and scientists and stuff. Do wonders, they do."

A wave of guilt came over him, and he went, "Oh god, Yang, I-I'm-"

"Don't. Don't be sorry", she went, "It was my fault, and mine alone. You've got nothing to do to it, so, you know, don't beat yourself up over it, and all that."

That didn't help at all, "Um, what... What about everyone else? What happened to them? Did they all make it out as well?"

This time, Yang's answer seemed to be that slight bit more mirthful, "Yeah, yeah, they all got out fine. Most of the survivors are, well, they're sorta fine at this point. Most of them got only minor injuries that their aura could heal up during the fight, and they've only got cuts and bruises and scars now. Perks of aura, I suppose. Don't have to worry about hospital bills. The other guys and girl, like me, got permanently debilitating injuries, and have been either at the Greater Valerian Medical Centre like you and I, still under or still awaiting surgery for their injuries, or they've already had surgery, and had been taken back home, either in Vale or back to their native kingdoms."

"...What about Ruby?" Jaune began, "What about Melanie? And Nora, and Pyrrha, and- And everybody else?"

"Oh, er, they're fine, they're fine", Yang responded, "They're all in Beacon. They're doing well, but Melanie... Well, she... She hasn't been talking to anyone... Not anymore..."

"..."

Jaune wasn't sure as to what else to say. He tried to come up with something to try and appease her. To make her feel better about... He didn't know... Everything? Something? Something at least, hopefully.

Nothing came to his mind. He couldn't think of anything. Not even a old quote from some long dead philosopher, or whoever. His mind had gone blank.

"...I'm sorry", finally left his lips in a murmer, and from the looks of it, both Yang and Viola heard him.

"Hey, what'd your friend just say?" Viola went, putting her hand on his shoulder, "Don't blame yourself. None of what happened on that day wasn't your fault. It was never your fault..."

"...The Daughter had wanted me..."

"Huh?"

"Back in the Emerald Forest... And at the _Grimm Tidings_... The Dropship... The Daughter had come, with the Ascendant Court... She'd come for me... She said so herself... She came for me...", he put his hands to his face, "This is all my fault... I let them all die..."

Viola grew a confused and worried look, "What do you... What do you mean?"

They were interrupted by the door to the hospital room opening up, and looked to the entrance to see a rabbit Faunus in a nurse's outfit walked in, a clipboard and pen in hand. She looked to Yang's bed with a smile, and then to Jaune's, her eyes widening at the sight of him being awake. Jaune mused that she was mildly surprised to see him awake, but not in a bad way, as she gave him a happy smile and went, "Ah, you're awake! That's good, that's good", in what seemed to be a Nothern Valerian accent

Jaune then narrowed his eyes and went, "Hey, er, you were the one- The one on the Dropship..."

"Oh. Oh yes, I was, wasn't I?" she went, feeling the elbow of her left arm, before continuing, "My name is Velvet Scarletina, by the way. I'm a nurse- Well, I mean, I'm a Huntress. A Huntress in training, of course, but I'm- I'm also training to be a nurse, and all that", she made a little motion with her hands, "Yay for me."

"Heh", Jaune went, "Yeah. S'good to have a profession like that, I suppose", Viola nodded in turn, still giving Jaune a worried look.

"Ah, well, yeah, yes, thank you, I-I guess", 'Velvet' went, seeming a bit shy, but continuing on, "A-Ah, how are you feeling, may I ask?"

He jokingly repeated, "Everything hurts", Yang chuckled, and Viola hit him on his shoulder, earning a wince from him.

Velvet timidly continued as she approached, "Er, well, your wounds have mostly healed now, save for a few minor ones, all thanks to your unusually large aura reserves, and the doctors just need to run a few more tests on you, now that you've, you know, woken up. If they come up positive, then, I believe that you should be able to leave by tomorrow morning, maybe earlier, maybe later."

Jaune's smile widened, and he went, "Ah, thank you. Thanks. That mean- That means a lot."

Viola, however, seemed to be impatient, "Can he get out of here any sooner? I- Well, I wanna get him home. As soon as possible, preferably."

"Ah, I-I'm sorry", she went, prompting Viola to give her own apologies as well, giving the girl room to breath, so that she could turn to Yang and go, "Um, Miss Xiao Long, the- Oh, your robe is, er, on the... Nevermind", she went, "I get enough from Coco for more than one person", she sighed, and then continued, "Your doctor is ready to perform her lasts tests for you. If they're good, then you'll be able to leave tonight and head back to Beacon."

Yang seemed to be a bit more giddy at this as she threw her robe back on and got back onto her feet, wobbling around uncertainly, looking not entirely comfortable with the mechanics that had been grafted into her body, her glowing eyes and the purple highlights around her shifting to red briefly as she grabbed a nearby bed for support, before taking Velvet's hand and beginning their walk out, Yang looking back to Jaune in his bed and waving, "See ya later, heh?"

"Er, y-yeah", Jaune went, "Yeah...", he looked to Viola, "Maybe..."

Before they left, Jaune heard Velvet quietly say to Yang, "And the police need a statement from you... About what happened to Iris."

"What?!" the blonde girl went, her eyes and glowing highlights glowing red, "But I was-"

"I know, but we both know what you previously did to...", she sighed, and went, "Look, the rest of the staff and I can vouch for you, but they're still suspicious. I know it's not fair, but after what you did to her when-"

"What, no! I was-"

"I know why you did it, but...", she caught herself, spotting both Jaune and Viola looking at them, and began to drag Yang out of the room, "C'mon, let's go", closing the door behind them as they left, leaving both of the siblings on their own, save for those in their beds, still safely tucked and sleeping away.

Jaune looked around, unsure of what to say, or do, next, before finally asking, "What about everyone else?" to Viola, "What about Mum? And Saph? And the others?"

"Ah, our siblings. They're still in Jewel, in the Second Arcadia with Mum. Apollo's with us in Vale as well. He'll be waiting for us tomorrow so that we can head back home, back to safety, away from this damned kingdom."

Jaune tilted his head at this. The Arc family, back in Jewel, served as part of it's town council, alongside Apollo, the leader of the House of the Golden Sun, and as such, certain members of the family, such as himself and Viola, could pull rank on members of the Golden Sun, which they respected. It also helped that the Arc family was pretty well liked and respected amongst the people of Jewel, due to a multitude of reasons. And besides, Viola had already proven herself long before to be an incredibly capable leader, helped along by her stunt against a raid from the Bandit Confederation at the Ship breaking Yards in lower Mistral, so to hear her ordering about members of essentially an independent armed militia wasn't a surprise to him.

However, that was not what had caught his attention.

"...We're really going back home?"

Viola looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "Well, yeah... What else can I do? Leave you here?" she shook her head, "No, not you, not here, not now, not ever.

"..."

Even if he wanted to, Jaune couldn't protest. He could do nothing but allow the overwhelming guilt for everything that had happened in the Initiation Massacre, and for everyone who had died by his hands, direct or otherwise, wash over him and suffocate him. He had no place within the halls of the great. He never did. He didn't deserve one. Not after failing all those that he could've saved.

However, there was one more thing he had to do. He had to make sure that everyone back in Beacon was alright, for certain, with his own eyes. He trusted Yang's word, yes, but he couldn't leave Vale until he knew for certain that everyone was safe, that everyone was okay. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't.

"H-Hey, Viola?" he began, his sister tilting her head to the side in response, "Before we- Before we leave, I need to... I need to visit Beacon."

Viola shook her head and gave him a incredulous look, "What? I mean- What?" she shook her head again, "No. No. No way."

"Viola-"

"I'm not leaving you to those vultures", she argued, "I'm not letting them take another tithe of blood from our family. I'm not letting them take another life from us for their endless samsara, just so that they can uphold a rotting status quo. No. Never. Not again. So there, Jaune Arc. That is my answer. No. Just, just no."

"Viola", Jaune stopped her, "I know that- Well, it's pretty obvious, but I-I can't leave without- Without saying goodbye."

"O-Oh", Viola went, "Ah, right. I don't...", she paused, considering it, it seemed, before turning to him and going, "You know why I can't... I don't think that's a good idea. I just want to get you out of here. Maybe it's best to just... I don't know... Leave them here... I'm sure they'll... I'm sure they'll understand."

"Please, sis", he hardly called her 'Sis' anymore, only when something important had come up, "I can't leave. Not yet. Not until I can be sure that they're all okay. That they're all safe. That they'll be fine."

"That Yang girl- The one that had just been in here-She'd said that they were fine. That they were all fine and dandy, and shit."

"Swear", Jaune went, before going, "I just... I just need to see for myself... I know it's selfish, and I know it's myopic, or whatever, but-"

"It's not selfish", Viola went, "It's never selfish to wish to know that someone is safe, and it's definitely not-", she caught herself, and sighed, before replying, "Fine", whilst nodding, "Okay, fine. Sure, we'll- We'll head up to Beacon for a bit. But only for a bit", she pointed to him, "A few hours, and that's it. No more. Then, once you've all had your little pow pow, we're off back home, got it?"

"Y-Yeah, yeah, sure", he went, "Thanks, sis."

Viola smiled, and patted him on the shoulder, "Yeah, you're welcome, kiddo", she sighed again, "Just trying to look out for you, is all."

"Yeah... I know", he went, "Love you."

"Love you too, lil' brother."

They clasped their hands together and gave a protective squeeze. She refused to let him go for quite a while. He didn't mind so much, only that he was pretty sure that her tight grip was stopping the blood circulation in his hands.

It was only when Viola let go of his hands, allowing him to shake them out to try and get rid of the pins and needles, did she finally ask, "Hey, um, earlier, when you mentioned a daughter... What did you mean...?"

"..."

"...Jaune?"

* * *

It was only late into the night, when the doctors had finished most of their tests, to which Jaune had passed from what it looked like, and said brother was deep into his slumber in the plain hospital bed, did Viola finally contemplate the possibility of sleep, as the rain finally stopped, allowing the soft, fresh moonlight to fill the room as the clouds gently floated away.

He hadn't told her everything that had happened 6, now 7, days ago, and he hadn't pressured him to tell, so there was a lot that she still didn't know, but at least she knew a few details. She knew that there was a group of Grimm called the Ascendant Court. She knew that it was lead by someone, or something, called the 'Daughter'. She knew that for some reason, she seemed to be interested in her brother.

She knew that the same monsters in black and white that'd destroyed the first Arcadia had been there, and had hunted him and the rest of the Hunters.

She knew that a lot of people had died, all of which he blamed on himself.

She knew that he blamed himself for all of this.

She knew that the Grimm had emerged in mass and had slaughtered so many people.

She knew that someone that was supposed to be with Jaune- Perhaps someone close?- Had died.

What she didn't know, was why.

Why? Why was this all happening? What did this Daughter want with her brother? Why were the Brothers Grimm there? What were these new Grimm types? WHy hadn't anyone predicted this? Why did so many people- So many children- Have to die? And why were they killed in the first place?

What was going on?

So many questions, not enough answers. Jaune might not have told her everything, but she knew that he didn't have those answers. He was just as in the dark as her. As everyone else.

She had been watching the news while Jaune had been going through his medical examinations, through his trials and tribulations. She'd put it on after calling Apollo, telling him about their change of plans. She knew she shouldn't be watching it. The news cycle nowadays tended to be nothing more than useless tiff and depressing rubbish about how everything was horrible and stuff. But she figured that whoever was presenting might know something useful, might have some new titbit of information that could help them answer all of these questions.

Nothing new. The news anchors were baying for answers as much as she was, filling up their runtime with talks and conferences filled with speculation and debates and arguments and talking over each other and censored contumely and so on and so forth (Save for the news of a settlement called Communo falling to the Grimm earlier in the morning). There was never anything on, especially when she was trying to starve off the grating boredom and the nervous worry that something had been hunting her brother and she had no idea why or how to keep him safe of if it was coming for the rest of her family and-

Ahem.

She sighed to herself. She should've put her foot down. When her stupid idiot of a brother decided to go galivanting off on his merry little adventure to become a dead man walking, she should've put her foot down. She should've done more than just ring up Ozpin, the useless idiot that he was. She should've... She didn't know. Actually, no, she did. She should've smacked him in his stupid face and kept him in his house and called up literally everyone that she could so that they could smack him as well and let him know that his non-existent plan of becoming a Huntsman was a hilariously stupid plan and would get him killed and he should just stop and become a fucking baker or something. Anything to keep him away from the tooth and claw of man and Grimm alike (Honestly, was there any real way to tell the difference anymore?).

Except, that would've have worked now, wouldn't it? It was only on the day that he was leaving for the Jewellery airport that she discovered her siblings' betrayal, Doris, Jenna, Rouge, and Saphron all. Instead of actually looking out for their brother, they instead decide to sell him off to the kingdoms. Might as well buy him an early grave, why don't they? Hadn't their father's death at the hands of those Grimm maggots been enough? Hadn't it shown them the truth of this endless conflict betwixt man and monster? Nothing would come from it. Nothing good, at least. Only death. Black and white, dark and light, good and evil, all that would come from this endless cycle of war and peace and war and peace was the promise of suffering, and a brief, pointless life, filled with nothing but pain and regret.

She didn't want that for her brother. She didn't want that for anyone she knew or didn't know. No one deserved that life. No one should want that life. An existence filled with nothing but maddening pain and the spectre of death lurking just around the corner- The life of a Hunter, the life of a soldier, the life of a warrior- Was not a worthwhile existence. Not worth it for someone so young.

That, and the violence that came with it. She didn't understand why so many of these Hunters- These fighters and killers- Could derive such pleasure from the sport of the kill. The rush of death, the sounds of blade hitting blade, of a bullet reaching its target and reducing it to squalor, a Hunter knew all of this and felt nothing but excitement and joy. They only knew how to see the perverse pleasure in battle, the joy of cracking their fists against jaws and breaking bones and skulls and souls and lives.

It was disgusting.

How could someone find such joy in the theatre of war, when there was nothing but death to find in that play? Viola had tasted it, and had hated every last second of it. Every time that she picked up a sword, or a gun, and every time that she used it, she wanted nothing more than to vomit. She hated combat. She hated violence. She understood that sometimes it was necessary, sometimes it was called for, but she loathed having to commit to the act. She would fight if she had to, and she definitely could, in her humble opinion, but she never liked it. She never enjoyed it, and could never understand why any good person could, much less a Hunter.

If anything, she found the Hunters to be somewhat sociopathic, or even psychopathic. It was the only possible explanation that she could find for it. That, or a detachment from regular life. She'd heard that Hunters trained from a very young age to become the warriors that they sought to be (So, child soldiers, basically), So she supposed that they had to have a major or minor detachment or alienation from civilian life in order to properly operate, less they be tainted by the joyous poisons of normal life. But that would've brought with it a sort of love for the fight, right? After all, it would be all that they know, wouldn't it? They would know the joy of a fight because they would be taught nothing but the joy of a fight. Hunters were essentially just a bunch of sociopaths who exist only for conflict because conflict was all that they knew, and all that they were born for.

She wouldn't have that for her brother. She would've have that for Jaune. She wouldn't let him devolve into something less than man. Something like a Hunter.

And now, she didn't need to worry. Come tomorrow, once he got his frustration and guilt out of his system when he saw that everyone at Beacon was (Probably) Fine, they would leave this poisonous place behind, and go back to Jewel. Back home. Back where he would never come to harm ever again.

She would make sure of that...

(She pushed the thought of the woman with the white cloak out of her head as she made this vow...)

A fitful moan, followed by a rustle of bedsheets, and she looked to the side, to see her brother fidgeting in his sleep, a scared frown upon him as he whimpered and spasmed in bed.

Another nightmare.

She grabbed his hand and pulled it closer to her, leaning towards him and whispering a sweet lullaby that she had made long before (Along with the white cloaked woman), And after that, she whispered reassurances to him as he quivered in his sleep, telling him that everything was fine, that the bad things were gone, that he was safe.

She didn't know which were truths or lies.

* * *

_The next morning..._

* * *

"Ow", Jaune went as he made his way out of the lift and began to walk out of the atrium, Viola helping him along, having accidently gotten hold of his still healing wound in his side in trying to support him, "Sis, that's a- Ow. That's a tender spot."

"Ah!" she went and withdrew her hand, moving her other one to his shoulder instead, "Sorry about that. I- Hey, careful!" she took a firmer hold of his shoulder as he wobbled uncertainly, "Careful. Don't run when you only just learnt to walk."

"I've known how to walk since I was a year old", Jaune joked, before almost stumbling forward, only stopped by Viola pressing her hand against his chest and keeping him up.

"Yeah, but you just had half of your stomach ripped out, lost tons of blood, and you've been in in a coma for less than a week in a single bed. So you haven't walked in ages, and you haven't had any good food or drink, save for about, oh, half an hour ago, so I wouldn't hold my bet."

Jaune winced, and then conceded her point with a nod, having looked over himself earlier after he had been given breakfast by the hospital. He looked a slight bit gaunt, and was exceedingly pale, with dark bags under his eyes, and rounds of bandages covering his still ragged, broken, and red skin in his abdomen. He felt stiff, his muscles were cramped and only just unlocking as he moved, and small patches of red skin, bedsores, were only just fading, thanks to some cream and his aura. Honestly, his aura seemed to be the main thing that had been healing him throughout his coma, if the doctors were correct. If it wasn't for his aura, having been doing its best to heal all of the damage to his body while he was snoozing away, he might've been covered in even worse bedsores, and his body would, for obvious reasons, be in worse condition than it was now.

If it wasn't for his aura, he'd be dead.

…

One more reason to remember her.

Not that he would ever forget.

Viola had asked him how he'd gotten his 'Magical soul power forcefield thing', but he hadn't given her an answer. To her credit, she hadn't pressed her for one.

His old clothes- His shirt, undershirt, sock, trainers, jeans, the whole lot that he'd been wearing on the day. Even his beloved jumper (He'd really liked that jumper. Took him so many freaking cereal boxes to get them)- Had to go. Too damaged, too much blood and dried gore stained into them. Right now, he was wearing old clothes- A plain blue t-shirt, black hoodie, and track suit bottoms, with a pair of white socks and plain shoes- That'd Viola had gotten from a charity shop. They were loose, only just fitting him, but he was thankful for them anyways.

They found themselves at the entrance of the hospital, and Viola opened up the door, allowing the fresh sunlight of the early morning to blind Jaune as he covered his eyes, trying to adjust to the light. Slowly, he was able to open his eyes as he felt the sun hit his face, his mouth tasting the fresh air, and his ears hearing the sound of his feet hitting the puddles on the concrete.

His eyes finally pushed past the blinding light, and he could see the world around him. More specifically, the car park that he found himself in. The car park was, unsurprisingly, almost packed, save for a few sections covered with scaffolding structures (In fact, some of the roads had what looked like burn marks in them, as well as some of the walls, which were currently being painted over). Between the car park and the road and pavement, there was a small line of trees, several of them looking burnt, and a few of them having been cut down, either cleanly or leaving behind broken stumps. On the road beyond this, there was a large blast mark around a large sewage grate, and was surrounded by road work gates and scaffolding, with men working on them. At the entrances and exits to the hospital, scanning gates and checkpoints were set up, manned by fully armoured Atlas soldiers wielding Bren 2 Ms' and BRN-180s, as well as AK-130s, whilst around the pavements and surrounding roads of the hospital, Atlas military police and droids stood in place or patrolled. Scattered across the car park, pavement, and roads were small puddles of rainwater, reflecting the sunlight from the now almost cloudless sky, whilst a flock of birds settled on the edge of a building, looking down on the car park below (Actually, it was as if they were... Looking directly at him...).

In front of the patio to the hospital, a single black coloured car- Looking like a rental- Was parked. The windows on the car came down, and inside, the faces of Sara Marin (A dragonfly Faunus with 4 insect wings in her back) And Narek Zoran (A polar bear Faunus, with gentle white fur covering his body and bear paws for feet), Members of the House of the Golden Sun, greeted them, Sara giving a quick wave and a smile.

Jaune waved back, and then looked to Viola, gesturing to the burn and blast marks across the ground and asking, "What happened here? Why's the ground all burnt up?"

She shrugged, "Apparently there was a fight out here. Before we got here. A breakout of Grimm tried to fight their way into the hospital, but were wiped out", she muttered something about a prison, and then went, "All the more reason to leg it out of here", before opening the car for him, "C'mon, let's get to the airport."

Jaune nodded and clambered into the car, the door closing behind him as he buckled himself into the backseat and waved to the 2 Golden Sun members in the front of the car, "Hey Sara, hey Narek."

"Hey J", went Sara with a smile, her see through wings fluttering and twitching now and then.

"You good?" asked Narek, unconsciously rubbing the clawed nails on his hands together.

"As good as I can be, I guess", he went as Viola got in the car, shutting the door on her side and buckling herself in.

"Thanks for waiting for us out here", said Viola, "You didn't wait for long, did you?" Sara said that they weren't, "Ah, that's good", she checked that she was buckled in, and went, "Alright, Apollo should be waiting for us at the airport. Let's get going."

And with that, they were off, passing through the checkpoint (That took a few minutes longer than it should've. Jaune did hear them muttering something about Wolves and Faunus), And then off onto the main road, and through the city of Vale, seeing the sights and only just hearing the sounds as the car droned over them.

The buildings of Vale seemed to be designed and based on the old architecture of the Victorian Era (Named after Victoria Emera, the scientist and mathematician that helped to jumpstart the first Industrial Revolution on Remnant), With old sweeping buildings and halls lined with golden strings of metal and brown and black stone, pious cathedrals scattered here and there, with stained glass windows with religious figures featured in the walls, and large towers that almost touched the skies, guarded by gargoyles and statues that stood as silent sentries, built in the images of old warriors and knights and kings. Large bridges for railways loomed over the sky, with electric and steam trains chugging across the tracks up above, creating a spiderweb pattern of bridges and shadows over and in the city. The streets were made of smoothed over cobblestone and slate, and the pavements were lined with stop signs and traffic lights, as well as holographic lanterns modelled in the same aesthetic, as if it were a merging of the 2 eras that Vale seemed to be locked in. In fact, it was as if time in the city had frozen in place long before the Great War, and had never been freed and been able to move on. That, or the people of Vale were still nostalgic about the Great War, and hadn't moved on from then.

In the streets of Vale, there were dozens of people scattered across the pavement, moving here and there as they went along with whatever business they had to attend to. Human and Faunus intermingled as they moved, most of them dressed in casual clothing, jackets and jeans and t-shirts, though a few of those who walked in and out of the cathedrals and fancy halls wore suits and dresses that looked as if they were woven from gold and silver, some of those rich clothing coloured in indigo and cyan and other exotic colours. In the dark alleyways between buildings, where graffiti was written on the walls in yellow and red and blue, figures wearing masks and hoodies hid away their pocket knives and spray cans, satisfied with their recent pickpockets and colourful vandalism. In the marketing district, where sweet shops and bakeries, along with hairdressers and clothes ships and so on, lined the streets, shoppers filled their bags with whatever they could, piling up the boots of their cars with as much as they could fit in, nervously looking from side to side as they did.

Whist they did this, Atlas military police roamed the streets, helped along by AK-130s that clunked along with UGVs, whilst camera drones and Dragonflies hovered over the streets, with improvised checkpoints operating in main streets and manned by Atlesian soldiers, and camera polls set up around corners, looking over the streets with a watchful eye. Above the spiderweb pattern of train bridges, small Atlesian frigates, known as the Aequitas-Class frigate, patrolled the airs, guided along by Verity-Class fighters and Vulture drone helicopters, whilst floating high above the middle of the city, an Atlesian Saviour-Class fighter/Bullhead carrier airship- A massive airship built with a angular, rectangular hull, with a large control tower shaped in a half circle sectioned atop a small, wide bridge, and 5 glowing blue engines built into the back, with a hanger bay placed on either side of its hull, and another one built facing forward, built just under the bridge of the ship- With the name _Endurance_ written into its hull, hovered in place, with fighters and Bullhead variants popping in and out of the massive airship, like a beehive letting its residents in and out.

Across Vale, there was an air of unease all across the city. The looks on all of these people's faces were that of fear, and unease. Everyone was looking over their own shoulders, trying to spot anything out of place, their eyes darting from left to right as they hurried along as quick as they could, eyeing the Atlesian soldiers with suspicion. The airships up above cast a dark, oppressive shadow over the city, and some of the streets were even completely devoid of anyone, save for a few people closing their windows as the car that Jaune was in passed.

Jaune himself was saddened by this, seeing that everything, and everyone, was just so miserable. Everyone was suffering, and constantly looking over themselves, out of fear of the Grimm or anyone and anything else. It was like all happiness that once existed in this place had been sucked away by the Grimm, eaten up and spat out at their feet, only to be replaced by fear and depression. Another failure by those who were meant to protect them, the Hunters and the warriors.

He felt the car turn around a corner, as a roadblock of stop signs and hazard gates blocked the way into the centre of the city. Jaune raised his eyebrow, and asked out loud, "What's that all about? Did something happen in the city centre?"

"Er, yeah, yeah", Sara nervously went, as next to her, Narek continued to focus on the road, "Last night, while you were, um, while you were asleep. There was, well there was an incident. It's dealt with now, so it's not important."

Instead of querying further, Jaune just nodded slightly, and went, "Okay... Alright then", and stayed quiet, looking out of the window as they drove along. Viola gave him a worried look, but didn't say anything, herself unsure of what else to say.

The ride was quiet after that.

* * *

The short flight up to Beacon aboard the House of the Golden Sun's custom Bullhead- The Hawk Gunship- Was quiet as well, as he sat next to Viola in the wide hull of the ship, feeling the vibrations of the ship travel from the floor to his feet, the harsh ripple of sound from outside of the hold breaching through the side bay doors as it flew over the great lake that was the Tears of Pegasus, and up to the flat cliffside, where Beacon Academy stood. On the other side of the flat hold, Apollo Amar stood tall and dressed up in his full white and gold body armour and clothing, one of his 4 hands holding onto the support rails built into the ceiling of the Gunship, his cape swaying side to side behind him, whilst his 2 swords clunked against his armour, and below them, his 2 ML-17 heavy pistols stayed strapped into their holsters. Next to him, 2 Golden Sun members, fully dressed in the trademark blue and white armour, with pauldrons and belt-capes, held onto the ceiling rails as well, their ML-15Es and electostaffs clipped onto their backs.

Apollo had tried to make small talk with Jaune earlier, back in the airport, which he had appreciated, but found himself only able to give small, hesitant answers, to which Viola had told him to slow down with the questions, which the 4 armed Faunus respected, though it left the both of them in a bit of an akward position as they waited for Viola to finish her call at the airport. Actually, they could've left earlier when they were cleared through the airport to their ships, but Viola had stopped to call Ozpin to let them know that they were coming, wherever he wanted them up there or not.

But still, they were heading up to Beacon now, and by the time that the Gunship landed, which would probably be a minute or 2, there would still be a few hours or so that Jaune could use to find as many people as he could, so that he could see how they were doing, and then say his proper goodbyes. It was the very least he could do, he supposed.

He felt the Gunship lift up, and then down, gently thudding against the ground as it landed. The side doors to the bay opened up, allowing the light and cold breeze of fresh air to flood into the hold, the soft wind swirling in between each strand of hair as it moved, like the waves in an ocean.

"C'mon", Viola patted him on the shoulder, compelling him to get up, "We've only got a few hours, and I suspect there'll be someone waiting for us out there."

Jaune nodded, and made his way out of the Gunship, and onto the docking pad that sat on the cliffside to Beacon Academy, noticing Sara and Narek's personal Verity fighters, coloured grey and blue, with the logo of a Golden Sun painted just below the cockpit, parked on either side of them, their wings flipped around in their landing position as the 2 of them climbed out of the cockpits in their full body pilot suit, their ML-15As clapping against their waists as they moved.

He looked forward, to Beacon Academy itself. He remembered being here, over a week ago. He'd gotten off of the airship from the Valerian airport at this exact spot, and had gone on to...

Well, wasn't exactly the best day, but it wasn't exactly the worse day, either. All he would say about it, was that first impressions were a pain.

He heard a faint tapping of heels hitting the ground in a formal pattern, along with a 4 patterned tip tapping of small feet, and looked down to the main avenue (There were still faint traces of the crater from Ruby's explosive introduction) To see a familiar witch- Miss Glynda Goodwitch- Pulling along an also familiar black and white corgi- Beacon's official mascot- By a leash, spotting the newly arrived ships that had landed in the docking bay, and came to greet them.

Jaune suspected that, thanks to Viola's recent call to him, Ozpin had informed her of their arrival, and those suspicions would be proven true when she reached them, and went, "Quite punctual, you are. I will admit, that is a quality that I do admire."

"Yes, well, I don't believe in fashionably late", Viola shrugged, as the 2 pilots of the Gunship opened their cockpits to get some air, "And I'd rather arrive and leave here sooner rather than later", she shrugged again, "Reasons."

"Yes, I suspect so", Miss Goodwitch went as she readjusted her glasses, whilst the leashed corgi, now spotting Jaune, let out a bark, jumped up a little, and went up to the now former knight, putting its paws against his shoes and looking up at him with a happy series of barks and pants, his tongue draped out of his mouth.

"Er, woah, er, hey there", Jaune said as he knelt down to pet the small dog, "Um, lemme see", he took hold of the dog's collar, looking at the nametag and letting out a laugh as the dog's tongue licking against his hand tickled him, "Oh, er, say's Zwei on here."

"Woof!"

"Woof indeed", he chuckled, and then ruffled 'Zwei's' head and fur, "Hey there, buddy, nice to meet you."

The dog seemed to agree, as he jumped up and rested his paws against his legs, panting as Jaune ruffled his fur a little, getting a happy bark from him as he went and licked his hand again.

"Ah, hey! That's tickles", Jaune smiled as he gently pulled his hand away from the dog's salivating mouth and wiped it against his sleeve, chuckling and then going, "Well, aren't you a good boy?" another happy bark leaving the dog.

"Excuse me, good sir, but the simplistic title of 'Good boy', does not begin to describe all of the bestest goodness that is held within this goody goodily goodest boyest of all good boy dog persons!" went a voice that Jaune was sure spoke nothing but the truth, despite the poor grammar, and he looked to the side to see a group of Beacon students approaching them, most of them he recognised as being from the Emerald Forest and the Grimm Tidings.

Mixer, Steam and Hammer, Skipjack, and Scrapster, he recognised, though they had gotten a few new upgrades. Steam and his pet mechanical bird Hammer looked mostly the same, save for a few cosmetic modifications to their mostly steampunk outfit, and a new top hat with an old Victorian lamplight built into it. However, the 3 Techions that were with him had the most extensive body modifications to them.

Mixer was now sporting a much more blocky and armoured form, with thicker metal limbs and blocky shoulders, the cannons on his back being slimmed down and fitting over his shoulders, and his shields being replaced with 2 prongs that jutted out of his arms.

Skipjack's armour was slimmed down, and much more smooth compared to his old jagged, sand coloured armour, for he was now sporting a silver paintjob and glowing blue highlights. His mechanical crab like claws were slimmer and smoother, with the glowing blue circle within them now a hexagonal shape, and his 4 robotic legs having 3 joints now built into them instead of 2, the joints having a glowing blue light in the middle of them, and the limbs covered in silver metal, with a streak of glowing blue lights going down each of them. His head and rabbit ears were once more the only visibly organic part of him, but his hair had been cut much shorter now, just above his ears in length, and his rabbit ears seemed to be bowing forward a bit.

Scrapster, meanwhile, who had been almost melted in the Initiation Massacre, had the most radical redesign, with the only similar things between his old design and his new form being the green and purple colour scheme with the glowing purple lights, a pair of wheels on his shoulders, and another pair on the lower half of his legs. He was much more humanoid now, and his head was no longer as rounded as it once was, now more square shaped, sporting a triangular faceplate, and replacing the 2 red optics with a glowing red visor. His 4 pronged claw hands were replaced with now regular hands, and his feet no longer resembled construction shovels, with those shovels built into his knees and into his shoulders, above his shoulder wheels, which themselves were split into 2 by a metallic strip of black and yellow metal. On his back were what looked like 2 grey pistons that were pushed upwards, and in his chest, replacing the singular glowing gear symbol were 2 yellow spotlights, with the gearwheel symbol of the Techions.

With them, were 2 other individuals, or rather, one girl and one robot. The girl was a head shorter than Jaune, and was completely covered in dirt and oil, with curled pink ear length locked dirtied by grime, and black shirt and jeans that had more than their fair share of holes in them, with a belt filled to the brim with tools and pouches spilling with wiring and springs and nuts and bolts and whatnot. Next to the grimy girl with the 10,000 gigawatt smile was an rusting AK-130 drone that looked like it had been made completely out of spare parts, with mismatching coloured limbs- A white chest and head, a black torso with a black strap of metal messily nailed onto it and a black waist, a white right leg, mismatching gold and rusting silver arms, a red left leg that seemed to have been salvaged from a AK-B2, a red right hand, and in the place of its left hand, a series of repair and welding tools- With harsh, cracked yellow lights replacing the previous red, and sounds of loose plating and nails bouncing about followed it as it moved.

The group of 6- Or 5 and 1 bot. Whatever- Stopped by the docking pad, and Skipjack waved, "Yo, boss! What's up? You doing good?"

"Yeah, yeah, hi! Nice ship!" went the girl with the curled pink hair, "S'custom, isn't it, cause I've never seen this design before! Oh, I love it! Does it use a DMX-Suppressor coil for stabilisation? Does it run on Dust or electricity, or something else, cause I'm testing a new electrical grid theory in the Forge and I'm trying to perfect it for the big wigs in Atlas and OH! Are those ELXTC-Fission Propulsion Generators?! Me wants! Gimme gimme gimme!" she went as she sped past Jaune and everyone else and started geeking out about the Hawk Gunship-

A tall, slim Bullhead like ship painted in grey and blue, with 2 cockpits placed on the top of the slanted down front of it, with 2 chin mounted cannons below it, and 2 wings that dropped at a 45 degree angle placed at the top of it's body above the bay doors, with a pair of cylindrical engines connected above them, and a machine gun like cannon fixed into the Gunship's back.

-Going off on a flurry of jargon as the 2 pilots, still sitting in their cockpits, listened in thoughtfully.

"Actually, it runs on a FISHER-Fusion Reactor. S'much higher quality power", said one of the pilots, "Got this baby and her siblings made from a shipbreaking yard down in lower Mistral, and we got our Verity ships from the yard as well", this got the pin haired greasy girl and the pilots to begin exchanging vast amounts of technobabble that Jaune decided to just pretend that he understood, as actually trying to understand all of that mumbo jumbo would probably give him a headache.

He then spotted the mismatched AK-130 looking down at him, and he waved to it, "Er, hi there."

The robot tilted it's head and let out a musical, _"~Hello~It's me~"_

"...Er… Did it just speak to me in Adeline?"

"Ah, ignore that old hunk of junk", the pink haired girl chirped, "Paul can only speak in song lyrics. I've been trying to get him to talk like a normal person, but that old lugnut been nothing but stubborn about living his life in a musical."

'Paul' then just slumped down, and chirped out, _"~An end fitting for the start~You twist and tore our love apart~"_

"Ah, don't be so droopy, you walking mood", the pink haired girl walked up to Paul, and then looked down to Jaune, and said, "Sup, I'm Mei Dei! Resident inventor, scientist, and right now, the smartest person in the room!"

"""""Hey...""""", went everyone else.

"Er, we're not in a room", Scrapster pointed out, "We're outside. Professor Heliotrope kicked you out of the Forge because you hadn't gotten enough sleep. Like, at all."

"Huh, then I guess that makes me the smartest person in the room!"

"Er…"

"And by room I mean the planet!"

"""""Hey!"""""

"And this beautiful bucket of bolts", 'Mei' went as she ignored everyone else and placed herself next to Paul, "Is my greatest creation- Next to my soon to be complete fighter prototype- Paul! Made just from spare parts, he's a fully functioning, top of the line, 100% working next generation robot!"

She patted Paul on the arm. The arm disconnected from it's joint and fell to the floor with a metal {THUD} and a squirt of black oil.

"It was meant to do that", Mei said as she picked up the mismatched arm and smiled, before tilted her head to the side as she looked at Jaune and went, "Actually, was your name again?"

"Oh, er, it's Jaune. Jaune Arc."

"Oh, I love it! It's short, sweet, rolls of the tongue! Oh, the ladies are gonna love it!" she chirped.

Jaune heard Viola slap her hand to her face and mutter, "How much did you pay her?" followed by a chuckle from Apollo.

He then heard a sigh from Miss Goodwitch, who then whistled and called Zwei back to her, and then looked at Mei and went, "Miss Dei, may I ask why you and your friends are out here."

"Professor Heliotrope booted me out of the Forge because apparently 30 minutes a day isn't a healthy amount of sleep, or whatever, and these guys followed me, then I saw that big old beauty of a ship and-"

"Miss Dei, I would advise you to clean yourself up and go to bed. Preferably for 8 hours."

"Aw, I don't need sleep, Miss! I've got so many things to make and do, and-"

**_"Go to sleep."_ **

"Yes ma'am!" Mei went to the incredibly and absolutely most goddamn intimidating woman on the planet as she began march off in the opposite direction, away from the docking bay, dragging Paul, Steam, Mixer, Scrapster, and Skipjack along with her, whilst Hammer fluttered and flew overhead. After a few second, Mei shook her head and looked back to Jaune, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot! Hey, come down to the Forge later, okay? We've got a few things to give to you!"

Jaune was able to push past the heart rapidly beating in his weak old chest from the terrifying woman near him to let ou a stammered, "Er, right, but-"

"Oh, and we finished that memorial that you wanted built, boss!" called out Skipjack, "S'up near the garden! Just ask one of the Professors to take you there!"

"Oh, okay, but I'm not-"

But it was too late, for they were already beyond earshot, and speeding down the avenue walkway, towards the gates to the dorms and central tower that made up Beacon Academy.

"...Oh", he went, "Okay then..."

"You have got some rather... Peculiar, people at this place, don't you?" Viola asked Miss Goodwitch with a hint of exasperation in her voice. Miss Goodwitch just sighed and muttered something beyond his hearing, but not beyond Viola's, apparently, "Well, I would rather keep to that way, if you would please", she then turned to Jaune, who was now picking himself off of the floor, and went, "You've got 3 hours, lil' bro, at the latest, okay?" she got a nod in response, "Good, good good. Alright then", she walked up to him, and patted him on the shoulder, "Go on then, go find your friends. We'll be waiting here until you get back", she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and looked back at him with fond eyes, "Love you. little brother, just want you to remember that."

He rubbed his cheek with a soft smile, "That's emotional manipulation, sis. Emotional blackmail at its finest."

"Eh, if it works, it works", she took a step back, and allowed him the chance to walk off, "Go on, 3 hours, no later. We'll be here."

Jaune nodded again, "Thanks, Viola", and hesitantly turned around, facing Miss Goodwitch, still holding Zwei's leash in her hand.

"Come along then, Mr Arc", Miss Goodwitch said with a huff, herself turning around and going, "I believe I might know where one of the people that was found in the Airbus with you is", she paused, and then asked, "Those are primarily the people that you wish to speak to, correct?" she got a quiet affirmative for that question, "Of course", she pulled the dog along, and began to walk, "Let's go, Zwei. Do hurry along, Mr Arc. I am not the biggest fan of tardiness."

Jaune vigorously nodded once more, not entirely eager to annoy the scary lady, and began to follow her away from the docking bay, and down the wet, rain soaked main avenue to the grand display of Beacon Academy.

A place he could've, upon the slimmest of chances, been working and living in, in the faint, vain hopes of making his stupid dreams come true.

If only he was worthy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again, and welcome back to the main plot of Ascendancy!
> 
> To all those that are sad as to the short length of this chapter as opposed to the last main chapter (Which was under 50,000 words long), I'm sorry, and I can promise that the next chapter will (Probably) Be much longer than this one.
> 
> To all those that are wondering, yes, there are a lot of Star Wars references in this chapter, more specifically, in the ships and the armour for the Golden Sun members. I'd list them all out, but I think that it'd be more fun if I let you all come to your own conclusions.
> 
> So, with all of that in mind, leave a review, follow and favourite, and I'll see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	10. Aftermath part 2: Everything Stays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaune arrives at Beacon to say his goodbyes, but as he meets more and more of the people left behind, he begins to wonder about the choice he has to make.
> 
> He makes a decision, and it changes his life forever.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Arc Theme:** _[The Last of Us main](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2UOwvUQ8L0)_ _[theme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2UOwvUQ8L0)_ **  
** **Theme:** [_Everything Stays by Rebecca Sugar_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr0UOKd1dd0)

* * *

 _Where we are going always reflects where we come from  
_ **Moral from _Star Wars The Clone Wars_**

* * *

_14 years ago..._

* * *

_"Oh my god, you are adorable."_

_Summer Rose (Or Summer Xiao Long, or whatever. She was never too sure about who would be changing their last name) Booped the 12 month old infant on the nose as she slept in her crib. The small infant with the shock of black hair tipped in red rolled to the side in response, still sleeping, though acknowledging the disturbance as its- Her- Face scrunched up in unconscious annoyance, her arms and legs coming closer to her as she slept away._

_In a mirror, she spotted a brief glimpse of herself, seeing her white cloak, accented by silver patterns and a golden outline, flowing behind her, and her white hood let down behind her head, no longer shielding her black hair with red tips and almost glowing silver eyes, with the inside of her cloak being a solid red, and her hair being tied into a ponytail that ran down her back, with white roses braided into it, and a butterfly pendant on the side of her head. Underneath her cloak, her shoulders and breasts were covered by a veil of black cloth, with a red choker around her neck. Under her breasts to her lower waist, a white corset covered her waist, with silver patterns covering it, and a silver strip of armour underneath it, as well as a long white sash that stretched over and covered her left leg down to the knee, outlined by gold and patterned in silver. Across her arms and legs, she was covered in silver armour, like that of a knight, with a belt that holstered a sword, tapping away at the shiny metal as she moved. Over the cloak on her shoulders were silver and gold pauldrons, that had a red rose over them, and on her back, underneath her cloak, was the lush painting of a freshly bloomed rose that was covered by a white shield with a red rose painted over it that was holstered and strapped to her back._

_"Aw", Summer_ _cooed at the sight of the small infant that was named Ruby Rose, gently aside a stra_ _y hair from her face, and putting her hands to her face as she looked down to her baby-_

_Oh god, that was a great thing to say. She had no idea why Rae would hate it... Dumb bitch._

_-A smile forming on her face as she leaned her elbows against the crib, "Aw, look at her, Tai. S'adorable!" she giggled, and whispered, "She's got my hair! And my eyes!"_

_"And your everything else", Taiyang chuckled as he carried the 3 year old Yang in his arms as well, patting the toddler on the back as the pig tailed girl rested her head on his shoulder, letting out a tired yawn as Tai continued, "She's got nothing from me, I feel so oppressed."_

_"Oh hush, Yang's got your eyes and hair colour, don't be greedy", Summer teased, "And besides, Ruby got your cheeks", she squished a finger against Ruby's marshmallow cheek, "See? It's puffy. It's puffing out. Just like yours", she tilted her head with a smile._

_"Hey, don't disturb her so much, Sum, you'll wake her up."_

_"Oh, don't be silly, Tai, she's not", Ruby interrupted her mother by letting out a disturbed squeak and groan, withering in the crib as her face scrunched up once more, "Oh. Oppsies."_

_"Oppsies indeed", Tai sighed as Summer rubbed Ruby's belly in an attempt to coo her to sleep. He loved Summer dearly, but she could be so oblivious to how to raise a child indeed, even with a year of practice, "I told you", he patted Yang on the back and he repositioned her, "Didn't I, my lil' dragon? Didn't I tell her?"_

_"Oh hush it, you", Summer went, pushing the thought of pranking Qrow into thinking that she'd been hit by a age regression semblance when Ruby gets older out of her head, and cooing away to the small infant, "Don't go off on me, mister. You've got 2 years of experience on me, I'm still learning."_

_"Summer, we've practically raised Yang ever since Raven left. Which was when she was born. 3 years ago."_

_"Semantics", Summer went, continuing to whispering sweet things to Ruby as the infant whined and whimpered against the sudden noise, on the verge of waking up and letting out a crying fit. Her mother grew concerned, rubbing her finger against the baby's stomach as she thought, trying to sooth her back into her peaceful sleep._

_Then, an idea came to her head. A lullaby that she had made years ago. She smiled, and then leaned in close to the crib and it's single occupant..._

_And then sang._

_Sweet syllables, rhymes, and choruses left Summer's lips as she sang, the words reaching the baby Ruby and lulling her back to sleep, her small body, once restless, now slowing down and staying still, and her breathing becoming more peaceful. The song that Summer sang rested her mind, taking away all of the negative thoughts and replacing them with all of the love and affection that a mother could ever have for their daughter._

_As the last words left her lips, the 2nd child of Summer Rose was once again in a peaceful slumber, silent breaths leaving her small lips, silver eyes closed, and body still once more._

_Summer's smile widened as she took herself off of Ruby's crib, rocking it gently, and then taking a step back as she gazed down upon her daughter's fragile form._

_It didn't take her or Tai that long to realise that the toddler Yang had been muttering the song along with her._

_"Oh my god", Summer whispered as she held her hands to her mouth, trembling in excitement as her first daughter let out a soft giggle, and then another yawn, her own eyes closing, and gently falling to sleep as she rested against her father's shoulder._

_"How about we let Ruby sleep first?" Taiyang suggested, turning and walking to the door of Ruby's room, "Don't wanna wake her up again, do we?"_

_"Oh, fine then, you big lug", Summer went, before kissing him on the cheek, and going, "Love you, by the way."_

_"I love you too", Tai chuckled, and with that, he slinked out of the room, and towards Yang's, ready to put her to bed as well._

_Summer spared a last look at Ruby, sleeping away in her crib, "Goodnight, my little rosebud", before shutting off the light and walking out of the room, closing the door behind her as she left the infant girl in the comfortable darkness..._

* * *

_Now..._

* * *

Surprisingly enough, Jaune and Glynda didn't mean to come across Yang Xiao Long first. They were walking through the halls of Beacon Academy to the training grounds, to find the occupants within, and had happened across Yang as she was marching through the hallways as well, scroll to her ear as she looked around impatiently, muttering in frustration to herself, "C'mon, c'mon", as she paced around.

She had a new outfit as well. Atop her head and shortened hair, with 2 long pigtails at the back of her head, she had a pair of purple shaded aviators with a golden wire, and across her neck was a patched together orange scarf, which was torn and jagged at both ends. Over a dark orange crop top with a golden outline was a short sleeved brown biker jacket that was opened up, revealing her abs and scars underneath, with fingerless gloves covering her hands. She wore a pair of distressed denim shorts that didn't even reach halfway down her thighs, and on her feet and ankles, she wore a pair of tall biker boots that reached halfway up to her knees, leaving most of her legs exposed, save for a pair of white kneepads that she wore at, surprise, her knees, as well as a bandana that she wore at the end of her left denim short, tying it around her thigh. Across her body, her muscles and scars were left exposed to the world, as well as the glowing purple lines that covered her arms, legs, lower body, back, and cheeks.

"Hey Yang", Jaune went, waving to the distracted woman as she moved her scroll away from her ear, and looked at him.

"Oh, heya Jaune!" she waved back to him with a slight smile, "Heh, told you I'd see you back he- Oh, hey Miss G", Yang said to Miss Goodwitch.

"It's Miss Goodwitch, Yang Xiao Long", the older woman scorned.

"Mm hm", she hummed, "Anyways, Miss G, have you seen Ruby around here? I'm trying to call her, but she's not-"

_"I burn!"_   
_"Can't hold me now"_   
_"You got nothing that can stop me"_

"-Picking- Oh, er, hang on", Yang put a finger up to her ear as a tune left her vibrating scroll, the image of Ruby- A much younger Ruby- Flashing up on the screen, "Oh, never mind, teach, I've got- Hush, I've got it", she pressed the call button, and pushed her scroll against her ear, "Hey, hey Ruby, where are- Hang on... Yeah? Okay, I don't- Okay, I know that they were broken but- You fixed them? Ah, alright the- I mean, thanks. Thank you, but where are you... Hm? Okay, you're- Is there anyone there with you? Hm? Okay, well, are they- Well I don't know if they're good, do I? Do you? Okay, you think you do- Hang on! Hang on, I know that I'm- I'm not overbearing, young lady! You- Oh, you are so grounded, young lady! I don't- Hey! Okay, remember Iris, huh? Oh, I bet you were-"

Yang stopped, and her eyes widened, a look of shellshock coming over her, and her spare hand bawling into a fist, growing so tight that it drew blood, her aura flaring and healing it. She looked to Jaune and Miss Goodwitch, her eyes still wide. It was as if they were screaming something. Or screaming at something.

She put the scroll back to her ear. The noise of sobbing came through the other side, "Ruby... Ruby? It's me, it's Yang, I-", she took a deep breath, "Look, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to-", she paused, and looked back to Jaune and Glynda, "Look, just- Just stay where you are, okay? I'll be- I'll be right there", she pulled away her scroll and looked back at them, "Hey, look, I gotta- I've gotta go. See you later, Jaune."

"Wait, Yang, what-", too late. Yang barged past Jaune, bumping into his shoulder, and ran off down the hallways, barging past any stray person in an equal rush. In confusion, Jaune looked at Miss Goodwitch and asked, "Um, Miss? What was- What was that all about?"

Miss Goodwitch sighed, readjusted her glasses, and told him, "That's her business, and her story to tell, not mine, Mr Arc."

"Oh", went Jaune, slightly disappointed, but, in respect to Yang and her business, went, "Okay then", the urge to find Ruby grew within him, and he asked, "Um, do you know where Ruby is?"

"Miss Rose? I believe she is in the Forge, but like I said, Mr Arc, it's Miss Xiao Long's business, and by extension, hers as well. It's their stories, not mine, and not yours."

"Um, right, right", Jaune went, still not entirely comfortable about that fact, and from what he could tell, neither was Miss Goodwitch, as she let out a long, quiet sigh, and shot a glance down the corridor. Jaune then asked, "Um, where are we going again? I kinda", he rubbed the back of his head, "I kinda forgot."

"The training grounds", Miss Goodwitch asked, the 2 of them walking along once more, "I believe we shall find Miss Schnee and Miss Soleli there."

* * *

_4 days ago (Thursday, 3 days after the Initiation Massacre)…_

* * *

_Weiss Schnee stood next to the co_ _ffin of Hasapiko Noora, the box itself ready for transportation back to Mistral, along with the hundreds of other makeshift or genuine coffins ready to be shipped back to their home kingdom, the contents within being questionable of having a genuine corpse in them, thanks to the severe ferocity and violent conditions of the conflict that had killed them. In her hands, she held Flowers Bloom, the spear/arrow combo weapon that she had taken off of his body in the Emerald Forest, close to her. In front of her, Hasapiko's parents stood, themselves looking, for obvious reasons, incredibly saddened, and eager to leave Vale. To her one side, was Ciel Soleli, her hands folded behind her back, and her face still and stoic, and further away, to her other side, Winter Schnee stood out of the parents view, not wishing to intrude._

_"Please", the first father said, "That is the last thing of our son. It should be buried with him!"_

_It was most likely the truth. Like said before, the battle that had taken place in both the Emerald Forest and in the Valerian plains around the_ Grimm Tidings _had been incredibly destructive, and with the excessively violent nature of their enemies, this had left many of those lost in the fighting mutilated beyond recognition, and then desecrated even further by the bombardments against the Grimm, leaving many of them reduced to nothing but cinder and ashes in the aftermath. Many of these boxes, many of these coffins, were empty, devoid of anything but air. The fact that, in her hands, she held possibly the last remaining piece of their child was most likely a miracle in of itself._

_"Please, Miss Schnee", said the second father, his hands held out so that he could take Flowers Bloom from her, "From the goodness of your heart, please give it to us!"_

_She knew she should. It was the right thing to do, to allow this last memory of their child to be buried away back home, where he was raised and born, a last act of honour, in memory of the dead._

_And yet, she held it close to her chest, her grip tightening on the gunmetal grey weapon as she secured her grip on it. The bow and arrow/spear combo had served as good protection during the Initiation Massacre, seeing as her original weapon, Myrtenaster, had been eaten by that ruffian of a Grimm, and it had been serving as an adequate enough replacement for her rapier over the last few days as well (Flowers Bloom had served as an exceptional way of warding off nightmares whilst she tried to sleep). As such, she didn't want to let it go. It was a selfish desire, yes, but she wished to keep it with her, and not let it go, like it was the only thing that could keep her safe, from the Grimm, from the House of the White Wolves, from everything._

_It was Winter who broke her out of this stupor, "Weiss", her voice was curt, and cut right in to Weiss, speaking of her slight disappointment in her. Winter was always the most mature between them, and the most controlling of her own emotions and desires, though many mistook this act of professionalism and maturity as one of coldness. She was, essentially, everything that Weiss wanted to be, and to hear her disappointed in her, was the greatest strike to her heart._

_And so, with that, she sighed, and released the weapon that she, for a short while, had held so close to her that it had essentially become a part of her, and handed it to the 2 men before her, the second one taking it into his own hands, holding it as if it were a gift from the gods themselves, before back to her with tears in his, and his husband's eyes._

_"T-Thank you", he stuttered, before turning away, he and his husband holding each other as they hurried away onto one of the Bullhead, the sounds of their sobs joining the many others floating around in the air as the first coffins were loaded into the Bullheads surrounding them._

_Weiss let out a breath that she didn't know she was storing up, and looked to her side as Ciel, "That was...", she paused, trying to find the right words, "That was more... Difficult... Than I imagined it would be..."_

_Ciel looked at her, but didn't say anything, only raising an eyebrow in response. It was a gesture that Weiss understood perfectly. Confusion. Ciel had long expressed her view to Weiss about weapons, and that they were just that: Weapons. Disposable tools of war that weren't supposed to hold any sort of sentimental value. They only served as interchangeable items that could be thrown away at a moments notice. Weiss had told her many a times that the weapons of a Hunter were unique to each one of them, and were an expression and extension of themselves, but Ciel had either never understood this, or never cared. To her, a weapon was a weapon, nothing more, nothing less._

_A clicking of heels hitting the ground came closer by the second, and she didn't have the time to turn around before she was on the receiving end of a trademark Winter Schnee Dope Slap to the back to the head._

_"That was for hesitating too much", Winter remarked, "You should've given it back to them immediately. It held more value to them than to you."_

_"Ah, oh, I'm so sorry, Winter!" Weiss went as she began to stammer apologies and bow repeatedly, "I know that I messed up- I mean I know that I was improper but I mean it was important to me because my other weapon was destroyed and-"_

_Winter simply had to hold her hand in place above her shorter sibling in a chopping position, so that when Weiss popped back up from her 17th bow, she bashed her head against Winter's hard like rock hand for yet another trademark Winter Schnee Dope Slap._

_"Ow!" Weiss went, as she rubbed her head where she had received the (Dare she think it again) Trademark Winter Schnee Dope Slap._

_"You also don't need to apologise so much", Winter went, her face growing softer as more and more people filed away onto the Bullhead, the older woman taking a brief moment to help 2 workers push along another coffin, before looking back to Weiss, and going, "I will admit, I could've... Chosen my wording more carefully, just then, so, for that, I... I apologise."_

_Ciel, with a raised eyebrow, decided to make her leave and walked away to the side._

_"Oh, Winter, you really don't need to-"_

_"Weiss."_

_"Oh, sorry!" Weiss went, rubbing the back of her head nervously, and then remembering who she was standing in front of, stood to attention, "I mean, er, not sorry! I am sorry, but I'm not sorry!"_

_Winter rolled her eyes with a smile, and went, "How are you, Weiss?"_

_"Oh, er, great! Great! Spectacular, even! I mean, so far the teachers and my soon to be peers have been impressed by my skills when I demonstrate to them, though I had to seek them out to show them because there aren't any lessons this week because of the battle on Monday, so that when they start organising the teams, they'll put me in with the best-"_

_"Not that, Weiss", Winter reprimanded, but didn't hit her for it, "I meant how are you, not your grades. Or your soon to be grades", she muttered the last part, "I mean how have you been sleeping? Have you been eating? What about your peers? How are they?"_

_"Oh, er, yeah, I've been eating well!" Weiss answered, though it was not the first question, "And my peers, um...", she hesitated, "And my peers, er… They're..."_

_"Hey, look, it's the bee's Schnees!" yelled out a former initiate from nearby, "Look boys, it's the kids from that bushy walrus guy!"_

_"Oh hell yeah, it's the walrus guy's kids!" yelled another._

_Yet another Hunter called out, "Wait, is that the walrus asshole's kids? Awesome!"_

_"Does he speak for the trees?"_

_Weiss just groaned at this, but at the mention of the famous theory of her father being a walrus Faunus, Winter's face inched to a slight smile._

_"She smiled! SHE SMILED! THE SCHNEE SMILED! I MADE THE SCHNEE SMILE! THAT COUNTS! I WIN THE BET! PAY THE POT, KIRRI!"_

_"Fuck you, that ain't Weiss, it doesn't count!"_

_"Yes it does! It's a Schnee! It's count- What the- Get back here!"_

_The 2 former initiates then got into a slap fight, which then devolved into a fistfight, and then into a mud wrestling contest, then a singing contest (For some reason...), Then another slap fight, and then all the way back around to a mud wrestling contest, all the while they were gathering a crowd around them, with one very enthusiastic former initiate taking out a tray to start putting bets in._

_"...My peers are...", Weiss paused, and then let out a tired groan, "...Unique..."_

_Winter, despite herself, let out a single chuckle, and then looked back to Weiss, with a soft look on her, "What about your sleep?"_

_"Wha- Oh, you mean...", Weiss hesitated, trying to think of a good answer, whilst nearby, Ciel turned her head away. Then, after a few moments, she continued, "I mean, I've been... I've been sleeping well. Yes, yes I have, I mean-"_

_"Weiss", Winter interrupted, "Be honest."_

_"..."_

_"Weiss..."_

_"...Flowers Bloom helped", she finally answered, "The weapon that I just gave back to them, the parents. It helped", Winter didn't say anything, so Weiss continued, "With sleeping... If I... If I keep it- If I kept it close to me, then I wouldn't... Then I wouldn't get any...", she paused again, "Get any...", she didn't say the last word. She didn't want to. Nightmares were a sign of weakness, and a Schnee- A true Schnee- Doesn't have any weaknesses._

_Winter seemed to disagree, as she simply said, "Any nightmares", to which Weiss silently let out a breath and nodded. She noticed Winter's hands ball into fists for a second, before looking back to her, and saying, "You don't have to stay here", Weiss looked at her, and Winter continued, "I'm sure that General Ironwood and myself can find a place for you in the Atlesian military, if you wish."_

_Ciel looked at the both of them with wide eyes, with Winter locking with them for a second, before Ciel looked to the side once more._

_Weiss looked up to Winter, her own eyes wide as well, before turning her gaze down, and hesitantly responding, "I-I can't. Apologies, sister, but I can't. I can't take you up on that offer. My place is here, and I made a commitment to be here, no matter what", the words 'It's better here than with father' went unsaid between them, for it didn't need to be, "Besides, if people were to hear that a Schnee went back on a commitment, then how would it look for us? Not good, not good at all."_

_Winter's nodded, a somewhat sad smile gracing her lips, and then going, "Well, at least you're benefiting from being away from Father, that's for sure", she waved away Weiss' worried expression, "I've already had a word with Father, don't worry. I had to... Embellish a few truths, though."_

_"'A few truths'?"_

_"I told him that Beacon Academy had seen your skills to be so good- Though I do find them to be lacking some what- That they took you out of the initiation roster and put you into their course immediately, meaning you weren't in the Emerald Forest. Of course, as our father is, he ate it up. Just, if he asks about that, do your best not to let him catch on."_

_"Oh, don't worry about me", Weiss reassured her._

_Winter cut her off with, "I'm your older sister. It is my official prerogative as your elder sister to worry about you", before pausing, and then going, "Are you sure about this?"_

_"...", there was a long pause, before Weiss looked at her and went, "I'm sure... I'm sure."_

_Winter bit her lip, and nodded, "Of course, you'll need a weapon. A new one. I can commission a replacement Myrtenaster for you, but it will take some time before-"_

_"Oh no, it's fine, sister", Weiss interrupted, to the slight confusion of her sister, "From what I've seen, the Forges and armouries here in Vale are quite up to standard in terms of craftsmanship, and I should be able to make a replacement weapon here, instead of taking up anymore of your time."_

_"...Alright then", Winter said, nodding, taking a brief glance at Ciel, and then going, "If that is your decision, then I shall trust that you can take care of yourself", she turned to leave, noting the last coffins being loaded into their Bullheads, closing her eyes and sighing, before sparing a look back to Weiss, and saying, "I have business in Vale that I must attend to. I shall... Just, stay safe, Weiss, and call me if anything happens, understand?"_

_Weiss nodded, and then cheekily added, "Roger that", with a fake salute._

_"Hm", Winter went, and then turned around, and began to walk away, "Goodbye, Weiss."_

_For a moment, Weiss swore that she heard her mutter something about a crow, but she decided not to pressed her on it. After all, she had a new weapon to make._

_She was thinking of a cross between her rapier and a bow and arrow._

* * *

_Now..._

* * *

The training grounds for Beacon Academy were separated between a grand hall, though unlike the amphitheatre, it was much larger, and there were a range of duelling rings, workout and exercise stations, and gun ranges separated in different areas around the hall, each part walled off from each other, while outside, there were several exercise areas, such as running and leaping tracks, courts for different sports, such as basketball, tennis, football (Or soccer. Whatever), and so on, as well as outside gun ranges and open spaced team combat areas.

Inside the training hall, Miss Goodwitch led Jaune to the only source of sound within the spacious building, emerging from a close off gun range, with the sounds of a bow being twanged every now and then, and the frustrated callings of a snappy girl emerging from within, alongside the occasional remark of a much more formal sounding girl.

At the entrance to the gun range, Miss Goodwitch knocked on the closed door as Jaune stood on the other side of it. The sounds of shuffling feet and talking came from within once more, before the door opened up, and revealed Ciel standing in the way of the entrance, dressed up in a new outfit as well, consisting off a blue suit and black trousers, covered up by a black Kevlar vest, with a belt around her waist, holstering 2 pistols on her sides, guards on her knees and elbows, the same blue beret on her head, and her sun logo, on her vest and on her forehead.

"Can I help you?" she asked the both of them in a similar tone of voice to Miss Goodwitch, which was formal and stoic, not betraying any emotion at all. She kept herself in the middle of the doorframe, obscuring as much of what was inside as she could.

"Er, hi there, Ciel, wasn't it?" Jaune asked.

"Yes it is", Ciel nodded, "A pleasure to meet you, Mr Arc."

"Ah, god, way to make me feel old. Er, how are you doing?"

Ciel raised an eyebrow, paused for a few moments, and then went, "Oh, oh, I'm fine. I'm well. I'm... 'Doing good', as you say."

"Er, alright then. You sure?"

"I'm perfectly fine, Mr Arc, though I appreciate the concern."

"Cool, cool", Jaune went, finding their conversation to be just a little bit awkward, but still pressed on regardless, "Um, is Weiss in there, or-"

"She's busy", Ciel said, itching for the door.

"Agh, dammit", went a familiar voice from inside the gun range, and Jaune quickly looked past Ciel to spot, in one of the spaces in the gun range, a familiar white haired girl aiming a mechanical bow and arrow down the targeting range, releasing one of many arrows across the range, and into the AK-130 drones that had been set up in the range as target dummies.

The metal arrow skimmed across the armour and bounced to the side.

"Dammit", Weiss swore as she pulled another arrow out of the quiver on her back, and (Using her semblance it seemed, as a black snowflake symbol with a glowing purple outline appeared around the tip of the arrow) Launched it into the drone again, this time the arrow embedding itself into its chest, much like several other arrows across its body.

From what Jaune could see, she had shortened her hair, with it stretching down to her ears and shoulders, in addition to a clump of her hair shaped into a bun on the back of her head, accented by a crown shaped tiara. Her new outfit consisted of a pair of ruby red earrings, a white long coat with a hood, with the inside of it being red, and a blueish silver snowflake logo on it's back, a pale blue combat vest underneath her coat, with a similarly coloured skirt connected to a white fabric belt, along with an arrow quiver strapped onto her back, and 2 daggers holstered into each of her pale blue heel boots, along with white stockings covering her legs.

Jaune saw her pull back another arrow, but Ciel quickly got in his way and went, "As you can see, Ms Schnee is busy, so you will have to come back later."

"Um, well, I-"

"Will have to come back later", Ciel said, and with that, the door was closed on them.

Jaune looked to Miss Goodwitch, who had a rather infuriated look on her face, but Jaune waved it off, as if to say 'It's fine'.

"Well, she was nice."

"You have a skewed definition of 'Nice', Mr Arc."

* * *

_10 years ago..._

* * *

_A kick to the stomach forced her down onto the cold stone ground, and left her a coughing, spluttering mess. Blood dribbled from her mouth, nose, and open cuts, commingling with the ice, water, and snow underneath her, and the side of her head and red hair was bloodied by wounds. Her tail was withering weakly on the ground, her clothing was torn, and her body was covered in bloody cuts and bruises._

_Above her, the visiting students from the great floating city of Atlas laughed and took pictures of her, before one of them, with a cruel smile on his face, stomped on her hand, breaking a finger. She screamed out in pain, tears flooding out of her eyes, but all this got was a mocking laugh from the Atlesian students above her._

_"Aw, look, little monkey's gonna cry", mocked the lead Atlesian student, who then proceeded to grab her tail, pressed his foot against her back, and started to pull on it, the strain causing her to whimper as the pain took over, no longer having the energy to scream. The Atlesian continued, "Or is it a cat? Dog? I don't know, all you fucking animals look the same anyways."_

_The young girl whimpered in pain, before spluttering out, "F... Fuck you..."_

_"Oh, so the animal can speak", another Atlesian spoke, who then laughed and went, "Hah, it's like a parrot, isn't it?"_

_"S'a pet, is what it is", the lead Atlesian went, "Isn't that right, little animal? Isn't that what you are? Nothing more than a pet, meant to lick the boots of your betters."_

_The Faunus girl looked up at him with a pained sneer on her face, baring red stained teeth._

_She summoned a wad of bloody saliva and phlegm and spat it at him, staining his pristine white and grey uniform._

_"Aw, fuck!" the lead Atlesian snarled, taking his boot off of her back and landing it against her head, smashing it into the ground once more, the girl letting out another cry of pain, "You little shit! This shit is fucking expensive!"_

_Each word was accompanied by a swift boot to the head, drawing up more blood from the Faunus girl, as tears flooded from her eyes in a torrent. The other Atlesians around them laughed and jeered him on, continuing to take pictures, and even filming her being beaten. Nearby, down the alleyway and onto the street, she could see a few people, human and Faunus, spotting what was happening to her, and then simply looking away and carrying on with their day._

_"Fucking bad pet, aren't you?" the Atlesian sneered, before a grin adorned his face, "Bad pets get the belt, don't they? They get punished."_

_He reached into his pocket, and pulled out 2 things._

_A pack of cigarettes, and a lighter._

_Her eyes widened as the Atlesian lit a cigarette, and then knelt down, his boot moving to her back once more. With an sneer on his face, the Atlesian tilted her head to the side, and then began to lower the smoking cigarette to her face._

_No._

_To her eye._

_Involuntarily, her eyes widened, tears soaking her cheeks as the lit death stick came closer and closer, until-_

_"Oi, don't waste a good cigarette, mate. This animal isn't worth the waste."_

_-One of the Atlesians interrupted him, convincing him to stand up and put the cigarette to his lips, the boy letting out a puff of smoke as he threw the cigarette to the ground next to her, the smoke stinging her eyes as it melted the snow and ice next to her in a mix of smoke and steam._

_"Fine", he said, turning to walk away as the rest of the Atlesians present made their move, but stopped to look down at the Faunus girl and say, "You got anything more to add, freak?"_

_She kept quiet, merely sneering at him with a bloody face. An animalistic growl left her lips._

_"Good", he sneered, and walked away, calling out before he went around the corner, "Next time you try something like that, I'll put you down like the freak you are."_

_She laid there for a few minutes, content to stay still for a while, rapidly blinking her eyes as she tried to wash away the sting of cigarette smoke with her tears alone. But eventually, with a groan, she picked herself up, and wiped the blood from her face with her worn sleeve._

_she should be dead. She was surprised that she wasn't. From the beating, to the blood lost, to the physical trauma, and even her age, being 7 years old, all of that should've been enough to possibly kill her. But she wasn't. She was alive. She didn't know how she was, or even why, but to be honest, she didn't really care. She was just glad that she wasn't._

_She winced as her bloody tail moved behind her. She looked behind herself to see that there were several bloody boot marks covering it, and the fur that covered it had been stained black and red, or in this case, redder._

_She should put it away. Tuck it away. In a place like Mantle, it was better for one to hide away their Faunus traits. To have them out on parade in this place, so close to that hell hole of a kingdom Atlas, was to invite assault. It was to invite hate, viol, discrimination, abuse, the works. Having such a target painted on oneself was essentially suicide._

_If that was the case, then Neon Katt was exceptionally suicidal._

_She kept her tail out behind her, and by god, she wore it with pride. She wasn't going to be ashamed of her Faunus trait. She wasn't going to be ashamed of a part of herself. She wasn't going to hide away who she was, and she wasn't going to let some pompous asshats from Atlas, or Mantle, or whatever, bring her down to their level of racial bigotry, and hatred, and just plain pathetic, just because of who and what she was._

_She was Neon Katt, she was a Faunus, and she was fucking well proud of it._

_She trudged herself out of the alleyway and made her down the streets. She lived in the slums of Mantle, commonly known as Nicholas' Folly, which were spread long around the outskirts of Mantle, underneath its walls. These slums went on for miles, spreading through the ruins of old buildings, all the way into the industrial areas. Most of these tent cities and shoddily put together huts mere manned and homed by Faunus, who made up 2/3rds of the population of Nicholas' Folly. Specifically, she lived in an old orphanage, which also operated as an apartment, and as a school for the entire child populace of the slums, despite it being overpopulated and falling apart at the seems. Her parents were almost always down in the SDC mines, trying to earn as much money as they could so that they could afford to feed her and pay her rent for the orphanage, so that she wouldn't have to sleep in a tent, or a hut, out in the snow and frost._

_If anything, she was one of the lucky ones. Whilst her room in the orphanage only had a mattress and nothing else, and most of the windows were cracked and broken, and they all had to share a toilet, and the food was practically just scraps, and any sense of central heating was almost unheard off, but at least she had a roof over her head. At least she was getting 3 meals a day. A lot of people in Nicholas' Folly would kill for that._

_A lot of people in Nicholas' Folly had killed for that._

_She heard a proud voice call out near her, and she looked to the side, past a camera bot and a trio of patrolling AK-B2s to see an Atlesian propaganda stand- One of many that had been set up by the Atlesian Council across Mantle (They weren't actually called that, but it was really all that they were)- Built into the side of a building, next to an old workshop that sold cybernetics. The propaganda stand, with it's 3 holographic screens, glowed a eerie blue, though there was a drink stain on one of them, most likely having been thrown at it in anger._

"Atlas stands proud! Atlas stands strong! In the face of any foe, be it Grimm or otherwise, Atlas will never falter, will never bend, will never break! For now, and forever, Atlas stands as the beacon of hope for all of Remnant!"

_Neon looked to the screen, not really paying any attention to it. To her, it was just another screen, spewing mindless brainwashing propaganda bullcrap. She didn't find any value in it._

_Until it moved on to the subject of the Hunters._

"Our Huntsmen and Huntresses are the greatest warriors in all of Remnant!" _the screen went, the images of people with the most colourful clothes and weapons Neon had ever seen rapid fire flashing before her,_ "With the best training, the most advanced weapons, and the most powerful semblances in any and every kingdom, they serve as the protectors of all of Atlas and Mantle! Now, with the Grimm being forced away from our walls, there has never been a better time to join Atlas Academy!"

Lies _, Neon thought to herself. Atlas wasn't pushing away the Grimm, they were still breaching Mantle's walls. Just yesterday, a Sayber Grimm had marched a tent city in Nicholas' Folly and killed 10 people. The city authorities were still cleaning away the blood, and that part of the slums had been cleaned out by everyone desperate enough to pillage the dead- Which, as it turned out, was quite a few people- That Robyn Hill lady and her Happy Huntresses had been, and still were, the only people that were willing to stand up for the people of Mantle, and they were only a team of 4. They couldn't be in every single part of Mantle at the same time, and there were too many breaches and cases of civil unrest across the former kingdom for the single team to handle. One would think at this point, the council would pay at least a few more Hunters to protect Mantle, but then again, this was the-_

_A thought came into Neon's head, and then it formed into an idea._

_A very good idea._

_She would become a Huntress._

_She would train to be a Huntress. She would save up and scavenge as much money as she could. She and her family would slip away from Atlas and Mantle, and go to Vacuo, or Mistral, or Vale, wherever. She would go, and she would train to be a Hunter, and then she would make enough money to give her parents a damn well comfortable life, and then she come back here, and she would show everyone that had ever pushed her around in her life that she was strong. Show them that they were the ones that were weak. Show them that she would be pushed around no longer. And then, she would make something of herself. She would become one of the best Hunters in the world, and kick everyone's asses, simply because everyone else told her that she was less than nothing, and she would show them how wrong they are._

_It was a selfish wish, truly, but Neon cared little for it, as she meandered down the poorly kept streets of Mantle, past the homeless people and AK droid patrols, past the security cameras and cordoned off buildings._

_It was a goal she had set for herself, and she would be damned if anything got in her way._

* * *

_Now..._

* * *

Like with Yang, they hadn't been planning on this next encounter, seeing as they were on their way to what Miss Goodwitch had called the Recreation Area of Beacon. And like with Yang, they had happened upon them in the middle of the hallway, only this time, they were sitting down, right in the middle of a conversation, from the looks of it.

Flynt Coal and Neon Katt, and from the looks of it, they had gotten some new threads as well.

Between the 2 of them, Flynt was the one with the least changes to his outfit. Over his white shirt and a new grey vest with a blue outline and black buttons, he wore a black stage jacket, with 2 pockets on his waist, and a pure white outline, as well as his undone blue tie under his jacket, with his emblem printed on it. He also wore white gloves and plain black dress trousers, white and black dress shoes, a more rounded top hat with a white trim and a blue emblem in the middle of it, 2 blue dotted earrings, and a holster strapped onto his left leg, where a new trumpet, built in a gold colour, and with glowing blue rings built into the inside of the horn.

Neon, however, had a much more radical change to her outfit. Her reddish orange hair was much smoother, and the pig tails at the back of her head being much more slimmer and smaller, whist her tail seemed slimmer, with the blue stripes in her fringe growing much longer, and a glowing blue strip of light covering part of it, while the pink heart on her left cheek was much larger, and more vibrantly shaded. She now wore a open, long sleeved white fur coat with a golden outline and pink inside, and a hoodie with cat ears sown into it, over a neon blue shirt, with her emblem printed over it, and 2 smalls images, one of a purple cat, the other a green heart, printed below it, whilst over her neck, she wore a white collar with a golden cow bell attached to it. Her hands were covered by white gloves, whilst over her knuckles, there was a strip of white metal, being what looked like knuckledusters, with a glowing blue rectangle of light built into it. She also wore a pair of denim shorts with a white and gold belt over dark blue leg stockings, and a pair of white and pink roller skates on her feet, as well as a pair of kneepads with a glowing blue rectangular strip in the middle of them, as well as a pair of white, empty holsters on her waist, with winking cartoon pink cats sticking their tongues out printed onto them.

Jaune himself looked to Miss Goodwitch, and then to the 2 of them, before approaching them, and hearing a snippet of conversation between them- Something to do with the former kingdom of Mantle- Before they noticed him, and Neon jumped up to her feet, and threw her arms to the sides in happy surprise, "Jaune! Haha, Commander Jaune!" he winced at the title, and raised an eyebrow, but Neon didn't notice as she took his hands and began to roller skate around him, spinning him around and going, "Oh my god, you're alive! I- We- Thought you were dead! At least, we thought you were dead for a day or so until the doctors went ahead and said you weren't!" she stopped spinning and squinted her eyes in concentration at him, before going, "You aren't dead, but you look like crap. Seriously, you look like you need a granola bar, or something", she poked him in the ribs, "Maybe a lot of somethings."

"Um, hah?" Jaune asked, still kinda dizzy from that little roundabout session, trying to find a wall to balance on, before-

{THUD}

"Ow."

-Tripping over himself and falling face first on the floor, groaning while Neon guffawed at this and Flynt let out a surprised chuckle as he got up, whilst Miss Goodwitch just tweezed her nose and sighed.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh at my suffering, ya big bullies", Jaune muttered as he got himself up, "Laugh at me while I lay here and wither away, I'm sure that'll leave good kudos' for your soul when you die", he groaned and got up onto his feet, dusting himself off and glared at the 2 of them, "Love you guys too, by the way. Just though I'd let you know."

"Yeah, yeah, sorry boss", Flynt bumped him on the shoulder with another chuckle, before asking, "You good, 'cause you don't look like it?"

"Yeah, you look like a skeleton, dude", Neon commented, "You know, you actually look like, er, you know that Mistralian cartoon show, My Heroine Academy? The skeleton guy from there? Yeah, you look like him", her eyes narrowed, "You do watch that show, don't you?"

"Er, yeah, yeah I do. It's one of my favourites, actually."

She nodded, and turned her head to the side, "You may live."

"Um, for future reference, please do not kill me. I like not being killed, and I apologise for any unintentional acts of heresy that I may, for emphasis, unintentionally bring about to you. At all. By accident."

Flynt just gave him a cool smile, "Ah, ignore her. The more you pay attention to her, the more powerful she becomes."

"FEED ME! FEED ME YOUR UNDIVIDED-"

"Miss Katt", Miss Goodwitch said.

"Sorry."

Jaune looked between the 2 of them, and went, "Well, at least you 2 are doing well."

"Hell yeah!" Neon cheered, "I mean, being stabbed by a tomahawk kinda sucks, but still, we're alive, aren't we?"

"Yeah", he nodded, with an off tone in his voice, "...Yeah... It's great."

Neon then picked up on this, but it was Flynt who asked, "You doing good, Arc? You look a bit... Well, you look like you ain't doing well?"

"Huh?" Jaune looked at him, "Oh, er, thanks Flynt. I'm... Er, actually, to be honest, I'm not...", he paused, and scratched the back of his head, "I'm not entirely sure if I am."

"Alright?"

Jaune nodded.

"Heh, yeah, that's the same with everyone else here."

"Hm?"

"Yeah, everyone's been a bit sad and stuff ever since the Emerald Forest fight", Neon went, "Old Ozpin had to cancel lessons for a week just so that everyone would become less sad, and stuff."

"Oh", Jaune slumped, "Oh... Well, I'm... I'm sorry..."

"Ah, don't be so maudlin about it", Neon patted him on the shoulder, "Everyone's getting by it in their own ways, and thanks to a week with no lessons, or stress and crap, it's given us plenty of time to get to know each other and stuff!"

"Yeah", Flynt nodded, "I got to know this Techion called Dee Jay-"

"DJ?" Jaune asked

"Yeah, DJ. It's his real name as well."

"What?"

"DJ."

"Yeah?"

"His real name is Dee Jay."

"?"

"D-E-E... J-A-Y."

"...Oh my god."

"Yeah, he hates it. A lot."

"I love it!" Neon chirped.

"Of course you do", Flynt rolled his eyes, and then continued, "Yeah, I got to know DJ, as well as this girl called Jolie Kobal, who can scream bursts of physical sounds, and she's great to hang around."

"She's a blast!" Neon laughed, whilst Jaune and Flynt groaned at the pun. Neon then noticed this, smirked a devilish smirk, and then went, "I heard she's a real 'Screamer' in bed!"

"Miss Katt!" Miss Goodwitch admonished, "Must you speak so crudely!"

"Oh, yeah, speaking of which!" Neon gestured to Miss Goodwitch, "We've also got Goodwitch here-

"Miss Goodwitch."

"-Handing out free therapy lessons to everyone, and stuff, so if you've got a problem in the future, Jauney Boy, just go to her. I'm sure she'll fix you up real good."

"Um, well", Jaune paused, trying to find the right words, before going, "Thanks, thanks a lot, but I'm... Um, I'm not, I'm not staying. I'm leaving. Back home. My home. In a few hours."

There was an iota of hesitation in his voice now.

"Aw, what?" Neon went, her shoulders slumping down, "You're leaving? But you're, like, a third of High Command! How are we suppose to go on without our commander!?"

Jaune flinched again at the unwanted title.

Flynt noticed this, and put his hand on Neon's mouth to stop her from babbling on, "Neon", he sternly went, before looking at Jaune with an understanding look, and went, "Sure thing, Arc. Just do what you've gotta do. We'll be fine here."

"Ah, alright then", Jaune went, looking down at his feet and rubbing his arm for a few seconds, before pointing his thumb behind him and going, "Hey, listen, I've, erm, I've gotta go. I've got a few more people to talk to, and then, you know, that's it. I'll be gone, so, um, I've-"

"You've gotta go, no problem", Flynt said, sitting back down against the wall, "Do what you think is best. We'll be alright on our own here."

"Yeah, we'll just have to fill in the void without you here", Neon jokingly said as she slumped back down, dramatically putting her hand to her head, and loudly proclaiming, "Tis a rough, and perilous journey, but tis a path that I shall brave, and a goal that I shall seek and fulfil, by being as loud and crass as possible, in order to fill the void that shall be left behind! Oh, woe is me, but so is brave!"

"Yes, woe is you indeed", Jaune went, waving at them and saying his goodbyes, which they returned, and Miss Goodwitch and he made their way once more down the hallways to the Recreation Area. However, Jaune quickly paused, turned himself around, and asked the 2 former initiates, "Um, quick question: How did we get out of that Dropship back above the _Grimm Tidings_? All I remember was the ship crashing into an Air Bus, and then nothing else."

"Oh, that?" Neon asked, tapping her finger against her chin, and then looking at him and shrugging, "I've got no idea. I was kinda on the floor when we crashed, and then I woke up in a Bullhead back to Vale probably about an hour later."

"Same here", Flynt added, "All I remember was a bright light, and then waking up in a hospital bed."

"Huh", Jaune went, before thanking them and continuing on his way, _Weird..._

* * *

_10 years ago..._

* * *

_"Why, hello, little Lie. Are we trying to catch a fish?"_

_Lie Ren looked away from the waterlily gently floating in the stream that ran through the middle of Kuroyuri, and towards his mother, carrying a basket of breads and such in one hand, before looking and pointing at the waterlily, going, "I've found a flower on the water!"_

_His mother chuckled, "Oh, I see!"_

_"Can we take it home and plant it in the garden?" Ren asked as he ran up to his mother with an excited look on his face. Having another flower for the garden would be great! It'd help make a heck of a nice rainbow in their garden._

_Unfortunately, that was shot down when his mother went, "Oh no, sweetheart, that flower lives here", to which Ren felt saddened by this, and looked down. However, An- The name of his mother- Rubbed his head with a soft smile, and went, "But I'll tell you what you can do. Take this Lien", she pulled out a Lien card and presented it to the small boy before her, "And go find something nice for your father's return. He's been hunting for quite some time. I bet that the journey's been very tiring, don't you?"_

_"Yes", Ren simply said as he took the card, still a tad bit disappointed._

_"Do you think you'll know what he wants?" An asked with a smile._

_"I think...", Ren looked up to her and smiled, "He wants a water flower in the garden!"_

_An gave him a chuckle, and said, "Why did you have to inherit my sass?" before giving him a playful nudge on the bottom, and sending him off._

_With a nod, Ren ran off to the village centre, over the planks that had been placed over the canals of fresh water and fishes, through the streets of pure white bricks with not a stain on them, and between the buildings and houses, coloured white and brown, that were lined with flowers and plants, each one propped up on a wooden surface only a few feet above the ground._

_Less than a minute after he had begun his perilous journey to the centre of his village, Ren found himself there, in the small marketplace of Kuroyuri, located between the main avenue and road of the village, leading up from it's main gate to it's centre, and the cherry blossom tree that was itself right next to an old bell tower. The village was small and quaint, with neither a CCT, airship landing strip, or even train station, anywhere nearby (They'd have to go all the way to Shion for any of those), And had a thin wall surrounding it as protection against Grimm, bandits, or otherwise, but it was Ren's home, and he liked it. It was peaceful, beautiful, tranquil, and a tapestry of the potential of Mistralian artwork, and he wouldn't have it any other way._

_Running up to a blacksmith's stand, the little Ren presented the card to him and aske_ _d, "What can I buy with this?" if he could get his dad a new... Something (Something sharp, preferably. Something that can stab things really easily, like they... Like they're soft, squishy things that can be stabbed easily), Then he'll take his side and let them plant a water flower in the garden! And then they would have a water flower, and then afterwards, they could get a fire flower, and a wind flower, and even an earth flower!_

_(Well, if those 3 flowers even existed, to be fair, but in all honesty, if a flower could grow in a river, then the bets were off! Anything was possible! A flower could grow in lava, for all he knew, and he didn't know, so it was a possibility, wasn't it?)_

_The blacksmith chuckled, and reached down to behind his stall, before coming back up to reveal a wooden sword and a wooden hammer in either hand, and with a smile, he chirped, "Well, something just your size."_

_Ren looked up at the wooden toy weapons, staring at them for a moment, and then slumping down with a sigh. He couldn't get his father a wooden baby toy for when he gets back. A weapon was for stabbing stuff, not for not-stabbing stuff!_

_Ugh, this wouldn't work. Time to move on._

_Next. he found himself queuing for a liquor stand. Once he got to the front, he quickly presented the Lien card to the stall owner, and asked, "Sake, please."_

_The liquor owner simply looked at him, sighed, and shook his head._

_Well, that was annoying. What the heck, Ren was so confused. Why would he turn him down? Why would he turn down perfectly good money? It was sake, not a sword! What was he going to do, bonk himself over the head with it?_

_Ren trudged away from the liquor stand with a dejected step in his stride, majorly disappointed. This was ridiculous, how was he supposed to get his father a gift for his trip back if no one would sell him anything in the first place? Goodness gracious, this was-_

_He spotted a bakery, and looked through the window to see a selection of cakes, breads, pies, and cupcakes, and so on, all of them looking oh so mouth-wateringly delicious._

_-Not as hard as he thought! Perfect! A cake for his father! A sweet treat that he would probably deserve after such a tiring hunting session-_

_"Hey, get back here!"_

_Ren stopped gazing through the bakery window and, with a raised eyebrow, peeked over the corner, to see a group of boys laughing together at something. Confused as to what they were laughing at, he walked to the side to get a better angle, to see that the 3 boys were laughing at a small, dirtied girl around his age, with orange hair and aqua eyes, as well as a white shirt with a pink heart in the middle, a black jacket, pink skirt, and broken shoes, all of which were equally torn and grimy, with tape covering her shoes, seemingly keeping them together. In her hands, she clutched a mouldy piece of bread close to her, which seemed to be humorous to the boys, though for what reason, Ren couldn't tell._

_Maybe it was because he didn't find humour in that kind of stuff that was why none of the other children ever played with him._

_Ren was brought out of his thoughts as he heard the tallest boy go, "_ _Where'd you get that bread? I didn't see you pay for it, thief!"_

_"No, look, it's all mouldy!" the smallest boy added in._

_The tallest boy then chortled, and nodded, before going "I think she got it from the trash!"_

_"Lemme see!" the 3rd boy went, reaching out to take the bread from the girl._

_The girl responded by biting him on his finger._

_"Ah!" the 3rd boy went, pulling his hand back from the girl and clutching it, "She bit me!" he yelled, before growling in anger and shoving the orange haired girl to the ground, the girl whimpering for a second, before getting up, grabbing her bread piece once more and taking a few steps back, crouching back down with her mouldy prize in hand._

_"Where'd she come from?" the short boy asked in a whiny voice, "She's dressed all weird!"_

_"I bet she's abandoned!" interjected the tallest boy with a smile "Like a dog or something!"_

_"Does that mean I have rabies?" the 3rd boy went, elicting cruel chuckles from the 3 boys as they continued to taunt the orange haired girl._

_Ren began to take a few, uncertain steps forward, unsure as to what to say or do. Should he even say anything? This wasn't his problem, and he really didn't need to intervene. If he did, then surely that would just bring about the ire of these boys onto himself, and they would move to begin picking on him and abusing him instead of her, and that was something that he really didn't want to happen._

_It was only then that he realised that she'd been staring at him with wide, uncertain eyes._

_The 3 boys were the last ones to notice this, as they let out a confused hum, and turned around to face him, their eyes seemingly daring him to do anything._

_In a panic, Ren turned back around, and began to run away. This was not his problem, and he really didn't need this right now, as he still needed to get something for his father..._

_…Who he then ran into. Literally, as he bumped into his legs and fell on his bottom, looking up to the man, Li Ren, who himself was looking down at the boy._

_"Father?" Ren asked, pulling himself up, wary of the disappointed look on Li's face._

_His father looked away from him, and towards the 3 boys and the girl on the floor, "What is happening here?" he asked sternly._

_The boys and girl looked around in response to the question, skittish and concerned for themselves. A few awkward moments passed, before the girl got up and broke into a run down the street, bread still in hand. The boys stood around for a few more seconds, before, in a panic of their own, they broke off and ran down a separate alleyway with their tails between their legs._

_Li looked towards the empty alleyway for a few more seconds, before looking down to his son, who was now standing up, and asked, "Do you wish to run with the rest of them?"_

_Ren looked up at him, and then looked down, too ashamed to meet his gaze. He could've done something about that. He could've helped the girl. He could've stopped the bullies. And yet, he didn't. The disappointment from his father was clear and obvious._

_He continued to look down at his feet, but was brought out of his saddened state when his father put his hand on his shoulder, knelt down to meet his eyes, and said, "Sometimes the worst action to take... Is taking no action at all", he paused, allowing the lesson to sink in, before continuing, "Go home. I need to speak with the mayor."_

_And with that, Li got up, and began to walk away, down the street and through the avenues. Ren watched him walk away for a few moments, and then a few moments longer, before back down the alleyway behind him, lost in his own thoughts._

_He could've done something, that was sure. As his father said, sometimes the worst thing that one could do, is do nothing at all, and his panic just now, in the face of injustice, had been proof enough of that._

_His face became firm, and writ with conviction, as a new mission came to his mind._

_The next time he saw that girl, even if he ever saw her again, he'd help her. He didn't know how, and he didn't know if he even could, but he'd at least try, and by god, he'd try his damnedest to help her out in any way that he could._

_In the end, it was the least that he could do._

* * *

_Now..._

* * *

The Recreational Area of Beacon Academy seemed to be split into 3 different sections. Firstly, there was the cafeteria, or mess hall, or whatever it was called, that Jaune remembered from before the Initiation a week ago, when he, Nora and Ren had sat together.

Secondly, there was the Library, which was itself a grand hall, lined with rows and rows of shelves, each one filled to the brim with books, and with large desks and tables placed between them, some of them holding computers and holographic touchscreen devices, most likely connected to the CCT and the internet, allowing the students of Beacon to look up and find whatever information they needed more easily.

Thirdly, there was a large room called the Lounge, which had cream coloured walls, a fluffy carpet, as well as beanbag chairs, a sofa, a TV, a small kitchen area with a minifridge and coffee machine, and even a small bookshelf on the wall, with other shelves built into the walls as well, holding ornaments, fine china, decorations, lamps, and so on, giving the room a very relaxed feeling, which Jaune assumed to be the point when whoever was making this room had it in their mind.

Right now, there were only 4 people within the room, as Jaune and Miss Goodwitch entered, 2 of which were sitting on the sofa and watching the TV, which was currently on the news. One of them, in the mechanical body coloured in white, blue, and purple, was the Techion known as Leadpipe, who seemed to be whispering something to the person next to him, the familiar girl with long onyx hair and amber, almost cat like eyes, Blake Belladonna.

Unlike Leadpipe, who, save for a single metal scar on his right arm, had not had any cosmetic changes to his body at all, Blake had received a full costume change. She wore a black shirt with purple highlights, a black skirt, and black to purple stockings running down her legs, with grey, purple, and black sneakers on her feet, grey kneepads, and a grey and black open tail suit jacket with purple insides, and black shoulder pads with her emblem inscribed into it, as well as 2 empty knife holsters on both sides of her waist. The bow on her head now had a purple lining weaved into it, and around her neck was what looked like a fabric mask, giving her a very ninja like look.

Jaune then turned to the side after hearing what sounded like an excited squeak, and then saw, at a table, with a book with the title, 'The Many Theories of Grimm Birth', on one side, and a short book titled 'When All You Have is a Hammer' on the other, he spotted the familiar faces of a stoic and calm Lie Ren, and an excited and happy-go-lucky Nora Valkyrie, and in what seemed to be a running trend, they too had new outfits.

Ren, with his hair braided into a ponytail, wore a green long coat with black and golden outlining, red insides, and a collar, as well as pink cuffs at the end of the sleeves, with golden fabric bars running down them, and a black leather pauldron strapped over his right shoulder, with a pink lotus symbol painted on it, and a green and golden dagger holster to it. Down his legs, he wore white trousers with red fabric running down the sides, as well as black straps of leather with what looked like magnets inserted into them strap to his sides by red strings, and tall black boots with pink soles at the bottom.

Nora, meanwhile, had grey armour covering her arms and legs, with glowing pink highlights going over the sides, as well as elbow and kneepads that had a rectangular strip of glowing pink light in the middle of them. She wore a sleeveless pink Viking jacket with a white fur collar and blue outlines, as well as large metal pauldrons with ran down to her elbows, with her emblem, a large glowing pink heart, built into them, as well as an armoured vest under her jacket, with a pink heart surrounded by blue lightning bolts painted onto it, and 2 glowing pink lines of light around her waist, angling down and stopping at the front of her waist. Her hands were covered by leather gloves with metal covered fingers, with long dagger like hand guards extending from the cuffs of her armoured arms, and her metal boots were barbed by metal spikes. On the sides of her head, attached to her collar, was a slab of metal and a separated, glowing blue piece of glass that seemed to be able to connect together to form a faceplate and visor, which were attached to a thin metal arm on each, which stretched back to behind her neck.

Nora, with a wide smile on her face, jumped up from her chair and the wooden table, almost knocking it over, then doing a summersault and a cartwheel across the floor, before grabbing Jaune by his waist and pulling the taller boy into a hug so tight that it almost shattered his spine.

{CRACK}

Oh, no, never mind. Spine + Nora = Shattered.

"Jaune-Jaune!" Nora cheered as she spun around in place, swinging Jaune around as she moved, "You're alive! Ah, it's so great to see you again! And you're alive and okay! The last time we saw you, we were all in the hospital and you were in that stiffy old bed and I had just woken up from an awesome dream where I rode on a Drake Grimm and became the great sloth queen and created the pancake kingdom and ruled the world and created a factory of talking ducks and-"

"Nora, put me down, please!" he then heaved, "Oh god I think I'm gonna hurl!"

"Oh!" she quickly plopped him down on the ground, letting him flop onto the floor and groan in pain for his back, "Sorry!" she chuckled, scratching the back of her head with an awkward smile.

"Miss Valkyrie!" Miss Goodwitch called out, "I would please advise you to not almost crush your acquaintances to death by hugging them!" she then muttered, "The amount of times I've had to tell people that..."

"Why is everyone such big bullies, today?" Jaune went as he laid on the floor, "Neon is mean, Flynt is mean, everyone is so mean..."

Ren, having gotten out of his seat now, lowered himself to the ground and presented his hand to him, "Yes, that is what we all are, a bunch of meanies."

Jaune looked at him and cocked his head, "Was that a joke? Forgive me for offending you if I do, but I was under the impression, due to not knowing you that well, that you didn't do jokes. Then again, you did help in that love bomb joke..."

"Yes well, I'm learning", Ren took Jaune's hand, and pulled him up to his feet, "I've seen other people do it, and I thought I might follow by example."

"Yeah, he's is the quipper of all of the quips!" Nora cheered, "You should've seen him when we were in that grand battle royale in Forever Falls!" her eyes narrowed, as she brought her hands together in front of her face, "So! There we were, in the middle of the night..."

"It was day", Ren quickly interjected.

"We were surrounded by Ursai..."

"Beowolves."

"Dozens of them!" she threw her hands up for emphasis.

Ren just added in, "2 of them."

Nora just continued on regardless, "But they were no match... And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!"

Ren just sighed, and looked at him, "She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now."

Jaune scratched his chin, "I think that if it's recurring, it should mean something important."

"Like that I should start a Ursa skin rug store?" Nora asked.

"You do know that Grimm disintegrate after they are killed, right?" Ren put in, "If you try to skin an Ursa, it'll just die and fade away."

"If it's epic enough, life finds a way..."

Jaune scratched the back of his head and smiled, "Well, you guys seem to be doing well for yourselves", he paused, and then pointed a finger at then, "Nice. The outfits, I mean, they look cool."

"Aw, thank you!" Nora went.

"It's good to see that you're fine as well", Ren said, earning a smile and a nod from Jaune, and then saying, "Though you are looking rather unwell."

"Yeah, well, I did only just get out of bed", he shrugged, "Had a long nap."

Nora giggled at this, and Ren went, "Well, it's good to know that you're refreshed."

"Yeah!" Nora cheered, "I mean, what would we do with ourselves if our fearless leader wasn't getting enough sleep? We'd fall apart, I say."

Jaune then remembered the fact that he was leaving in an hour or 2, and nervously twiddled his thumbs together, "Um, yeah, about that... I'm leaving."

"What?"

"With my sister."

"What!?"

"Today."

"WHAT!?"

"I'm sorry", he looked at the both of them, and tried to ignore the massive amounts of uncertainty and hesitation in his voice as he then said, "I figured that it was... Well, it would be the right thing to do..."

Nora didn't say anything, her eyes just focusing on him, "..."

"...The awkward silence would say otherwise..."

"What the heck, Jaune-Jaune?!" Nora called out, flailing her hands in the air as she went, "Why?! What ever happened to the Weirdo Club!? What will your president-"

"Still don't recall casting a vote."

"-Do without you!?" she then, somehow, pulled up a T-Shirt from nowhere, with... Actually, that was a really nice drawing of his, her and Ren's faces over a dramatic title of 'The Weirdo Club', "I even made T-Shirts and everything! Well, I mean, I had to pay Ren for commission, and then I had to go and buy all of the T-Shirts and then dye them and-"

"Nora", Ren went, as he put his hand on her shoulder, a grey hue coming over her, and she instantly calmed down, and looked up at him, and muttered her thanks, before Ren looked at Jaune and went, "If that's how you feel, Jaune, then do what you will."

The boy in question raised an uncertain eyebrow, and went, "Are you... Are you sure?"

"It's not in my place to try and change your mind in matters such as these, nor to try and argue against your decision", Ren answered, "If that is what you think is in your best interests, then you should do them. You needn't listen to me."

"Oh", the blond boy went, scratching the back of his head and then going, "Well, huh. Thanks, I guess. Makes me feel a lot better."

"Don't mention it."

"I mean, I might."

There was a rustling sound, and Jaune, Ren, and Nora moved their heads to the sofa to see Blake growing restless, her eyes shadowed by her hair, with Leadpipe next to her trying to talk to her in hushed tones, the onyx haired girl only giving quite, few syllable responses in turn. In front of them, a news report was worded off by one Lisa Lavender on the TV.

_"In other news, the once peaceful protest movement now violent terrorist organisation, the House of the White Wolves has claimed responsibility for the Central Valerian Market shooting last night, which has claimed the lives of 11 people, 2 of them later dying in the hospital, and injuring 37 others. The shooting, carried out by 4 gunmen, all of them wearing White Wolf colours, and all confirmed to have been killed, supposedly drove into the central marketplace of Vale in an unmarked van, and targeted a group of individuals, all of them Faunus and confirmed ex-Wolf members, killing them all, before moving on to begin firing onto anyone that they can find, before they were all killed. We go live now to-"_

Blake switched the TV off and got herself up, walking to the door and marching out of the room, her face stoic, and her eyes still shadowed by her hair. Leadpipe called out to her, and then followed shortly afterwards, quickly closing the door behind him as he left.

Jaune observed the 2 of them leave, and, with concern over his face, asked Ren, "Um, should we... Should we go see what's wrong with them?"

"I would advise not", Miss Goodwitch said, reminding the others that she was there as she fiddled with her riding crop and said, "It would seem to be her own personal business, and not your own, and I doubt that she would like it if you were to try and barge into it", she paused, and then continued, "And even then, besides that Leadpipe fellow, she has been cold to everyone else, so I suspect that she wouldn't answer any of your questions anyways", she sighed and muttered something, before going, "Don't worry, I shall have a word with her after I have shown you to everyone else. Now, I do believe I know where Miss Malachite is."

"Oh, I know where she is, I know where she is!" Nora perked up, "Can we take her there, teach? You might be needed more with", she gestured her thumb to the door, "Well, with that. Me and Renny can show Jaune-Jaune around."

"Are- Are you sure about that?" Jaune began, before looking to Miss Goodwitch and going, "Is that- Is that allowed?"

"I suppose that is a perfectly acceptable outcome", Miss Goodwitch answered.

"We can take him anywhere that he needs to go", Ren said, "It's the least that we can do."

"Yeah, us Weirdo Club members gotta stick together!" Nora chirped.

"Hm, very well then", Miss Goodwitch said, before turning to the door, and going, "Just remember, no more than 2 hours, and then you have to leave", she looked back to him before she left, and said, "Good day, Mr Arc", and then left, the echoes of her heels clicking through the hallway being heard through the door, before it swung itself shut.

"I hope she's doing okay", Jaune went, "Blake, I mean, and Leadpipe", he then turned to Ren and Nora, "They are doing okay, right?"

"As good as a person can be in these times", Ren answered, "As Miss Goodwitch stated, Blake appears to be a rather cold person when it comes to others. I don't know why Leadpipe is the exception, but she's just cold to everyone else", after getting a nod from Jaune, Ren then continued with, "C'mon", patting Jaune on the shoulder as he moved to the door, Nora and Jaune following, "I know where Melanie is. Well, I have a good guess at best", he seemed to hesitate, muttering something that Jaune couldn't hear.

"Ah, thanks", Jaune said, the 3 of them moving through the Lounge's door and into the hallway, the 2 behind Ren following his lead as he led them somewhere, wherever that was, Jaune did not yet know.

They walked in silence for a few moments, before Nora looked to Jaune, and asked, "Jaune, you, y'know, leaving... Are you... Sure that that's the right thing to do?"

"...Yeah."

No.

* * *

_5 years ago..._

* * *

_"For god's sake, Morado, she's 12 years old! She's only a child! You can't keep pushing her like this!"_

_Pyrrha Nikos kept her hands to her ears as she curled up into a ball, sheltered under the covers of her bed as she whimpered, the fresh training bruises scattered across her body still aching as her aura ate away at them, doing their best to heal her whilst the echoes of her mother and father barbed words against each other could be heard through the walls to the room next to her._

_"She represents our family legacy, Athena! She represents the Nikos' name! Our family have served as the greatest gladiators and warriors of Remnant for generations, and yet she has been nothing but a failure! Her technique and form are sloppy, her speaking voice is quaky and insufferable, and her singing voice is like ash to the mouth! Has she learnt anything from my lessons?! How much of an idiot child can she be if she can't even grasp these basic concepts!?"_

_Whenever she trained with father, he would always be as harsh and as cruel as possible. Ever singing or speaking lesson was assisted by a slap to her cheek and a scathing verbal blast of viol. Every combat training lessons added another bruise, or another cut, or a bloody arm or leg, as he yelled- Practically screamed- At her to keep getting up, to keep fighting, to keep going on with the battle even when her aura had run out and her bones were broken and all of the blood had drained from her body and she was left a withering bloody mass on the floor._

_Father liked to hammer that last lesson in very much._

_"She's your child, Morado, not some cheap doll! She's not your plaything to mould and suit your tastes, just so that you can appease your ego and a legacy to some dead ancestors that don't have a say anymore! Don't give me that look, you know I'm right! If you can't change, if you can't treat her better, if you can't be a father to your daughter, then that's it! I'm done! I'll-"_

_That's okay. Father only did all of that because he loved her. He wanted her to be stronger. He wanted her to be better. He wanted her to be the best. And it was all because he loved her._

_Right?_

_"You'll what, my dearest? You'll what? Take the girl and leave? You can't leave. You can never leave. Your parents were the ones who came to mine about that little... Oh, what did they call our arranged marriage? Ah, yes, a 'Business proposal'! That's what it was! Your family brought themselves into mine, and from what I could see, you were more than happy to go along with it. In fact, you were ecstatic about it! Thrilled even!"_

_Her parents would do this a lot nowadays. Fight. Argue. Or, as her mother liked to put it, 'Aggressive discussions'. Issues about how she was being raised, and how best to deal with her and her failures._

_"Don't even joke about that, Morado! You and I both know that I can-"_

_But that's okay. They both loved her, didn't they? They only wanted what was best for her, didn't they? They were her parents, and parents always knew what was best._

_Didn't they?_

_"You can what? Tattle on me? Tell on me to your parents? Oh please, tell me, who would believe you? In fact, who are people more likely to believe? The poor deluded whore of a woman who's family was a disgraced loser in the Great War? Or the patriarch of one of the greatest families in Remnant, the champion of champions, and one of the greatest warriors of our generation, who has defeated foe after foe, won tournament after tournament, and claimed trophy after trophy, hm? Which one will they believe?"_

_Pyrrha's father had a rather peculiar goal in life. Nothing mattered to him, other than the family name and legacy. Nothing else mattered but the Nikos name. It had to be upheld, had to be elevated to new heights, had to be made stronger than ever. No matter what. It was his life goal, and as his daughter, Pyrrha had, in his words, a right and a responsibility in carrying and upholding the name, to become stronger, faster, more powerful, all in the name of carrying on the name of Nikos._

_And yet, no matter what, she could never find it within herself to share those ambitions._

_She heard her mother stomp out of the room next door, and then paused outside of her room. She could see the shadows from the bottom of the doorframe, a single pair of feet that fidgeted in place for a few moments, as if trying to decide wherever to come in or not, before moving away, the soft sound of feet hitting the carpet and creaking against the floorboards growing dimmer and dimmer, until another door was closed, and the house fell silent once more, save for the angry grumblings of her father the next room over._

_Pyrrha didn't sleep well that night, plagued by dreams of her father's infinite disappointment..._

* * *

_Now..._

* * *

The 3 of them, Jaune still following Ren and Nora as they led him down the hallways, were just about to pass by what Ren had identified as the Infirmary, before Pyrrha stepped out, looking down the other side of the empty corridor for anyone, and letting out a deep breath before looking down the other side, and spotting the trio, and then Jaune in particular, smiling as she walked out of the Infirmary and closed the doors behind her, "Jaune! It's good to see you up and well", she chirped.

Jaune nodded, and went, "Yeah, it's good to see you too, Pyrrha", and then looked over her, seeing that she too had a new outfit as well, "You're looking, um, well."

Pyrrha's hair had been cut shorter, almost ear length, and there was a long scar covering her face, from her cheek, over her nose, and to her forehead, as well as leather that covered her neck and her lower jawline. Her arms were completely covered in armour, with a glowing green circle at the centre of the back of her hand, and her shoulders were covered by metal pauldrons that held dark red fans over them, that were themselves connected to a circular bronze frame. Her upper body was covered by bronze armour over a red body glove, with a glowing red version of her logo slap bang in the middle, and her lower torso was covered by bronze armour that was segmented by glowing green highlights into 3 sections, whist on her back, there seemed to be a large metal bronze and dark red backpack. Around her waist was a long, crimson red skirt that left a wide gap at the front of her crotch, with magnetic holsters on the sides, and her legs were covered in dark red stockings with bronze armour overhead, with rectangular strips of green light in the middle of her kneepads, and her feet were covered by bronze boots lined with red fabric.

"Why, thank you, Jaune", Pyrrha went, neither of them noticing Ren and Nora move to the side as she approached him, "I figured that after the battle in the Emerald Forest, I should, well, I should invest more in armour. As evidenced, we shouldn't rely on aura alone. One must make due with as many tools of battle if they wish to survive."

"Wise words", Jaune said, before narrowing his eyes on her face and going, "The cut."

"Pardon?"

"The cut, across your face."

"Oh, my scar", Pyrrha rubbed her cheek, feeling the long bump of the scar that began there, "Yes, well, it is, well it is unfortunate, I suppose, but it is not the worst outcome. I can live with it."

"...I'm sorry."

"Pardon?" Pyrrha put her hand on his shoulder, "You don't need to apologise for that, Jaune. That was beyond your control", Jaune was about to object, but Pyrrha stopped him, "It was, Jaune, don't bully for it."

"If you say so", he said unconvincingly, something which he suspected that Pyrrha noticed, but he ended that conversation by quickly asking, "What's with the backpack?"

"Ah, this?" she gestured to her metal backpack, and twisted herself around to reveal and lug of metal on her back, with Jaune now noticing the handlebar that was attached to it, "I'm afraid that is a secret, Jaune", she put a finger to her lips, "I can't just reveal all of my tricks, less than you'd be able to take advantage of them in the training rings."

"Ah, rubbish!" Jaune and Pyrrha almost jumped right out of their skins as Nora popped up right next to them, the girl having a wide smile on her face as she then said, "He's leaving anyways, so might as well show the little guy off!"

"Wait, he's-"

Nora interrupted her by slamming her palm against Pyrrha's backpack, causing her to stumble forward as a mechanical series of whirls and ticks sounded off from her backpack, before it-

{TSCHE-CHU-CHU-CHU-TSCHE}

-Leaped off of her back, taking the circular fans on Pyrrha's shoulders with it, and transformed in the air into a long, slim, bullet shaped drone, with a black and red frame covered by 4 slim and rounded bronze armoured plating that twitched and moved around, attached to a small metal arm, whilst a bright blue optic sat in the middle of the drone, and to its sides, the 2 fans spun around into a blur and let out a soft whirl, keeping the drone up as it did a flip in the air and let out a series of beeps and whirls, floating down next to Pyrrha and letting its bronze panel arms flare out into an X as it emitted a soft bleep.

"Ladies", Nora gestured to Pyrrha, "Gentlemen", then to Jaune, "Sloths", then to Ren, "Meet AR-1, or Ares, as is her official name", she gave the drone a soft poke on one of it's bronze arms, "I like to call her Eri, though. Just feels right."

[BWEE BOOP BWEEP] went the drone- 'Eri'- As it did a cartwheel in the air and snuggled it's face right next to Nora, letting out a low hum as it did. Nora giggled and stroked it's optic, letting out what sounded like a giggle from the droid which, honestly, sounded stupidly adorable.

"Eri, huh?" Jaune went, a smile on his face as he watched Nora snuggle with the drone, the both of them letting out giggles as Eri positioned her bronze arms into a hug around Nora, "Cute name, I like it."

[BWOOP BEEP] Eri went, having heard Jaune, before removing her self from Nora- The hammer maiden letting out a sad whine as her shoulders slumped- And flying right up to Jaune, right in his face, and emitted a series of exited whistles and beeps, [BEEP BEEP BEEP]

"Yes well, unless that's a compliment, I object", Jaune said as he booped Eri on the optic, getting a happy chirp from the flying droid, "Hello there, Eri, nice to meet you", Eri gave him a happy whirl in response, shaking her optic in excitement and pressing it against his finger as she cooed, waving her bronze arms and fans around in excitement, "Well, you're very eager, aren't you?"

"Yes, well, she likes to meet new people", Pyrrha commented, "She acts like that around everyone, provided they're nice to her. If not, well..."

Eri let out an angry beep and made an approximation of a pout, as she floated back and let 2 little glowing green gun barrels pop out on opposite sides of her optic, her bronze arms flaring out into an X formation once more.

"That is honestly adorable", Jaune chuckled, only for Eri to hear this and start sulking, 4 arms and optic slumping down as she let out a sad whine, "Oh no, I didn't mean that, I meant adorably angry! As in you were both adorable and terrifying!" Eri, upon hearing Jaune's words, then perked up and cheered, twirling around in the air and letting out the robot equivalent of a giggle.

"Aw, she likes you!" Nora cheered, grabbing the droid and bringing her in for a big old hug, to which Eri seemed to panic at first, before calming down and letting off a comfortable hum.

Jaune looked to Ren for an answer, and he delivered with, "Nora had a hand in her creation. She was working with Pyrrha, Mei Dei, and a few other people down in the Forge to make her, so she kinda views her as her own child."

"Are you talking smack about my baby?" Nora looked at him, and to Jaune, and then pointed to the both of them and said, "Don't be talking smack about my baby, otherwise I will be smacking you! Don't test me, I killed a Blind Worm not even a week ago, I will slap you in half!"

"Er", Jaune began, "Don't you mean 'Snap', not slap?"

"I'm sorry, did I stutter?"

He put his hands up in surrender, "Duly noted!"

Eri let out a series of giggles, accompanied by Nora, and Jaune jokingly complained about everyone bullying him, but then Pyrrha interrupted them by asking him, "Jaune, what was that about you leaving?"

"Oh, er, I'm- I'm leaving Beacon."

Pyrrha's eyes widened at this, and Eri, still in Nora's arms, heard this and let out a sad whine, her optic and arms slumping down as she whined, while Nora looked at him with a cross face and went, "Oh great, now you've upset her. Good job, Jaune-Jaune, good job."

"Hm", Pyrrha hummed, sounding a tad bit disappointed, which Jaune winced at, before she said, "Well, I... Suppose that, well, I suppose that it can't be helped. If that is what you wish then, well I say do what you think is right. If that means that you must leave, then, so be it", she paused, before asking him, "Where are you heading now, may I ask?"

"Down to see Melanie", Ren answered that question, "We were guiding him there", there seemed to be a hint of hesitation as he spoke.

"After that, it's a few more people, first Melanie, then Ruby, then Velvet and her team, and that's it. After that, I'm gone", he said, uncertainty filling his voice.

"Oh, well, Velvet and her team- They're Team CFVY by the way. C-F-V-Y- They're in the Infirmary. They're fine, but Velvet's checking up on them, so best not interrupt them, I say."

"Ah, yeah, Velvet's training to be a nurse, isn't she?" Jaune asked, to which Pyrrha nodded, and Jaune took a quick moment to look through the small windows in the doors, to see Velvet talking to the other 3 members of her team, themselves sitting on the edges of what looked like hospital beds, and spotting that, in the continuing running trend, they too had new outfits as well.

Velvet, it seemed, had eschewed her original colours of brown and yellow and black and traded it in for a white short sleeved, buttoned up jacket with a hood, with 2 red crosses on her shoulders, as well as one over her left breast pocket. Under her white jacket was a dark red shirt with a large brow image of a stitched together heart right in the centre of it, as well as pink, fingerless gloves that stretched up to her sleeves. Around her waist, she wore a dark red knee length skirt, held down by a brown belt, and down her legs, she wore pink stockings and white boots with dark red laces.

Her teammate with the shades and the brown hair strand that ended in a gradient, as well as a scar on her cheek- Coco, the Butt Slapper- Now wore a pair of aviator sunglasses with a brown wire frame, as well as a black beret with a mocha trim and a golden targeting symbol in the middle of it. Under an open mocha long sleeved jacket with a gold zipper and trimmings, she wore a mocha coloured buttoned up shirt, save for the top few buttons, which were undone, and a black scarf with a brown rose over it, as well as a black waist cincher with a brown belt, as well as a golden belt buckle. Holding her black trousers up was a brown belt with a golden targeting sight belt buckle, with a full bandolier built into it, as well as black and brown high heel boots with mocha coloured heels and soles, tipped with fur at the top. Tied to her sides were small purses, and her handbag, now coloured brown and gold, sat on the table next to her bed.

The blind Hunter, meanwhile, now wore a black mask over his face, as well as a puffy muted orange jacket with a dark red outline over a black zipper vest, with 2 pockets on either side of the jacket, and the zipper of the vest being a muted orange as well. Around his waist, he wore a muted orange belt with dark red ammo pouches, as well as throwing knife holsters down the sides of his black ripped jeans, which had a thick, dark orange outline going down the sides of them, all the way down to his black and orange laced up running boots.

The last, and largest of the 4, who was sitting on his bed cross legged, eyes closed and face, growing with fresh stubble, stoic, wore large metal pauldrons on his shoulders, which stretched down to his elbows, as well as armour across his arms and gauntlets on his hands. Under a long robe that stretched down to his knees, and was held in place by a black belt with 2 holsters the size of great swords attached to them, he wore pale green segmented chest and waist armour, as well as armoured boots and armoured legs that were themselves covered by a brown skirt that etched out an inch under his green robes.

Jaune looked to them, "They're doing well, I see", he went, as he watched them banter and laugh, before Velvet gently hit Coco on the shoulder, and then mouthed and gestured for her to show her stomach.

And that was his cue to leave.

He moved back from the window in the door, and looked back to the group of 4 (Yeah, he counted Eri), "Well, I suppose I should be", he paused, before looking to Pyrrha and asking, "Wait, Pyrrha, what were you in there for, anyways?"

"Oh, just health issues, that's all", Pyrrha replied, "I had only gotten out of the hospital a few days after the Emerald Forest battle, and the doctors recommended that I should have a few sessions in the infirmary, in case I", she coughed into her hand, "In case I catch something."

"They were worried that the leaves embedded in her skin would give her an infection", Nora added, "Might spread diseases, and all that!"

"Yes, well, I suppose that is the truth."

"Oh", Jaune went, trying his best to ignore the knowing feeling in his stomach, before going, "Well, I... I suppose we should get going."

Ren, who seemed to have a good read on the situation, nodded, and went, "Sure, of course."

He didn't sound sure of himself.

"Ren, is... Is something wrong?"

Pyrrha and Nora had a look of realisation come over them, before their shoulders and heads slumped a little. Eri let out an uncomfortable whine.

Ren looked to the side for a moment, before his eyes moved back to him.

"I think I know where Melanie is, but... But I don't think it's a very good place to be..."

* * *

_2 weeks ago..._

* * *

_"This is ridiculous!" Melanie cried out as she trudged through the ruined dancefloor of her Uncle Hei's club, the Lightbright, her heels cracking against shards of glass as she angrily marched to the ruined bar, shattered glasses of gin, vodka, beer, and so on broken into fragments leaking down the bar side and the cabinets, and pooling on the floor. The columns that had once stood around the dancefloor were ruined and collapsed, and the dance floor itself was shattered and fragmented into a million pieces. The holographic lights and displays that they previously had on were long since dead, and the lights had been switched off, leaving the dance club in a state of almost darkness, save for the portable construction lights that had been set up for the rebuilding._

_They had had to switch the central electrical grid to the club off, as well as the water and the gas. Nobody wanted any accidents whilst they were rebuilding the bar, sorting out the plumbing and electrics, and all of that. If any of those were on, then there could be a flood, or a gas leak, or an electrical fire, or something else along those lines. This meant that, for the time being, Melanie couldn't get a shower, thanks to there being no hot water, or any water at all, to be fair._

_Not only that, but due to the now apparent lack of manpower, thanks to most, if not all of their bouncers- Or as their occasional customer, Roman Torchwick, liked to call them, 'Henchmen'- Either being in the hospital or scrapped (Hei had previously made use of a few AK-BX drones as bodyguards), Uncle Hei had to inform a bunch of their other legal, and admittedly less legal, businesses that they were going to be unprotected for a while._

_And just to add to that, thanks to all of their manpower being out of commission, and the damage and ongoing repairs to the bar, not to mention the costs to do so (Seriously, this shit was expensive!), They had to cancel a bunch of deliveries that were coming in for them, as well as the ones that they were running, as well as meetings with Hunters, police officers, informants, and so on, meaning that everything had now ground to an absolute halt._

_All because of some blondie's temper tantrum._

_"What did she even come in here for, anyways?!" Melanie went as she walked behind the bar, tiptoeing over the shattered glass glasses and trying not to slip up on the cocktail of liquid on the floor as she bent down and looked in the cabinets below, and tried to find something a G20 or something else non-alcoholic to drink (She hated alcohol and fizzy drinks. How could people drink that crap?), But found that they too had been shattered and ruined as well. Muttering to herself, "Great", she got up, leaned her hand against the bar side and said, "I mean, Uncle Hei just told us to piss off and- OW!"_

_She recoiled and withdrew her hand from the side, seeing the shard of glass that was now poking out of her hand. With a growl, she went to pull it out, but 2 hands beat her to it, one of them cupping her hand, and the other gently picking the shard and wiggling it free._

_"Thanks, Mil", Melanie went, looking over her hand and seeing the gentle blue glow of her aura healing the wound over. Miltia nodded in response, and Melanie continued on, "Where was I? Oh yeah, Uncle Hei never told us what that blond bitch wanted, did she?"_

_"Which one?"_

_Melanie gave her a blank look, "The bar destroyer."_

_"...Which one?"_

_"Oh my-", she caught herself and sighed, muttering, "I hate that that's a reasonable question", before going, "The blond bar destroyer."_

_"..."_

_"From 2 days- I know you're doing this to annoy me! Cut it out!"_

_"Ah, you know me so well, sister", Miltia teased with a smile._

_"You know, I really don't", Melanie sighed as a construction worker beckoned them to clear off, to which they did. As they walked out of the bar and around the dancefloor, Melanie continued, "I really do not know you sometimes, honestly."_

_Miltia seemed to sadden at this, and then went, "I see", before going, "That girl's rather... Explosive reaction was uncalled for, I suppose. I suspect that she tried to acquire a piece of information, or something along those lines from Uncle Hei, but he didn't have it, and she was-"_

_"So pissy pants mad that she had a temper tantrum and started punching everyone in sight", Melanie pointed to her face, "Including us."_

_"I was going to say 'Dissatisfied', but I suppose that that works too", Miltia conceded as they opened the door to the back and began to make their way to their shared room up the stairs._

_"She didn't have to kick me in the face though", commented Melanie, "Or punch me repeatedly, as well."_

_"Or throw me into a glass column", Miltia added._

_"That too", Melanie went as they got off of the stairs and began to walk down the corridor to their rooms, "We were just going to show her out as well, didn't need to do any of that."_

_"To be fair, Melanie, I believe our exact wording to each other beforehand was, 'Melanie, who is this girl?' 'I don't know, Miltia, but we should teach her a lesson'", Miltia said as they entered their shared room, with the walls and ceiling red on one side, and white on the other, "And then we proceeded to fight her. And then get out buttocks handed to us."_

_"'Buttocks', she says. What are you, 60?" Melanie muttered, flopping down on her head with a groan, "Yeah, but she didn't have to, y'know", she mimicked punching, "Fight back, and all that. Didn't need to do that."_

_"Well, we did bring it upon ourselves", pointed out Miltia, "For fighting back, I mean. We did cause a bigger mess of the bar."_

_"We were doing our jobs, Mil", Melanie said as her sister gently sat down on the bed, "She was creating a disturbance, and as bouncers, we were doing our jobs in trying to remove that disturbance."_

_A twinkle shone in Miltia's eyes, "Pretty poor bouncers, apparently."_

_"Yeah", Melanie went, resting her head against her pillow, "We need to get better."_

_"Better?"_

_"Faster, stronger, all of that crap", Melanie groaned, "Better, see?"_

_"Mm."_

_"Yeah", she raised her hand in front of her face and balled it into a fist, "How, though? There aren't any good trainers out there, not in Vale, at least", she paused, and looked at Miltia, "You think mum will have any good, like, teachers or something around here?"_

_"I don't believe so", Miltia added with a hidden layer of certainty in her voice, "And I would rather not speak to Lil' Miss Malachite, on the grounds of not having seen her or had anything to do with her in 16 years."_

_"True", Melanie went, hands slumping to her side, and looking up to the ceiling, before she brought up her hand and hit her forehead thrice, "C'mon, c'mon, has to be something...", she muttered, bringing her hand down to her stomach, and then looking at Miltia, "Hey, wasn't there a meeting or something that Uncle Hei had to cancel... Or something?"_

_Miltia nodded, "Mm hm, it was to give another person fake transcripts to Beacon."_

_"Huh", Melanie went, "That's gotta be, what, the 10th person?"_

_"37th, actually", Miltia said, "For this school year, at least. I've kept count."_

_"Huh", Melanie hummed, before her eyes widened, and she jolted up in her bed, "Idea!"_

_"Idea?"_

_"Idea!"_

_Miltia motioned for her to continued, "Idea?"_

_"Why don't we just nab a few fake transcripts for ourselves and go to Beacon Academy?" Melanie explained, "Like you said, Uncle Hei's already given over 30 people fake transcripts and stuff in for this year, and we both know he's been doing it for years now, so the guys in charge have gotta be stupid enough to let at least enough of them in! And, some of the best Hunters out there have been ones that've faked their way in, so they must be doing something right in those schools! So, using that logic, why don't we fake our way in as well? If we get Hunter's training, we can come back here and become so much better as bouncers and guards! We'd basically become private Hunters!" she then shrugged and smiled, "Plus, I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that the blondie is there, so if we do go there, then we can beat her up!" she paused, "Well, I mean, we'll have to get better at fighting first, but then we'll be able to learn all of that blondie's moves, and then we'll be able to kick her ass!"_

_"Really?"_

_"Yes, I shall shove my barbed heel right up her anus and do a happy dance!"_

_"That is assuming that she will not be learning our moves as well", Miltia pointed out, "Or if she'll even be there."_

_"Oh, be smart about it. Blondie seems to have Hunter training, due to her moves and her fighting style-"_

_"Much like us."_

_"-Yes, well, we were taught by second rate teachers, weren't we? Not actual Hunters, whereas her moves were, while still needing improvement, were a hell of a lot more smoother than ours, more refined, more finesse, so obviously she's got proper training- Proper Hunter training- So it's a high possibility that she's training to be a Hunter, and if she's is, and also is living in this area, since very few people would travel around the world just to see us, then there is also a high possibility that she'll be heading to Beacon, as it's the closest, and thereby easiest place to begin or continue a Hunter's education, so therefore, the probability of Little Miss Blonde Bar Destroyer there is, when combining all of the relevant factors, exceptionally high."_

_Miltia smirked, "Are you like that to all of the girls?"_

_"Wha- Shut up!" Melanie went in a huff, followed by a laugh from Miltia. It sounded somewhat exaggerated._

_Miltia then paused, and went, "There is also the possibility that we might be discovered."_

_"Yeah, well, judging by the high rate of Hunters that've entered and passed the academy with fakes transcripts, there is also the high possibility that we won't be, so it all works out", Melanie looked at her sister, "You in or what?"_

_Miltia put a finger to her chin, faking thought, and then going, "Well, someone has to be there to save your skin, I suppose", Melanie squawked at this, but Miltia stopped her and went, "Alright then, I'm in. Someone has to look after you, I suppose", there was a strange tone to her voice, but Melanie didn't catch it. Miltia moved to get out of her bed and said, "Should we go and inform Uncle Hei of our decision?"_

_"No, bedtime, go to sleep."_

_Miltia looked at the clock, "Melanie, it's 9:30PM."_

_"Oh my god, how many times to I have to tell you this!" Melanie pointed a finger at her, "Go to bed at 9:30, wake up at 5:30, equalling 8 hours of sleep, the healthiest amount for the human and Faunus body! Once you wake up, half an hour to get ready for the day, getting a shower, doing your hair, brushing your teeth, all of that, then a 6, breakfast, and then 7, workout!" Miltia chuckled at this, but Melanie growled, "Don't laugh, this routine is what's kept me in shape for the past 7 years! I'm in perfect shape, both physically and mentally! I don't know why you're not following this routine! I've seen you slacking!"_

_"That is a lie and we both know it."_

_Melanie groaned and began to take her dress and accessories off, pulling her covers over herself, and resting her head on her pillow._

_Indeed, it had been a lie. Over the last few months, Miltia had become more... Alert. Aware. She seemed to be looking at everyone around her as if they were..._

_Well, as if they were the walking dead._

_It was weird._

_"Whatever", Melanie said, "Sleep, go to. Immediately. I have a routine to keep to."_

_Miltia smiled, "Do you need me to sing you a lullaby?"_

_"What? No! No", She gave her a pointed glare, "I'm not a kid, anymore! I don't wanna hear that stupid song again!"_

_"Ah..."_

_That was all that she said. Miltia, much to Melanie's surprise, looked down in disappointment, a dull look coming over her. Without a word, she removed her own dress and accessories, and moved herself under her covers._

_"I see...", she waned, and then turned her head against her pillow, "Goodnight then, Melanie..."_

_And with that, she was silent._

_Melanie just looked at the back of her head against her pillow, before sighing, and turning over on her own pillow, and closing her eyes._

_"Whatever", she muttered._

_She'd get over it in the morning._

* * *

_Now..._

* * *

In the centre of the courtyard in the middle of Beacon, there stood a wall.

It was newly erected, and had only been there for a few days. It was long, very long, tall, massive, almost dwarfing out the sun in it's height, had rough and rocky edges, and was made out of a fulvous coloured rock, with rows and rows of names inscribed all across the wall. Around the bottom of the giant slab of rock, there was a small bed of fully bloomed poppies planted in fresh soil, and in front of the giant slab of rock that threw a long shadow over the ground, there was a single plaque, made out of black rock and with golden cursive written into it.

_To Those Who Gave Their Lives In The Emerald Forest_   
_May Their Sacrifices Never Be Forgotten_

In front of the memorial and the plaque, there was a single figure, on their knees, and with their head hunched over. Below them, droplets of water adorned the floor. A butterfly that had absentmindedly perched herself next to her fluttered away, unnoticed.

Dressed in a plain, dull white shirt and black trousers, both creased and dirty, Melanie Malachite seemed like she was frozen in time, for she was as still as a statue, not even flinching as she stayed on her flayed out knees, whilst from her, muffled sounds of sobs and sniffles escaped from her, barely echoing around the memorial area, only heard to either the most sensitive ears, or those who were listening close enough.

Jaune found himself to be of the latter, as he stood off to the side, unsure of wherever or not he should sit down next to her at the memorial (He remembered Skipjack saying that he had built the memorial. He had to thank him later on), Looking back to Ren, Nora, Eri, and Pyrrha, he asked a silent question, and it was Ren who answered, "She's been there, ever since it was built. Before that, she was just in her room", Nora grabbed his hand, and Ren stopped, looking at her, and then back to Jaune.

"And now", Jaune hesitantly began, looking back to Melanie, "Now she just... Sits there?"

This got a nod from the others. Even Eri let out a saddened whine.

Jaune just sighed, and pondered to himself, before making a decision.

"Jaune…"

"It's okay, Pyrrha", he went, looking back to them and going, "Hey, you guys... You guys do what you were, er, originally doing before you saw me, okay? I-I can do this", he turned around, and with a breath, began to walk to the memorial, turning back to the others and going, "I see you guys around, yeah?"

"Oh, er, don't worry about us", Pyrrha went, "We'll stay here, in case you need anything."

"Oh, well, thanks, thanks a lot", Jaune went, turning back around with a gentle wave, and then making his way to the memorial wall.

As he made his way, and eventually stopped in front of the memorial, he noted the names on the long wall. Emerald Sustrai, Cole Shoji, Venta Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, Kay Nin, Elizabeth Timore, Reid Kennedy, Vera Vermillion, Nova Cronus, Flashback... So many names, so many lives, with no rhythm or pattern in the rows and columns on how the names are ordered. All of them were placed at random. Sun Dance was next to Boombox, Mercury Black was next to Gordon Brown, Cardin Winchester was next to Curia Query, and so on, so forth...

There was one name that he was looking for the most, though.

He looked down to the girl in front of the plaque, and let out a single word, "Hey."

Melanie, in surprise, looked up to him, giving him a good look at her face, revealing her puffed, wet cheeks and teary eyes, both equally red. Her forehead was covered in bandages, as was her arms underneath her shirt, and the bare part of her waist that he could see between her shirt and trousers. Her hair was messy and puffed out, and from what it looked like, she had placed no care onto her own appearance, possibly ever since she got into Beacon.

Instead of pointing any of this out, or trying to make a joke, Jaune simply asked, "Can I sit there?" he pointed to the ground next to her, to which, she looked at him, her face frozen in the same expression for a long while, before simply nodding, and scooting to the side.

With a nod of his own, Jaune slowly moved himself down to the floor, and sat down cross legged next to her, looking at the wall, and finding the name that he was looking for.

Miltia Malachite.

It only just came to him that she'd been staring at that name when he came here, and for who knows how long.

He looked at her, both of them surrounded by a comfortable silence, before he broke it by asking, "When did, um, when did you get here?" she looked at him, "To Beacon, I mean."

"...Last Wednesday", she quietly replied, "A day after the Hospital attack..."

"...And you've...", Jaune was hesitant to ask, "You've been here, ever since?"

"No", was her response, "This memorial was finished on Saturday. I was...", she rubbed her arm, "I was in my room before then..."

"Oh...", Jaune went, "I... I'm sor-"

"You never answered my question."

"Huh?"

"Under the Emerald Forest", Melanie looked at him once more, her red, wet eyes narrowed into a glare, "In the caves. You never answered my question: How did you know my sister?"

Jaune looked at her, unable to answer a question that he truly didn't have the answer for, until soon, he whispered out, "I-I did... I said, Melanie, I never... I'm sorry, but I-I'd never seen her before we arrived in... In Beacon."

Melanie's glare narrowed, "She called you king", she added, "She spoke to you like she'd known you all of your life", she leaned forward, "She sought you out, didn't she?" Jaune hesitantly nodded, "So if you didn't know her... Then how did she know you?"

"Melanie, I...", he looked at her, his voice shaky and earnest, "I swear to you... I... I'd never seen her before. Not before Beacon..."

She looked at him some more, and then turned her head away. She shook, and her silent, sad whine left her, followed by a shaky breath.

"I'm sorry...", Jaune went, tears welling up in his eyes as well, "I'm... I'm so, so sorry... I could've done something, I could've done more, I could've saved her, and I didn't, and I could've, and I'm sorry", he paused, brought his knees up, and went, "I know you hate me for it, and you're right. You're right to hate me, and you have every right to hate me, because I deserve it. I was her partner, and I should've done more for her, and-"

"I don't blame you."

Jaune looked at Melanie, "Huh?"

She looked at him once more, her eyes and cheeks fresh with wet tears, but her expression firm and calm.

"After everything that has happened, to you, to me, to her... After everything we went though... After everything that happened that day... I don't blame you..."

She paused, and then looked down, to the plaque, and then to the name amongst the names on the walls.

"Can I ask a question?"

He looked at her, and said in a weak voice, "Sure."

"Back in the Emerald Forest, before we got into the bunker", she looked at him again, "You said that you'd seen the Brothers Grimm before..."

"Y-Yeah", Jaune went, and then began his story, "2 years ago... In the middle of the night, I was... I was in my room, at home- My first home- And I was talking to my sister, Viola, and I... I heard something outside. I heard a rock being thrown against my window. I looked outside, and then, I saw... I saw a figure... A figure staring right at me..."

"The Daughter..."

"I don't know...", Jaune went, "It was dark, and I couldn't see properly, but...", he put his hands on his legs and brought them closer to himself, "Next thing I know, my home is being burnt down, and the Brothers Grimm are killing everyone. My father died fighting them, and me, my mum, and my siblings were rescued by the House of the Golden Sun, and... Yeah..."

He didn't tell her about the Chimera Grimm. Even with everything that happened to him, half Grimm zombie seemed like a bit too much to believe.

"...Back on the Bullhead", she began, "The Daughter said that she was taking you with her..."

"I-I honestly have no idea who she is", Jaune stammered, "I don't know who she is, or what she wants", he paused, but then, more firmly this time, he said, "But what I do know, is that she was there because of me. If she was in there looking for me, then she must've brought that entire army of Grimm down on us because-"

"Not because of you", Melanie said, "Think about this tactically. Beacon is one of the 4 most well known Hunter academies, and the Hunters serve as one of the central pillars of modern day society against the Grimm, so one of the best ways to deal a blow to humanity is to undermine the academies- Those 4 central academies- And by extension, the Hunters themselves. By launching an assault on the training grounds for Beacon, and mass murdering over a thousand potential Hunters, even if they lost the battle, they would still be undermining the trust and faith that is put into Hunters, by showing just how vulnerable they, as a system, people, and an individual culture, truly are. Not only that, but even though they lost, it was still a massive pyrrhic victory for the kingdoms, meaning that further faith in the kingdoms and their ability to keep those under their care is further eroded, and then further more by the following skirmishes by these new Grimm against the walls of Vale, as well as the hospital and prison massacres within Vale's walls, and the fall of Communo and the evacuation and fall of pretty much every other small settlement in Vale. And because of the massive influx of Grimm that were suddenly present in the Emerald Forest in the blink of an eye, doubt is further thrown on the leadership of the academies and the kingdoms, as people will begin to question why such a thing happened, and how such a large number of Grimm managed to slip under the radar so easily, leading to those people garnering the opinion that the current leadership is incompetent and requires replacing, and undermining the efforts of said leadership, who now have to make multiple decisions and pass multiple new decrees and laws in response to the Emerald Forest battle, some of which will not be incredibly popular, and may further do damage to their credibility and ability to function. The entire Initiation Massacre, and the beginning of the Second Great War as a whole was an operation by the Ascendant Court to undermine and discredit Vale, the Hunters, the academies, the kingdoms, and the leadership of all of them, and safe to say, they succeeded. A lot", she paused, and then pointed to him, "The fact that you were there must've been nothing more than a dumb coincidence."

Jaune paused, and considered her logic, concluding that it, well, it made sense. From a strategic standpoint, if you wanted to make your presence know and instil fear into the populace, the worst thing that you could do was attack a place of extreme significance, such as the Hunters and the Initiation process, where there would be nothing but half trained children. By killing them, you would be underlining the fact that no one is safe from you, and that nothing is sacred to you as well, which the Grimm had very much done, to the utmost affect from what he had seen, so Melanie's reasoning was, if anything, perfectly sound.

It didn't make him feel any better, though. He said so himself.

"Hm", Melanie paused, before wiping her eyes, and going, "Same here..."

There was more silence between them, before Jaune asked, "Second Great War..."

"Oh, yeah", Melanie began, "The kingdoms announced it, against the Grimm, not each other", she scoffed, "Not yet at least", she paused, before muttering, "We were always at war with the Grimm. Why are people only just acknowledging this now?"

Jaune let her finished, before looking back to the memorial, and spotting the single name that stood out to him the most. The name of Miltia Malachite stood out like a sore thumb, almost glowing in his eyes as it sat on the wall. Though she was dead, it felt... It felt wrong, that she was there. It felt wrong that her name was on that wall, like she... Like she never died, and she was still with them, and he didn't understand why he was feeling that way even though he saw her die right in front of him-

He stood his trail of thoughts, and winced. Miltia was dead. He watched her die, and no matter what the feeling in his gut said, that was the truth. He just had to accept it.

He looked back to Melanie, and in an attempt to lighten the mood, he went, "Still, it's... It's crazy, isn't it?" Melanie looked at him, and he went, "I mean, about a week ago, or, just more than a week ago, we'd gotten here, and we were all jolly, and laughing, and you made fun of me, and all of that."

"...Heh", Melanie's lips twitched upwards, "Heh, yeah, I did, didn't I, Lady Killer?"

"Oh, god, that's not gonna stick, is it?"

"Oh yeah, definitely", Melanie went, a small curve on the edge of her lips apparent, "Heheh, yeah, you tried to flirt with me."

"Yeah."

"Terribly."

"Yeah..."

"And then I called you tall, blond, and scraggly, and then-"

"Okay, please stop, my feelings can only be so hurt", Jaune interrupted, muttering, "Why is everyone bullying me today?" before looking at Melanie and noticed that she had broken into a soft, but genuine smile.

Mission successful.

"People are bullying you?" she asked, jokingly shaking a fist as she said, "Lemme at 'em. I'll kick them in the ding-dong. Or the fanny. I don't discriminate."

"Oh my god, Melanie", Jaune chuckled, and Melanie joined him, the 2 of them laughing together and the tense air around them faded away, replaced by something just a bit more hopeful.

"Heh."

Both Jaune and Melanie jumped at the sudden laugh, and looked behind them, to see a girl dressed in black and red standing behind them, with a nervous look on her face.

Ruby's hair had been swept over to the side, covering the left side of her face, which he could tell was still entirely red from burns and scarring. Over her hands, she wore red gloves with black fingers, and from her wrists to her elbows, she wore silver armour that began at a thick bracelet around her elbows, and a thin layer to her elbow, while at her bracelets, there was a long strip of metal, shaped like a scythe blade, that extended to her elbows and clipped into the armour there. Around her neck was a silver necklace with a cross, and from her elbows was a high collar grey shirt with a hood covered in patterns of roses and thorns, with sleeves from her shoulders to her elbows, and thin silver pauldrons with a red rose printed on them. Over her grey shirt was a black corset, as well as a dark red waist clincher with red lacing, with a red rose and green thorny strands painted over it, as well as what looked like a dark red ammo belt that went down from her left shoulder to the right side of her waist, with an rebuilt, more sleeker form of her Crescent Rose connected to her back. Around her waist, there was what looked like what was left of her cape, now just a strip of crimson fabric that acted as a sort of sash going down her right leg, connected to a silver metal rose, which itself was connected to a thin black skirt with red lacing, and a dark red sash that covered the front of her crotch, with a rose patterned into it. Down her legs, she wore black stockings with silver kneepads, and on her feet, she wore black boots with red lacing, red soles, and silver crosses on the sides, as well as red fabric at the tops of the boots, tied together in a nice little bow.

"H-Hey", Ruby nervously went, playing with her hair for a second, before twiddling her fingers together, and asking, "C... Can I... Can I sit there, with you?... Please?"

Jaune looked at her, and then looked at Melanie. She, in turn, just shrugged, and Jaune turned back to Ruby and patted the ground on his other side, beckoning for her to sit down next to him.

With a sudden movement, Ruby placed herself next to him, and, whilst still playing with the hair over her left eye, looked at the both of them and when, "Hi. Hey, guys..."

"Yo", chirped Melanie.

"Hey, Ruby", Jaune went, looking her over and complimenting her outfit, "Nice look. Suits you."

Ruby gave an uncertain smile, and said, "T-Thanks", as she moved her eyes to the side and connected her hands together on her lap, her thumbs tweezing each other before resting on her knees.

Jaune noticed this, and asked, "You okay?"

She tilted her head back, to look at the sky, "...Yeah. Yeah... I'm okay."

Jaune didn't believe her, "You sure?"

She was quiet, head now tilting down, hair throwing a shade over her eyes.

"...Ruby?"

"...My Uncle."

"Huh?"

She looked up, and pointed a finger at the wall, "Up there, 14th column, 24th row."

Both Jaune and Melanie looked up to where she had said. The name Qrow Branwen stood out to them as they stared at it.

"Uncle Qrow… He's up there", Ruby started, "When... When she told me... When Miss Goodwitch told me... I didn't... I didn't believe her... I didn't wanna believe her... But, she gave me his sword..."

Her voice began to stammer, and tears began to form in her visible eye.

"His weapon... What was- What was left of it..."

She croaked out a sob, and a tear streaked down her face, her lips quivering as she spoke.

"I... I saw his coffin... I wanna see him again... I-I-I..."

She looked down and began to cry, tears streaming down her cheeks as she sobbed, muttering incoherently as she wept, "Ruby...", Jaune went, gently grabbing her by her shoulders, and turning her face to him, his eyes widening as he finally saw the burnt red half of her face underneath her hair, seeing the red, rugged skin covered in scars and scabs, and seeing that her eye had turned, from silver with a black pupil, to nothing but a dull, milky white, "Can you... Can you see?"

"I can still see", she muttered, "But I wanna... I can see... But I... I can't see him..."

Jaune paused, before pulling her in for a hug, his arms locking around her and pulling her in tightly, "I'm sorry", he muttered, "I'm sorry..."

Ruby just sunk her head into his shoulder, "I didn't... I didn't even get... To say goodbye..."

"...Well, maybe that's okay."

Jaune twisted his head around to look at Melanie, and Ruby lifted her head up from his shoulder to look at them, the both of them wondering what she meant.

"Maybe it's okay that you didn't say goodbye", Melanie went, "Because... Because if you don't say goodbye, then they're not gone. Not really... They're just... Not here right now... You know?"

Ruby looked at her, and then down, biting the bottom of her lip, before breathing out, "Oh", and then sighing, loosening herself from Jaune, the boy in question letting go of her, and letting her slide back as she said, "Thanks, Melanie, that... That actually... Helps...", she looked to Jaune, "You too, Jaune."

He put a thumb up, and Melanie just went, "It's okay", nodding as she looked at Ruby, "I know how you feel."

"Yeah", Jaune nodded, "Me too."

Ruby looked at the both of them, and then smiled, "Thanks", before she settled herself and sat straight, still looking at the name on the wall, though. Not that Jaune blamed her. It would take more than just a little speech to heal someone's wounds, and from the looks of it, Melanie knew too, as she stared sadly at the girl with the black hair that ended in a red tip.

She seemed to know a lot, to be honest.

She also seemed to know more about Jaune as she looked at him, and asked, "You're leaving, aren't you?"

Ruby looked away from the name on the wall, and to Jaune, as an uncertain look washed over him, and he looked down.

"I mean, with the way you spoke", Melanie continued, "And the tone of voice, you spoke with... Finality, and all that", she continued to look at him as she spoke, "And, well, I could... I guess I could just tell..."

"..."

"It's okay, you know", Melanie put a hand on his shoulder, "I mean, like, the people that were injured too much went home", Jaune flinched at this, and Melanie noticed as she quickly then said, "And, like, 50 other people chose to leave as well. I guess... Well, they had their reasons, and I don't blame them for having their reasons. If you want to leave, then that's okay. Nobody will judge you if you-"

The sound of quick rustling stopped her, and the feeling of a pair of arms rapping around one of his told Jaune to look to his side, to see Ruby looking up to him, her only visible eye and cheek wet with tears, and her lips curled into a wavy frown. Her breathing was heavy and quivering, and her cheek was stained an uncomfortable red.

"Please don't go", she said to him in all but a quick murmur, "I mean, I know we don't really know each other, and we've really only known each other for 2 days and a bit, and you were in the hospital for a week, and I couldn't see you there, but..."

She paused, dropping her head to his shoulder, before quivering and going...

"I don't wanna keep losing people."

There was a long silence after she said that. Neither Jaune or Melanie said anything as they let Ruby cling to his arm, uncertain of what to say or do.

_"I don't wanna keep losing people."_

The 2 of them could only wonder as to what she meant by that, to which their thoughts never went anywhere good.

Jaune looked at Melanie.

Melanie looked at Jaune.

The 2 of them looked at Ruby, whilst the girl with the black hair that ended in a red tip kept herself glued to Jaune's arm.

The 2 of them were finally about to say something, before a cough interrupted them, making the 2 of them look back, to see Miss Goodwitch looking down at them, her face stern, and yet, sympathetic, as she looked to Ruby, and then to Jaune as she asked, "Mr Arc, are you ready to go?"

Ruby's grip around his arm tightened, and he looked down to her, and then said, "Okay..."

He then told Miss Goodwitch his answer.

* * *

_1 and a half years ago..._

* * *

_The shot grazed the dummy's head and bounced off into the wall at the back of the gun range, leaving a smoking hole in the wall, as well as a burnt trail on the side of the dummy's head. With a sigh, and after recovering from the recoil, he reloaded the ML-15 rifle in his hands, fumbling a little until he finally got it right, cocking the gun, looking down the sights, and then firing again._

_{BANG}_

_The round went right into the dummy's head, leaving a smoking hole in the centre. The recoil of the shot threw him off a tad, but he quickly recovered as a seventh point went to his name on the scoreboard._

_"Nice one", Apollo went to Jaune as he put down the white chalk onto the table next to the scoreboard, and then moved himself near his cubicle, but didn't enter it (It was against the rules to enter a cubicle in the gun range when in use, especially if they've got a loaded gun with them), pointing one of his 4 arms to the much younger boy and going, "You're getting with the recoil, I see."_

_"Um, yeah", Jaune went, lowering the gun in his hand and taking his finger off of the trigger, itching one of his ear defenders off of his ear as he continued, "Well, I've-"_

_Apollo cut him off by pointing to the gun and going, "Safety."_

_"Huh?"_

_"You haven't put the safety on."_

_"Oh, crap!" he spluttered as he quickly did as instructed and put the safety on, setting the gun on the table in front of him- The barrel facing away from him, just in case- And then turning back to Apollo and going, "Sorry about that", Apollo waved it off, and Jaune continued, moving his safety goggles from his eyes and onto his forehead, and putting his ear defenders around his shoulders, "Yeah, I suppose I'm cheating a little bit", he gestured his thumb to his body, "Farmer's body, and all that. I've had to carry heavy loads, and all that. And, sometimes, I've had to help with the, um", he rubbed the back of his head, "Occasionally rowdy farm animal."_

_"What, like, horses, and all that?"_

_"Yeah... So, I'm, um, already a little bit use to, er, kickback, no pun intended."_

_"Huh, sure", Apollo put a thumb up, "If you say so", he folded one pair of his arms in front of his while his other pair went to his sides, and went, "Well, even so, you're still being effected too much by the recoil, and your aim's still a bit off, though", he pointed one of his arms to the dummy with the fresh headshot, "Though you are getting better, as evidenced, but still, your aims still off at some points, and it seems to be thrown off easily every now and then", Jaune nodded to this, and Apollo then continued, "Also, you're not holding the rifle correctly, not entirely. You've got it positioned more to your shoulder joint then to your shoulder. You push it against your shoulder joint, then the recoil might damage the joint."_

_"Ah", he went, a little disheartened as he scratched the side of his arm, "Right then."_

_Apollo tilted his head to the side, before straightening himself and chuckling, "Hey, don't be so maudlin about it, you're getting better! Much better, actually! You're a quick learner, I must say", he pointed to his arms, "And a little bit more like a brick, as well. Getting some muscle on ya, boy?"_

_"Hahah, yeah, maybe", Jaune went, grabbing one of his arms and giving it a squeeze, feeling the slight hardened skin and muscle there. He wouldn't say that he was a chiselled muscly god, or whatever, nothing like that, nothing of the sort, but he did like to think that he had at least the beginnings of muscle forming on him. He supposed working on a farm for a good part of his life would do that to him, so he didn't really think much of it._

_"Well, anyways", Apollo stopped to look at his watch, "Ah, dammit, it's closing time", he looked up to Jaune and went, "Sorry kid, we've got 5 minutes to clear up and hustle on out of here. Miss Enda tends to get a bit, er, well, I wouldn't say antsy, but its the only word that I can think off."_

_"Oi!" Miss Enda poked her head over the corner of the doorframe and went, "5 minutes till we close, so pack up and make like a tree! And put my guns away properly! If I see any of them out of order, I'll shove my boot up your backsides!"_

_"Subtler way of saying it, but fine!" Apollo called out, and with that, Miss Enda disappeared as quickly as she had appeared. Apollo then looked to Jaune and went, "C'mon, let's clear out, we've got that meeting about that Techion caravan to get too."_

_Jaune nodded, and took hold of his rifle once more, taking the ammo clip out and removing the spare round in the barrel of the gun, making sure that it wasn't loaded anymore, "Same time tomorrow?" he asked._

_"No can do, got another meeting tomorrow", Apollo shrugged all 4 of his arms, "Sorry."_

_"Nah, it's- It's alright", Jaune went, making sure to put the empty rifle on the rack (In the correct position, of course, number 16. Goodness sake, who would ever have to count that high?) Pour the unused bullets into the bullet dispensers and file away the empty clips, before he and Apollo took off their safety goggles and ear defenders, and placed them in the correct files._

_They began to file out of the gun range, Apollo briskly and with a steady pace, while Jaune began to slow down, an uncomfortable look on his face._

_He stopped in place, and Apollo looked back to him and made a questioning look._

_"You okay?" he asked, concern in his voice._

_Jaune bit the insides of his cheek, and grabbed his arm, looking down to the side before looking up at the 4 armed Faunus, and musing to himself in his mind about this and that._

_"Oh, it's- It's nothing. I'm just... I'm just thinking about stuff, I suppose."_

_Apollo paused, a look of concern over him, "Kid... Jaune… What's up?"_

_"...", Jaune didn't say anything for a few moments, as he was trying to find the right words to say, and was trying to find how he could get across what he wanted, before settling with, "How do you... You know what, I don't... I don't know... I'm trying to find a way to phrase it into a question, and I can't."_

_"Then just say it, kid", Apollo said, patting him on the shoulder as he walked over to the boy, "I'm not gonna judge you."_

_"Hm", Jaune hummed, leaning his back against a wall, and went, "I'm just... I'm just don't know how I'm suppose to... I don't know, deal with all of this?" Apollo gestured for him to continue, "I mean, my dad, he's..."_

_Apollo placed a firm hand on his shoulder, "Jaune, that wasn't your fault. There was nothing you could've done to-"_

_Apollo cursed his choice of words when Jaune then looked at him and went, "That's the thing! I couldn't do anything, and I hate it. My dad is gone, and so is my old home, and I don't know how I'm meant to..."_

_He paused, scowling to himself, still trying to find the right words to express how he felt, though finding them all to be lacking. He sighed, and kept trying to form the right sentences in his head, finding it extremely annoying that sometimes language tended to fail him, even, and especially, he needed it the most. With a second, more frustrated sigh, he then resolved to do his best to put it to words._

_"...When I was younger, and heard about the tales of my grandfather, and his father, and his father onwards, and every other one of my ancestors, about all of their heroics and bravery, and about how they were great heroes, or humble warriors, or whatever, and then I realised, I wanted to follow in their footsteps. I wanted to be like them. I wanted to be a hero, so that I could honour them...", he paused, "...But now... Now, I don't know. I still- I still want to... I think... I don't know", Jaune put his hands on his head, and sighed, "I don't know, anymore, man... I wanna... I wanna do right by my dad, and everyone else, but now, I just... I just don't know how..."_

_In truth, that probably wasn't the best way to word it, but it was what Jaune came out with as he said it. He had no idea what to do with himself. When he was younger, he wanted to be... Well, he wanted to be a hero, ever since he heard the stories of heroics from his father, and then about how all of their ancestors prior were great heroes as well. He pretty much had to be hero, because if he wasn't, then what good was he? What good would he be if he did nothing to try and honour them?_

_And yet, now, when he had failed to do anything to save his father, or save his home, or do anything against those... Things, that had attacked and burnt his first home to the ground... What was he supposed to do? He couldn't do anything at the First Arcadia, and even now, he couldn't do anything at all. Nothing to keep his family safe. Nothing to provide for his mother and siblings. Nothing to honour his father, grandfather, and family lineage._

_Nothing._

_Apollo seemed to understand though, "You blame yourself for what happened back then and you don't know how to make up for it. Is that it?" Jaune nodded, and Apollo continued, "You shouldn't blame yourself, kid. What happened back then wasn't your fault. None of it was. You don't need to feel that you need to repay the world for everything that has happened, because you don't owe it anything. All it was was just a bad set of circumstances."_

_"But I still couldn't do anything!" Jaune went, throwing his arms up in the air as he spoke, "I couldn't do anything at all! All I could do was just stand there as...", he paused, and let his hands fall to the side in frustration, "How am I suppose to, I don't know, honour my father and everyone else, if I don't have any skills, or talents, or... Or can't even do anything at all?"_

_"You can do stuff, Jaune. You're a bright kid, you just need to believe in yourself", Jaune looked at Apollo with a questioning look on his face, and he continued, "And you don't need to feel indebted to be a hero just because of your forbearers. I mean", he paused, and then looked Jaune right in the eye, "Jaune, what does a hero mean to you?"_

_"Huh?"_

_"I mean, what does the word 'Hero' mean to you? What do you think its definition is?"_

_Jaune paused, looking up to the ceiling for a moment, before looking back to Apollo, and going, "Well, it means to be able to give your life for others. It means to be able to protect others, despite yourself, and whatever reasons for doing so you might have", he gently took his wrist in hand and looked at his other, the hand balling into a fist, "It means to give combat the darkness that claws at everything good with all that you have, regardless of the consequences, all in the name of protecting everything that you hold dear, no matter what."_

_Apollo didn't deny his claims as he nodded his head, "Perhaps, it does", he calmly said, before going, "Or perhaps it has multiple meanings and interpretations. Perhaps it also means to give charity to others, or to be noble in character and moral, or to just be a good person in general", he looked at the blond boy with sincere eyes, "Jaune, there are many ways to be a hero, and there are many ways in which you can pay respects to those before you. You could be a baker, or a fireman, or a policeman, or a hospital worker, or many and any other things, and you would still be a hero in the eyes of your forbearers, because I know, deep down in my heart, that no matter what, they would be nothing but proud of you. That, I am certain of."_

_Jaune looked away from the 4 armed Faunus for a second, before looking back to him and going, "But, how will I know what to do if I can't even do anything good?"_

_"Don't go around saying that, kid", Apollo went, "You'll bring everyone down. And don't worry about that stuff, kid. You're young, and you've still got years to figure it out."_

_Jaune looked away, biting his lip, and then going, "But, how will I know?" at this point, he was surprised by Apollo's patience for him._

_Apollo seemed to muse this question himself, before going, "I don't know", Jaune gave him a look, and he continued, "Some people are born into what they want to do, some steadily grow into their passions while others just adopt them, and some", he put a hand against his chest, where his heart was, "Some just know. Some just find what they're looking for, and they just... Well, they just know", he nodded to himself, and went, "Trust me, kid, you find a way to be a hero one day. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but one day, that's for sure", he patted him on the shoulder, and went, "Now c'mo_ _n, Laeticia and Viola will kill me if I leave you alone in a gun range for more than 30 seconds. And Miss Enda, probably. Either/Or."_

_"Ah, yeah, right, I'll just, y'know, be a minute", Jaune went, going back to the rack to fiddle with the rack of empty guns, moving a few rifles that were out of order back into their proper places, before going to Apollo, "Thanks, by the way. Thanks a lot. That... What you said helps, it helps a lot, so, thanks."_

_"Hm, don't mention it, kid", Apollo went, now on his way out, and said to him before he walked out of the gun range, "See you outside?"_

_"Yeah, I'll just- I'll just be a minute."_

_"Alright then, see you out there", and with that, he walked out of the gun range, and was gone._

_"Amar!" Miss Enda's cranky voice echoed outside and through the range, "We're closing up now, so hop on it!"_

_"Yeah, yeah, sure, I'm moving. Just waiting for a friend."_

_Miss Enda then popped her head through the door, and glowered at Jaune, to which he raised a single finger and mouthed, "One minute", to which she humphed, and left him to be alone once more with his own thoughts._

_With a sigh, he looked back to the gun rack and realised that he had finished putting all of the guns in their correct positions and sections of the metal frame, and sighed._

_He appreciated Apollo's words, he really did, but despite that, they didn't help much. He still couldn't do anything. He had no meaningful talents or skills, no true aspirations, no clear idea on what to do with his life, no real strength, no combat skills, nothing at all. Just a flimsy goal to be a hero and no chance in hell in getting it._

_Well, how the hell would he even be able to be a hero anyways? How would he be able to do his father's and family memory proud if he had absolutely no skills for anything? A baker? His skills at it were mediocre at best. A police officer? He barely paid attention in maths class, let alone law. A fireman? Maybe, he'd have to look a bit more into that, but for some reason, it just didn't feel right. A hospital worker? he doubted he had the skills or even the patience to be a doctor, much less anyone who would ever work in a hospital._

_He scowled to himself, and made for the door out of the gun range. Apollo had said that he'd find what he wanted to do eventually, but in his opinion, it could not come sooner than later. He just... He just didn't know what to do with himself, and he hated it, which he supposed was doing something with himself, so it cancelled each other out, and his head was beginning to hurt so he just elected to end it there._

_Ugh, maybe doing some work in one of the family business' in Jewel might help out a bit (His family owned a bakery, a tavern, and a hairdressers. Just in case the farm didn't work out), Sort out his own life. Maybe helping out in the tavern might clear his mind. Heh, the craziest things that some people would come out with when drunk in that place. Jaune'd heard stories of people turning into birds, tales of people soloing great beasts such as krakens, leviathans, and on one occasion an evil sentient tangerine, and tall tales that, he was fairly sure, had their own mix of fabrications and wild spins of the imagination sprinkled into them._

_Actually, he remembered Viola, when they were younger, once telling him that she had met a Hunter, of all people, and that she'd-_

_Hunter._

_He stopped in place of the door frame, looking forward at nothing in particular._

_The word made him feel a little more easy. His uncertainty seemed to still, and his doubts about himself began to settle. His body lost some of its tenseness, and his breath became just that little bit less shaky._

_Hunter._

_He smiled to himself, and made his way out of the gun range._

_Maybe he knew what to do after all._

* * *

_Now..._

* * *

The ships hadn't moved at all, still sitting still on the landing pad, their occupants casually standing around and near their ships at attention, Apollo and the 2 other Golden Sun soldiers standing guard next to the Hawk Gunship, Sara and Narek, in their full body pilot armour, standing next to or leaning on their Verity fighters, and Viola standing at the front of it all, sipping from a can as she tapped her foot against the metal landing pad as she waited.

While the group made their way to the landing pad, it was Ruby who spoke first, pointing to the Hawk Gunship and going, "Woah, I've never seen that kinda ship before! Is it custom made!" she then went giddy, and went, "Oh my god are those machine guns strapped to it!? Are those ball cannons in the wings!? Where did you get this?!"

Jaune rubbed the back of his head, and went, "Ah, well, it's a custom made ship, and it doesn't actually belong to me. It was made from parts from a shipbreaking yard near my home town, and it belongs to the Golden Sun House."

"'Golden Sun'- You mean the House of the Golden Sun?" Melanie asked as she walked next to him, "One of the old Faunus Houses from before the House of the White Wolves popped up? I thought they all broke apart after the Rights Revolution."

"Ah, well, that's mostly true", Jaune elaborated, "Most of the surviving houses from the Faunus Rights Revolution did break apart some time after, but there are only 2 left now, the Golden Sun and the Devil's Kiss. The Golden Sun built up and've been running Jewel ever since, and I think the Devil's Kiss are hunkered down in some mountain in Atlas."

"Ah, forget that, check out the guards!" Nora chirped, pointing to Jaune and going, "Why've you got- Dramatic gasp!" she dramatically gasped, "Are you like a prince or something?! Are they your royal guards!? Do you have a castle with a dragon in it?!" she then turned to Ren, "Ren! Can we go to Jaune's castle and fight his dragon?!"

"No."

"He said yes!"

"Nora, I don't have a castle!" Jaune protected, "It's just a farm, and my mum and sis work with Apollo and the Golden Sun! My sis is pretty much a unofficial leader in the House, so she can pull rank on them. She must've brought these guys along for a ride."

"And as guards, I assume", Pyrrha put in calmly, Eri floating next to her, just above her shoulders.

"Well, yeah, I suppose."

"Wait wait wait wait", Melanie stopped and pointed her fingers at Jaune, the rest of the group stopping in turn, "You mean to tell me that your sister can pull rank on an entire- Does she have command over a private army, or something?"

"Er-"

"Do you have command over a private army?"

"Er-"

"No way, you have your own army of knights!" Nora cheered, "That. Is. Awesome! Our fearless leader is already a fearless leader before he fearless leader'd his way into Beacon! Ha, I knew bringing you into me and Renny's-"

"Renny and I", Melanie went.

"-Weirdo club was a great idea!"

"Weirdo club?" Pyrrha asked.

"It's a thing", Ren replied.

"It's a weird thing", Jaune went.

"It's a Weirdo Club thing!" Nora cheered, before gasping, "Oh my god, that could be our catchphrase!"

"Quick, copyright it! Trademark it! Copymark it!" Ruby went, "That way people will have to pay you if they say it!"

Melanie nursed her head, "Please stop, your blatant domestic abuse of trademark and copyright laws is gonna give me a headache."

Jaune chuckled, "Well that's one hell of a relationship."

"Hey, do not be laughing at this abusive relationship! That is the greatest sin you could ever commit against the copyright lords!" she dramatically pointed a finger at him, "Ah, just you wait! The copyright lords are gonna claim all of your Dusttube videos and demonetize them all! S'what you get!"

"Children, please", Miss Goodwitch chastised, her steely green eyes shining over the lively group, turning them all still and silent.

After a few moment of uncomfortable silence, Jaune turned to Miss Goodwitch, and went, "Um, Miss, did you, er…"

"I've already let Headmaster Ozpin know your decision", Miss Goodwitch informed him, before gesturing to the landing bay and going, "As you will..."

"Ah, thanks, Miss", Jaune, went, giving a wave to the rest of the group, and then making the first step to the landing bay, before stopping when something tugged on his arm.

Melanie looked at him with a concerned look as she held onto his arm, biting her lower lip before asking, "Jaune, are you... Are you sure that you wanna do this?"

He bit the inside of his cheek, before nodding and going, "Yeah, yeah I do."

She looked at him in the eye for a few moments, "You sure?"

"...Yeah."

She was silent for a few more seconds, before sighing and letting go of his arm, "Alright then", gesturing for him to go on, and with that, Jaune went on his way to Viola and her crew.

It was Viola who saw him first, calling out, "Hey, Jaune!" quickly leaning back and downing all of the drink in her can, and letting her arm flop to the side, can in hand, and, in contrast to her earlier expression, had a much calmer look and a soft smile on her face, "You good?" she asked as Jaune made his way onto the landing pad, getting a nod in response, "Awesome, hey, sorry about being a bit of a bitch, earlier, I think I just needed a bit of energy in my bod'", she waved the empty can to him, "My bad. Feeling better now, though, much better. Anyways", she pointed a thumb to the others behind her, "We're ready to make a move, just been waiting on you, and- Oh", she moved her head to the side to see the small group nearby, "Are those your friends?"

He nodded.

"Ah, dammit- Hey, look, you can always", she caught and stopped herself, "Wait, never mind, forget what I was about to say", she paused, "Well, I mean, you don't know what I was about to say because I never said it, but... Never mind", she looked at him, "So, you ready to go?"

He muttered something.

Viola leaned in, "I'm sorry, I didn't quite- I didn't catch that."

"I'm staying."

She crushed the can in her hand.

"I'm sorry?"

"I'm staying here", Jaune replied, more firmly this time, Apollo, Sara, Narek, and the 2 other Golden Sun soldiers looking between each other, their expressions hidden behind their helmets, though if Jaune wasn't mistaken, Apollo seemed to be expressing a posture of... Pride? He couldn't tell, but he continued on to Viola anyways, "In Beacon, to become a Hunter, like I came here to. Like I was meant to."

"What? But-", Viola began to stammer as she was beginning to sound more panicked, "But you almost died here. You very nearly died here. You- I mean, you're stupidly lucky that you weren't killed in this place!"

"And yet others were", Jaune went, his hands balling into fists, "Other people died, and I'm still here."

"Yeah, again, luckily!" Viola argued, "Jaune, why would you- Why would you want to stay here? In this place?"

"Because I have to."

"No you don't!"

"Yes I do."

"No you don't!" Viola argued, "You don't need to, and you aren't! I swear to-", she caught herself, "Did Ozzy upstairs set you up to this? Did he get to you with all of that crap about heroism and responsibility and 'The right thing' bullcrap, because I swear to god, if he did, I'm breaking his kneecaps!"

"Ozpin hasn't even seen me today", Jaune replied, "Nor have I been persuaded to make this decision by the teachers. This was my decision, my choice."

"A choice you're not getting", Viola snarled as she approached him, "I am not letting you kill yourself by staying here and then dragging yourself onto some dead man's warzone. You'll understand when we get back home."

She grabbed his wrist and tried to drag him to the gunship, but Jaune held himself in place, and didn't budge for her, "Viola-"

"Jaune, move", she pulled on his arm again, more forcibly this time.

"Sis-"

"Move, Jaune", she snarled, putting another arm on his wrist, squeezing on it as she pulled on him.

"Sis, let go of me", he put his free hand on his wrists, and began to pry her hands off of his wrist.

"No."

"Let go of me!"

"No!"

""Jaune!"" He heard Nora and Ruby go, before Ren and Melanie held them back.

"Enough!" Apollo got in between them and broke the 2 of them up, pushing the 2 Arc siblings apart as he then went, "How about the 2 of you stop fighting like children and talk it out."

"You are not my father, Apollo!"

"And you are not my child", he said to Viola, "But as the eldest person here, I suppose someone has to fill in that role, so, how about, instead of screaming at him, why don't you let him explain why he wishes to stay", he turned to Jaune, "Same goes to you too. So the both of you, act like adults, and talk", he gestured to Jaune, indicating for him to begin as he folded his 2 pairs of hands together and walked back to the gunship.

"...Alright then", Jaune began, biting his lip before going, "You want me to tell you why I need to stay here, fine. Here's my reason", he took a deep breath, "When I came to Beacon, I came with the hope of honouring our forbearers. Of making our ancestors proud of me. Of becoming a hero, so that I can bring honour to the Arcs. That's it. I had nothing else driving me, and nothing else going for me. But in the Emerald Forest, people died. And they died because of me. Better, greater people died because I couldn't save them, or because I couldn't get to them in time, or because I gave them the orders that killed them. And the rest of those left behind", he paused for effect, before continuing, "The wounded, the remnants, the grieving and mourning, they're still hurting, still nursing bloody and raw wounds", he paused, trying to find his words, before going, "In the Emerald Forest my partner died. She seemed like an amazing girl, and she was made my partner, and it was my job to protect and care for her, and she died. She died because I couldn't save her. She's gone, and I'm here."

He found that his back was straightening as he spoke, his heart beating a bit more against his chest, and his words becoming more clear as he spoke. He guessed it was his confidence, or whatever, but he didn't give it much thought.

"That's why I have to be in Beacon, and become a Hunter. To heal those who are wounded, both in mind and in body. To honour those who have died because of me, and to make sure that their lives are avenged. To bring down my sword on the Ascendant Court and make them pay for their sins. To bring down those who may do evil. To shield those I protect from harm. To make sure that no one else dies, because of me or not. To save as many people as I can. To be as kind as possible. To bring hope to everyone. To make sure that no more mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters will ever know what it's like to lose someone they know and love, not now, and not ever again."

He paused, finding his breath, looked down, and continued.

"But most of all, to repay the debt that I owe the dead", he went, "For I have sinned, and I still need to pay for it."

"...That's not fair", Viola muttered, crossing her arms in front of her chest and then, more loudly, repeating, "That's not fair. Who gave you the right to be so flippantly selfless? Who gave you the right to throw away your life for someone else's-"

She stopped herself, smacked a hand against her face, growled, and then brought the other hand up as well, rubbing her face as she sighed, before bringing them down limply to her sides."

"Okay", she began, taking in a deep breath, and then going, "You've made your point, Jaune, now let me make mine: You nearly died. In that forest, you nearly died, and the only reason you survived was due to... I don't even know how you're still alive, so I can only put it down to luck. There, that's it. Luck. And even though you're alive, you ended up in a hospital bed for a fucking week while the doctors picked away at you, and all I could do was watch over you as you were clawed away at nightmares in your sleep. For god's sake, you were pretty much reduced to a corpse! The doctors thought that you'd gone braindead!"

She paused, catching her breath before she continued.

"And that was before I got to Vale. Before then, I was stuck in Jewel, wondering what was happening to you while you galivanting off on your sojourn to Beacon. And then", she paused, "And then I called Ozpin. I called Ozpin on the night that you said that you were leaving. I told him that your transcripts were fake."

"What?!" Jaune almost cried out, "Why would you-"

"Because I care about you", Viola stated, "Did I betray your trust? Yes. Did I go behind your back? Yeah. Did I do it because I don't give a single damn about you? No, never", she relented, and sighed, "But no, no, Ozpin, he was all 'I don't care, I'm gonna let him in anyways, because fuck you and everyone around you'", she adopted a whiny voice for her impression, animatedly waving her arms around as she did, before growling and going, "He didn't care. He let you in, despite knowing that you had no training, no practice, no nothing. He was perfectly willing to throw you to the dogs, and let you die, just for, for, I don't even know what reason he had... I don't even know why..."

Jaune shook his head, and, in a betrayed tone, said, "That wasn't your choice to make."

"Of course it was", Viola argued, "I'm your sister. It's my job to do what's good for you."

"Well maybe you don't know what's good for me."

Jaune paused, and his eyes widened, realising that those words had belonged to him. He was amazed that he could even speak those words, and was amazed that they were genuine. He immediately regretted his words, wishing to take them back.

He didn't. He stood by his words. He needed Viola to hear his words, and to understand them as well. This was something that he had to do, regardless of wherever he wanted to or not.

Viola staggered back from his words, a look of confused shock on her face. It seemed that she herself was surprised by his words, as were the Golden Sun members behind her as they shuffled uncomfortably in place. He didn't see the reactions of those behind him, but he imagined they might be the same.

Viola's face then morphed into an angry snarl, and she stilled herself, "'Don't know what'... I've known what was best for you since you were able to sit on my lap. I've known what was good for you since I saw the news reports that you and everyone else in the Emerald Forest were being sent to the slaughter house! I've known what was good for you since Grandad died! I've known what was good for you since our first home burnt down all around us, and I HAD TO WATCH OUR FATHER DIE RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!"

She had screamed out the last part, her words echoing through the air and rippling like waves across the landing pad and the main avenue to Beacon, causing everyone to take a step back in surprise. Everyone except Jaune, though he would admit that he did quail a bit before her.

Her head leaned forward and she looked down, her eyes shadowed by her hair. Behind them, the sky began to dim, and the sun began it's daily fall. On a nearby light pole, a trio of birds quirked their heads to the side and continued to watch.

Jaune wanted to break the silence first, but Viola beat him to it, "Do you know what I want of you, Jaune?"

He nodded, a little unsure of what she was going to say, and to be honest, he was a little afraid for what her answer could be.

Viola's head lifted up, revealing her face once more to him. Her cheeks were turning red, her lips were positioned into a quivered frown, and her eyes were narrowed, with a tear welling in one each.

"I want you to be happy", she simply said, "I want you to be safe. I want you to be able to live a good life, where you get a good job, and maybe marry a nice person, or, or, whatever would really make you happy", she paused, trying to find her own words, "I don't want you to be like dad. I don't want you to waste yourself in something that'll only make you miserable. I don't want you to kill yourself for an unworthy cause... I don't want you to be unhappy..."

She paused, and then clenched her fists.

"I don't want you to die."

She relaxed herself, her fists flexed back into hands, and her shoulders slumping down, before she walked forward and grasped her brother's hands with her own, looking him right in the eye as she spoke.

"Jaune, please, come back home. Come back to Jewel, and to mum, and Rouge, and Jack, and Jill. Don't stay here. This place", she paused, "This place won't bring you peace, nor will the life of a Hunter, or a soldier, or anything like that. Don't be like dad, or Grandad, or any and everyone else... You don't have to be a hero..."

"Viola", Jaune went, pausing, before saying, "As much as I want to go back... I can't. There's too much that I have to do- No, need to do. I can't just walk away from this all. I'm sorry, but... This is the path that I have chosen for myself. I'm going to become a Hunter, I'm gonna fight the Grimm, I'm gonna save as many people as I can. That is what I choose to do, that is what I am going to be."

He noticed the tear that was rolling down Viola's cheek, freed one of his hands, and wiped it away. Her other hand fell to the side, and she just said, "There's nothing that I can do to change your mind, is there?..."

Jaune took in her question for a few moments, before shaking his head, "I'm sorry..."

Viola looked at him, and then took in a sharp intake of breath, and whispering, "Okay", pausing for another few seconds, before grabbing Jaune and hugging him, burying her head in his shoulder as she then went, "I'm sorry..."

Jaune paused for a second, before hugging her back and going, "Me too..."

They both held each other in their embrace for a good amount of time, taking in each other's presence, before Viola sighed and let him go, moving away from him and taking in the sight of her little brother, before pointing a finger to his face and going, "Call me. Every Sunday, every week, and if something happens. That's it, those are my conditions."

Roger that, sis", he smiled and did a quick joking salute, one which Viola returned with her own smile.

"Oh", she paused, and then held a finger up, "Wait here", she said, before quickly jogging away to the gunship.

Apollo, meanwhile, made his way up to Jaune and lightly hit him on the shoulder, "Told you you'd find how to be a hero one day."

"Huh?" Jaune went, before his eyes widened and he said, "Oh yeah, you didn't, didn't you?"

"Hm", Apollo hummed, crossing his bottom pair of arms as he put one arm on his shoulder and said, "I'm proud of you, kid."

"Wha- Really?"

"Yeah, really", he confirmed, "Everybody's gotta find themselves someday in their lives, and from what I can see, I'd say you're on the right path."

"To becoming a hero?"

"To becoming you."

Jaune hesitated as he looked up at him, before smiling and going, "Thanks, Apollo. I mean it."

"Heh, no need to thank me, kid", Apollo took his hand off of his shoulder and patted him on the back, "You're the one finding out who you are, I just gave you a pointer", he looked behind Jaune, "And from the looks of it, you ain't gonna be doing it alone."

The blond boy raised an eyebrow, and then realised what he meant, and looked behind himself to see that the group of Ruby, Melanie, Eri, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren were still there, showing faces and signs of support, while Miss Goodwitch began to walk away, a somewhat accepting look on her face. Jaune gave a wave to them, and they in turn gave a wave back each, Eri doing a little twirl in the air as she flexed all 4 of her metal arms once more into an X around her glowing blue optic.

"Hey kid", Apollo caught his attention once more, and Jaune looked back up to him and looked him right in his helmet, "Word of advice."

"Yeah?"

"Don't let them go", he said, folding all 4 of his arms and continuing, "Hold on to them no matter what", he sighed, "Trust me, kid, you only know how much you need them when you lose them."

Jaune paused, before nodding and saying, "Alright then."

A whistle caught both of their attention, and they looked to see Viola carrying a series of boxes from the gunship to them, something which she made look easy, considering that physically, she was a hell of a lot stronger than him (Seriously, while he had the beginnings of muscles on him, she was freakin' ripped under her shirt).

"You're lucky that we carry spare sets of armour and guns and stuff in the gunship", she dropped the boxes onto the floor with a loud thud, and then looked at Jaune, "You know, just in case they need to be replaced or something."

"Whoa, wait, are you- Are you giving me these?" Jaune asked as he looked at the boxes in front of him with wide eyes.

"A suit of combat armour, fully customisable, guns from ML-17 pistols to the ML-15LE Wire Rifle, as well as knives and an electrostaff combo weapon, just for the hell of it", she listed off, patting the top box as she said, "You haven't got any real training, do you? Gotta compensate for it somehow."

"With a million bullets?"

"Pretty much", she replied, before slipping a piece of paper onto the top of the boxes, and going, "There's the doctor's list, by the way, for what to and not to do while your healing, as well as the exercises that he advised for you as well. If you are gonna start training up your body, then you'll need to organise your schedule around this, and try not to strain yourself too much while your body is healing itself, so just keep that in mind."

"Huh", Jaune hummed, "Yeah, this'll work. It'll work a lot", he paused, trying to find his words, before making a decision, walking around the boxes, and then enveloping Viola in another hug, nursing his head in her shoulder and going, "Thanks, Viola. I mean, it, this... This means so much."

"Just... Just try not to hurt yourself, okay?" Viola chuckled, as she wrapped her arms around him in turn, while Apollo hummed and made his way back to the gunship, his work done. Viola then raised Jaune's head from her shoulder and asked, "Arc's promise?"

Jaune sighed, "That, I can't promise you", he shrugged in the hug, "Comes with the territory, I presume."

"Well, at least try, for me."

"That, I can promise you", they tapped their foreheads together, "Arc's promise."

"...I love you, little brother", Viola said, "I want you to remember that."

Jaune moved his head away, looked her in the eye, and nodded, "I love you too."

Then, they parted ways. Viola got onto the Hawk Gunship, as well as everyone else, Sara and Narek took off in their ships, the gunship lifted off, and with that...

They were on their way back home.

Jaune looked on as Viola's ship and escort slowly faded away, cresting over the top of a great mountain, and then disappearing from his sight. That could've gone better, but then again, that could've gone worse. He wasn't really sure if there was anything else that he wanted to say there. He didn't think so, but then again, he couldn't think of anything else to say at the moment, but he might think of something later. And if that happened, he could always tell his sister on Sunday when he called her up to let her know what's been happening. That'd be a fun phone call, and no, that wasn't sarcasm, just to make himself clear.

He looked down, and pocketed the doctor's note so that it wouldn't fly away in the gentle breeze. A hand on his shoulder made him jump, and he looked to the side to see Melanie gazing at him, before looking onwards beyond the mountain and saying, "That could've gone better."

"And at the same time, it could've gone worse."

"I suppose", Melanie conceded, "Arguments between siblings have been known to be, well, messier than that."

"Tell me about it", he heard Ruby mutter.

"At the very least, you seem to have mended the problem between you, and like your friend said, sorted it out like adults", Pyrrha appeared by his side as she said this, Eri floating above her head as she nodded her single optic, accompanied by a series of supporting bleeps and bloops.

"Well, like Melanie said, it could've gone better", Jaune said, "But yeah, for now, at least, she's cool with me staying here. Just have to try not to get into any trouble."

"Yeah, about that", he spotted Nora rubbing the back of her head, "Unfortunately for all of us, trouble's my middle name!" she shrugged, "And Connie. Connie's my other middle name."

"Nora Connie Valkyrie", Ren chuckled, "It rolls of the tongue well."

"Hey, that's Nora Trouble Connie Valkyrie to you, mister!"

"Yeah, you do seem to be, don't you?" Jaune joked, getting a laugh from Nora.

They stood still in peace for a few moments, before Ruby quickly went, "Wait, what was that your sister said about fake transcripts?"

Pyrrha's eyes darted from side to side. Nora, Ren, and Melanie looked away. Jaune just froze.

"Er…"

"Well", Nora awkwardly began, "To be fair, I... Kinda faked my way in too."

Everyone but Ren looked at her with wide eyes, but it was Jaune who went, "Really?!"

Ren raised his hand, "It is exceptionally difficult for orphans without official combat records to get in. Also, so did I."

"If we're hanging all of our dirty laundry out to dry", Melanie put her hand up, "I faked my way in as well. Just... Throwing it out there."

"...Huh", Jaune hummed, "And here I thought I was the only one."

"So wait, you...", Ruby trailed off, "Huh."

"You know", Pyrrha began, "I believe that there are many people in our year that have faked their way in."

"Yeah, I think a good third of our year've faked their way in", Melanie mused.

"Huh", Ruby repeated, "Well, that's... New, I guess."

"You know anyone else who's faked their way in?"

"What are you, a cop?"

"Atta girl."

"Well", Nora chirped, "This has been illuminating, I must say", she paused, before looking at everyone, and going, "Hey, just asking, when's the, er, team making initiation ceremony event... Thing?"

"Er, not for 1 or 2 more hours", Melanie went, checking her scroll, and going, "Yep, not for an hour and a half. We should probably get going."

"Ah, right", Jaune went, moving to pick up the stack of boxes below him, going for the last box in the pile and moving to pick it up, "I should probably... Agh", he made an effort to lift the boxes, before lugging them up off of the ground, and holding the bottom one to his chest as he held them up, "Ugh, this is heavy."

"Would you like some help there, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked politely.

"Ah, no, it's...", he paused, and then spared a look at the redhaired girl, "Actually, do you know where the Forge is?"

* * *

"Oooohh~", Skipjack cooed as he held the plain white helmet in his mechanical claws, his voice echoing around the Forge as he then said, "You said this was standard issues, right?"

"Er, yeah", Jaune's voice echoed out of the changing room, the sound of armour being carefully placed in a box accompanying it as he then said, "Well, it's standard issue for the more higher ranking Golden Sun soldiers, like captains, and stuff."

"Well, whoever designed your new gear is officially my newest favourite person", Skipjack went, looking down at the helmet that reminded him somewhat of a bee, "Seriously, this is like, designed to be fully customisable. Access ports, attachment clamps and sockets, your entire armour set is completely interchangeable! There's, like, a million different possibilities for customisation! Ah!" his 4 metal legs formed into one and spring jumped him into the air, "I wanna meet this guy! He seems like my favourite kinda person!" he sighed, "Aw, I wish Mei Dei was here to see this, but no! Professor Heliotrope has to order her to sleep, just because she's stayed up for like, I don't know, 3 days, or something", he frowned and scoffed, "Jerk.

{DING}

"Uph, paint's done!" he jumped over to what he has said was a quick drying paint mixer, and pushed a few buttons on the microwave looking device, and then going, "You almost done in there? I wanna get to the Initiation Ceremony as early as possible. They've got some brand new AK-B2 drones there that I wanna inspect. I reckon that I can make at least a dozen modifications to each of them in the space of an hour, even without Mei around!"

"Ah, right, I'm pretty much done", Jaune said as the sound of a changing room door opening and closing echoed through the door that lead to the changing rooms, "Hey, nice work on the memorial, by the way. That was a really nice thing that you did for everyone."

"Aw shucks, thanks boss!" Skipjack cheered, putting the helmet down on one of the work desks and going, "To be honest, I was probably gonna make it anyways, even if you hadn't said so."

"Oh, well, I-I actually don't really remember that..."

"Yeah, well, you were loosing quite a lotta blood, and then crashed into an Air Bus, so I don't blame you for that."

"Hm, I-I guess", Jaune said as he opened up the door to the changing rooms and walked back into the Forge with a box stuffed with his new armoured suit in his hands, putting it on the ground as he then went, "Yep, it all fits, thank goodness."

"Ah, that's convenient!" Skipjack went as he gestured to the quick drying paint maker, "Right, paint's in there, so you can sort it out. You'll probably have to put a second coat of it on later on, just to make it stand out more, and look better, but for now, it should be good enough", he then separated his one leg into 4 once more, and began to scuttle to the exit out of the Forge, "Now then, I'll leave you to it then. Gotta see to the AK-B2s! I've already got a couple of modifications and ideas in mind!"

"Wait wait, before you go", Jaune quickly let out, "Earlier, Mei said that she had something for me in here, do you know what that was?"

"Oh yeah, your old gear!" Skipjack cheered as he quickly jumped to the side and ran to what looked like a wide closet that stretched across part of the wall, pressing a few buttons on the edge of it, to which the front of the closet opened up to reveal a long weapon's rack, to which Skipjack started rummaging through it, commentating, "When you were brought out of the Emerald Forest and sent to the GVMC, your armour had been pretty much shredded and in ruins, and we haven't gotten around to making any chance of repairing it all yet. It's still in the cupboard over there. But, your sword and shield, they were damaged, yes-"

He pulled out a sword with a golden cross-guard and blue hilt, tucked away in a pure white sheath. Crocea Mors.

"-But not irreparable!"

He scuttled over to Jaune and pulled Crocea Mors from it's sheath, letting it's silver blade, looking as sharp as ever, glisten in the dim light, and then turned the sheath into it's shield, the white slate of metal with the golden double crescent looking exactly the same as it had from before the Initiation Massacre, curves and edges and all.

"Mei had wanted to make, like, a bazillion modifications to it, but that girl, Ruby, had argued against it", Skipjack said as he waved the sword in the air, light shine off of the silver blade, "She had said that it wasn't right to make radical changes to it without your permission, so we- Well, I mean she, Ruby- Just made it almost the same as it was from before the Emerald Forest, nicks and all", he chuckled, "What's this blade made out of, actually? The hilt had practically melted in the fires, but the blade was completely undamaged. This's the densest, toughest metal I've ever seen", he sheathed the blade in the shield, "The shield does have new metal built into it, though, as well as the hilt and cross-guard. It's now tougher, but also lighter than it was from before, so it'll be easier to carry", he collapsed the shield into it's sheath, and then presented it to Jaune, "Here you go, bossman, as good as new. Maybe a little better."

Jaune was silent as he carefully took Crocea Mors into his own hands, inspecting the blade in silence, testing its new, lighter weight, and running his fingers down the metal, feeling the smooth, flawless skin of the sheath, before he spluttered, "T-Thank you, thank you so... I... I don't know what to say..."

Indeed, he really didn't. This sword, Crocea Mors... It had, and has, long been a- The symbol of the Arc family, with so many great stories attached to it, ranging from the stories of heroism against the armies of Mistral and Mantle during the Great War, and against the legions of Grimm during the Cataclysm, defending the walls of the baby city of Argus against the mercenary tribes of Mistral and Vale during the Coca Wars, and breaking out of the slave rings of old Vale, all the way to the legends and myths of ancient history, ranging from the fabled Lord of Greed and his Blinded, to the whispers of Danse Dans Les Ombres, the legendary Faunus Empire, Sulphur and Omega, all the way to the ancient legend of Azul Primus and his Ascended, and the great King of Remnant.

Crocea Mors was the greatest symbol of the Arcs, with so much history and legend accompanying it, it's history being part of the greatest legends of Remnant. To see it given back to him, as good as new, a piece of his family history returned to him, as clean as the day that it was made... It was like being reunited with a piece of himself. A piece that he hadn't known that he'd lost.

"Just try to use it well", Skipjack said, putting his claw against his chin and closing his open mouth, before saying, "As well as thank that Ruby girl", he then once more made his way to the door and said, "Now go get yourself sorted out and get to the Team creation ceremony. It's in the Amphitheatre. I trust you know where that is", Jaune gave a hesitant nod, and Skipjack just went, "Splendid! Now then, go on, hop on it!" he shifted his 4 legs in one, "I know I certainly will", and with that, the rabbit Faunus Techion spring jumped out of the Forge, and onwards to the Amphitheatre.

Jaune looked on to the door, and then his eyes widened and he mentally slapped himself. He should've asked for directions, just in case he didn't actually know his way there.

Which most likely wasn't a case of probably and more of a case of definitely.

Dammit...

"Oh well", he muttered to himself, pressing a button on the quick drying paint maker, and taking the tub of golden paint out of the open machine, grabbing a nearby brush and dipping it into the tub, before grabbing the box of armour on the floor and taking the lid off, revealing the pure white armour pieces underneath.

As he looked down at his helmet, it's black visor staring back at him as it sat on the side, he took the paint brush in hand and pushed it against the helmet, making the first stroke.

* * *

He finally found the amphitheatre, after a good while of searching, still with a little bit of time left, _Oh god, I hope this doesn't set a precedent for my time here_ , he thought to himself as he ran in his rather snug armour set, with a fresh coat of paint and patterns over it, as well as some certain additions and modifications that he had quickly added as well.

He hummed to himself, and opened the wide doors to the amphitheatre, not noticing the sudden silence as he walked in and try to act as calmly as possible as he stopped outside of the central ring of the amphitheatre, taking notice of the masses of second, third, and fourth years that sat up above in the rows and rows of seats, almost overflowing with people, seeing as a few of them had to stand up just to fit in with the rows.

Down below, spread out all around the amphitheatre, all the way from the entrance to the main stage, newly minted first years, numbering 200, stood to attention, almost all of them separated into 4s, and now wearing fresh outfits, ranging from the plain to the practical to the fancy to the dizzyingly mad in terms of colour vomit and design.

Near the entrance, he spotted a familiar group. Pyrrha, Nora, Ren, Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Ciel, Blake, Leadpipe, Flynt, Neon, and...

There she was.

Melanie Malachite, freshly cleaned, and in a brand new outfit that consisted of a pure white dress , with a short skirt that ended at her thighs and a white chest binder, all with cyan outlines, with fur shoulder straps covering the entirety of her shoulders, leaving her neck exposed, and with a white rose sitting above her breasts. From her shoulders down to her hands, she wore cyan fingerless arm stockings, with her fingers covered by sharpened talons and armour, and around her wrist, she wore white metal bracelets that had what looked like segmented knuckledusters built into them. The bandages around her forehead were gone, revealing a deep cut scar that was shadowed by her fringe, while her hair, once earlier curled and messy, now looked freshly clean, cut, and straightened, flowing down her back, while around her eyes, cyan blue makeup shadowed them, while on her left shoulder, a pair of feathers, one blue, the other red, stuck out over her shoulder. Down her legs ran cyan stockings, while from her knees to her feet, she wore pure white heeled boots with red lacing lacing, with long blades running down the back of her knee high boots, replacing her heels and leaving her taller than she actually is, while the top of her boots was lined with white fur. On her hips, there seemed to be 2 empty holsters, while on her back, there was a pair of small, folded up metal angel wings

She looked beautiful, she really did. And no, Jaune wasn't afraid to say that. At least, not to her, or anyone else's face. And he wasn't afraid to say this because 1: It must take someone forever to put on all of that make up and she did it little over an hour, which was impressive in of itself, and 2: This meant that Melanie was finding the confidence from the death of her sister to stand up here in front of hundreds, if not more, and he was more amazed by her than anything else, because if his sibling had died, he wouldn't have done anything but lock himself away and cry, so for her to be able to move past all of that and stand here, it truly was amazing.

The road to recovery, for her and for everyone else, was long and winding, but in the end, it was a road worth taking.

He looked up to the large screen that hung over the stage, to see a series of names sectioned off into 4s, each one accompanied by a picture of that person's face, along with titles that ran off after the names.

The next generation of Hunters, team names and members all.

**_DJ - Russel Thrush - Alexis Kennedy - Sky Lark = DRAL (Derail)_ **

**_Matera Teale - Esper Frye - Sora Auburn - Lavender Nera = TEAL (Teal)_ **

**_Skipjack - Scrapster - Toland Noire (Steam) - Mixer = SSTM (Storm)_ **

**_Shadestep - Voltage - Toil - Trouble = SVTT (Sovereignty)_ **

**_Bayonet - Sayber - Afterburner - Kayble = BSAK (Bismarck)_ **

**_Razor Azure - Yang Xiao Long - Omega Galahad - Rancor Sierra = RXOR (Razor)_ **

Yang? Yang was in her own team? Not with Ruby? He looked to the blonde girl, seeing her look away in annoyance, her arms folded together, with her fingers digging into her arms, and her glowing eyes and purple highlights across her body giving a slight red tint. From the looks of it, she was clearly not happy about it, to which he chastised himself for pointing out the obvious.

It was then that he noticed that everyone else was looking at him.

He stuttered under his breath, too quiet for anyone else to hear, straightened himself up, and tried to appear as confident as possible, as he said through his helmet, "Sorry about being late", he tried to make his voice as smooth as possible as he spoke, "I had stuff to do."

"Not a problem, Mister Arc", Jaune looked down, and saw through his visor Headmaster Ozpin and Miss Goodwitch standing on the stage, with Zwei plopped down next to them, happily panting away as Ozpin continued, "Nice armour, by the way."

"Thanks", he simply said with a single nod and a half wave.

"Nevertheless, try not to make this a habit. We wouldn't want you to have a bad mark on your record now, would we?" Jaune gave Ozpin a quick nod, and the Headmaster chuckled before going, "Now, could Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Leadpipe please make their way onto the stage?"

Ruby sighed and began her way to the stage, but not before sparing a glance, smile, and wave to Jaune, which he returned as she walked up onto the stage, followed by Weiss, Blake, and Leadpipe, whilst everyone looked at them, eager to know what the new team would be called.

Jaune, meanwhile, walked up next to Pyrrha and the rest of the group and simply went, "Hey."

The group began to look him over, pouring over his armour and equipment.

"What?"

"Hey boss", Flynt spoke up first, "You need anymore guns?"

"Huh?" Jaune looked himself over, taking in all of the weapons that he had strapped over his body, "Oh, you mean all of these?" he decided to take off his helmet, and held it under his arm as he then spoke, "Well, I've gotta compensate for my", he rubbed the back of his head and gingerly looked away, muttering, "For my lack of training", before looking at them and going, "So, you know, gotta make up for it in any way I can, so, you know, a lotta guns."

"Huh", Nora hummed, before smiling and going, "Well I like it! Lotta guns, lotta bombs, lotta explosive possibilities!"

"Don't let her get to any of your weapons", Ren simply stated to Jaune, "She'll find a way to either turn them into a bomb or a hammer", he shivered, "Or both."

"I'll... Be sure to remember that."

"Ruby Rose", their attention was brought back to the stage as Ozpin spoke, while Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Leadpipe stood to attention, "Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Leadpipe. For your courage, and your sacrifice, henceforward, you shall be known as Team Rosebloom."

Their names appeared in order on the screen, followed by their team name, as well as the spelling RSBL.

Ozpin then continued, "Led by Ruby Rose."

Ruby's eyes widened in shock, as everyone inside the auditorium began to clap, Zwei jumping up in happiness as he jumped up into her arms and began to lick her nose. Weiss seemed to let out a noise of indignation, saying something that Jaune didn't hear, while Leadpipe gave her a thumbs up, and then poked the stoic Blake in the ribs and told her something, to which Blake awkwardly put her thumbs up as well, much to the humour of everyone. Nearby, Yang let her arms down and balled them into fists.

"She'll make a good team leader", Jaune said as he put his helmet down on the ground before him and clapped as well.

Neon gave him a look, "You really think so?"

He looked up to the stage, and Ruby looked down at him. Their eyes met, and they both smiled.

"I know so."

Ruby gave Zwei over to Miss Goodwitch, and beckoned her team to follow her back down the stage, to which Leadpipe and Blake followed, with a fuming Weiss following shortly behind, to which Ozpin then went, "Neon Katt, Flynt Coal, Ciel Soleli, and Melanie Malachite, could you please make your way to the stage?"

Melanie gave an awkward smile, and she went, "I guess that's my que", before turning around and moving to the stage.

"Hey Melanie", Jaune said, catching her attention, "You look good."

She gave him a smile, "Of course I look good, I made this outfit myself", she chuckled, "But thanks, anyways, s'nice to know someone out there appreciates good looks such as mine."

"Heh, well then, if you say so", Jaune laughed, before giving her a thumbs up, "Knock 'em dead."

Her smile turned sly, "I intend to, Lover Boy."

At least she still had her confidence. That seemed to be a trademark of hers.

She began following Neon, Flynt, and Ciel up the stage, and Jaune noticed Ruby suddenly standing next to him as she went, "Hey, Jaune."

He smiled down at her, "Thanks."

"For what?"

He unclipped Crocea Mors from his belt and presented it to her.

"For keeping a piece of my family's history alive."

Before he knew it, he had already enveloped Ruby in a hug, much to the cooing of Nora and Pyrrha. It was a hug that Ruby gingerly returned.

"Don't mention it."

"I just did though."

"Dammit, Jaune…"

They separated from each other, and then looked back up to the stage, to see Melanie finally join the others up there, and stand to attention.

"Melanie Malachite, Neon Katt, Ciel Soleli, and Flynt Coal, for your actions in the Emerald Forest, and your bravery, you shall, henceforth, be known as Team Mince."

Once more, their names popped up on the screen, along with their team name and the accompanying spelling, MNCC.

Once more, Ozpin continued, "Led by Melanie Malachite."

Melanie's own eyes widened, and staggered back a step, before standing firm and steeling herself, resolve evident in her eyes, whilst Flynt led out a fancy tune from his trumpet, Neon skirted around them and did a twirl every now and then, and Ciel just stood stoically, and to attention.

With that, they made their way off of the stage once more when the clapping dissipated, and Jaune turned to Pyrrha and asked, "Are you guys already on a team?"

"Nope", Pyrrha chuckled, "You and I, as well as Nora and Ren, we're the only ones left, to my knowledge."

"Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, and Jaune Arc, would you please make your way onto the stage?"

"Ah, speaking of which", Pyrrha said, though she seemed to be a bit nervous, though before Jaune could ask about it, she was on her way, followed by Nora and Ren. Jaune then just mentally shrugged- He'd worry about it afterwards- And then kicked up and popped on his helmet, hearing the little whirls and ticks as his black visor began to glow blue once more, and he began to make his way up, before he felt Ruby tap him in one of his exposed joints.

"Good luck", Ruby said.

Jaune smiled and gave her a thumbs up, "Thanks", and then gave her a little wave and made his way towards the stage, passing by Melanie and her new team, giving them a thumbs up as well as he passed them, something which Neon and Flynt returned, while Ciel gave him a stoic nod, and Melanie gave him a smile.

As he made his way up to the stage, he spotted, in the rows of seats above, Velvet and her team, to which he gave them a wave of their own, something which they seemed to spot and waved back, prompting a chuckle from Jaune as he walked past a reflective sheet of glass that was built into the wall, and looked over himself.

His new armour, once completely white, with a bee like helmet and a glowing blue visor, now had golden patterns running down it, with 2 golden stripes running down the front of the helmet, and now completely golden shoulder pads, kneepads, and elbow pads, with a black patch of his old armour covering his left breast plate, providing extra protection for his heart, while on his right breast plate, was his golden double crescent logo painted onto it. Strapped onto his shoulder pads were knife holsters, and across his left arm was a scroll that'd been incorporated into the armour, while on the right side of his helmet was a shortened antenna for communications, and across his body, from his left shoulder to the right side of his waist was a greyish black ammo bandolier with a ML-15A carbine strapped to it. Around his waist was a golden belt with ammo pouches strapped to it, as well as 2 holstered ML-17 heavy pistols strapped to either side of his waist, numbering 4 in total, and Crocea Mors strapped to the left side of his waist. Also attached to his waist was a belt cape that went all the way round, and ended at his sides, and down the armoured section of his legs, extra pieces of black armour plating covered them, and black metal covered the upper toes of his white shoes. On his back, an electrostaff combo weapon and ML-15LE were safely strapped to him, and down to his lower back, above his waist, a folded shotgun had been carefully strapped to him.

Safe to say, in Jaune's mind when it came to how many weapons that he wanted, go big or go home. And he didn't want to go home just yet.

Up above, he heard the familiar, gentle sound of turbines, and he looked up to see the bullet shaped drone with a single blue optic in it's middle and 2 circular fans sticking out of the side, Eri, coming right up close to him, going [BLEEP BOOP BEEP] as she then separated and flayed her 4 arms out, before flying off to join Pyrrha and the others on the stage. Jaune chuckled as he walked up the stairs. She definitely seemed like the excitable type as she floated above Nora and spun round in the air, clapping her arms together as Nora cheered her on.

Once he got up to the main stage, and stood to attention next to Nora, while Pyrrha stood in between her and Ren, with Eri floating above them, Ozpin then spoke up, and went, "Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, and Lie Ren, for your stunning bravery within the Emerald Forest against the Grimm, you are, for now and always, known, as Team Juniper."

Once more, their names and team name flashed up on the screen, along with the spelling of JNPR. Eri saw this and let out an exasperated and almost sulky series of whirls and beeps, before Nora went, "It can be Team JNPER with an E", causing Eri to then let out a series of happy beeps and fly around the amphitheatre, before stopping and coming to rest on Nora's head with a content whirl, to which Nora stoked her optic with a smile.

Ozpin chuckled, taking a sip from his mug which Jaune was surprised that he hadn't noticed later...

And then dropped his biggest bombshell.

"Led by Jaune Arc."

Jaune didn't notice the chorus of clapping as he staggered back, "W-What?!" unable to process Ozpin's words. Him, a leader? Why was he the leader? He couldn't lead, he couldn't fight as well as the others, he wasn't as confident, or competent, or on any actual level than Pyrrha, or Ren, or Nora, or anyone else, so why did Ozpin suddenly decide to put him in charge.

He had the sneaking that it was only because the Headmaster couldn't think of a better name for the team. Should've asked Nora, in his opinion.

The girl in question, however, didn't mind at all, in comparison to him, as she just cheered, "Woo! Team JNPER with an E!" Eri cheered as well, clapping her 4 arms together as Nora quickly grabbed Ren into a bear hug and went, "Sloth hug! Hugs with all of the sloths in them!"

Ren chuckled, and hugged her back with a smile, "Well at least let me return the sloth hug then", letting Nora know to free his arms a little and let him wrap his around her, before he booped Eri in the optic and allowed her to float down and flop on top of Nora's head.

In turn, Nora chuckled and freed one of her arms, going, "Boop", as she booped Eri in the optic as well, getting a happy boop from the drone in turn.

Meanwhile, Pyrrha had turned to Jaune and said, "I think you'll make a great leader, Jaune", there seemed to be a note of relief in her voice.

Jaune just sighed and nervously responded to her with a, "Please don't encourage him", knowing that Ozpin was still looking at them.

"Oi, you 2" Jaune and Pyrrha stopped and looked at Nora, who simply went, "Get over here!" not giving them a choice as she then pulled them into a great big group hug with a-

"Ack!"

"Ugh!"

-From the 2 of them, before Nora cheered, "Group hug round 2! Love bomb! WMD against the Grimm! Ah, we're gonna beat all of their faces in with the power of love! And bombs! Love bombs!"

Despite his sulking, Jaune chuckled, and went, "The snuggle rounds are loaded in the barrel", getting a laugh from the others and a whirl from Eri as he laughed as well, and looked away to the side under his helmet.

Well, despite everything, if he had to be on a team with these guys...

Then his time here was going to be interesting indeed.

* * *

"So, that's that."

Jaune, Melanie, and Ruby sat crouched down together on one of the rooftops of Beacon near it's edge, gazing up at the freshly revealed stars as the shattered moon hung overhead, the sky devoid of clouds as the evening chill set in, and the lamps and lights of Beacon illuminated the grounds below. In the far distance, the city of Vale shone like a lamp in the night, spreading it's light all around it, while against it, the green fields and forests of Vale went to rest and slumber in the darkness. Far away in the distance, the jagged remains of the Emerald Forest and the fields around it, punctuated by the cooled and cold remains of the ships that had fallen to the ground, fell still, and the animals within looking for a new home made room in their new nests and fell to sleep. The night time owls came out to play their tune, and near them, a flight of fireflies danced in the sky, flying hither and thither against the darkness.

"Yeah", Melanie sighed out, "Weird, isn't it? I mean, I really didn't think I'd become a team leader."

"Me too", Ruby said, before pulling out her scroll and going, "You've got your timetables, right?"

"Yep", Jaune hummed as he tapped at the scroll built into his arm, pulling up his weekly timetable as he then went, "Leadership and extra skills lessons on Saturday, as well as physical therapy sessions from Monday to Friday, followed by regular lessons on the weekdays as well. You?"

"Same here", Melanie went as she pulled out her scroll in turn, "I guess we've both still got wounds that I need to work through."

"I haven't got physical therapy", Ruby went, before going, "Do we really need physical therapy? As Hunters, I mean. I thought that aura healed all our wounds..."

"Not all of them. Aura healing depends on a few factors, or more specifically, the amount of aura you have, and the seriousness of your injuries. If you have low aura, your wounds won't heal as easily or quickly, because you'll have already used it all up in trying to heal them halfway, whereas if you have really high levels of aura, the wound will heal just as quickly, to the point of fading away almost immediately. Same with the seriousness of the injury. The worse the wound, the more aura will be used to heal it, and then the quicker it'll run out, and the other way around as well. And even then, there are some things that aura can't heal, like nerve damage and dislocated limbs. And in Lover Boy's case", Melanie gestured to Jaune with her thumb, "He was in a hospital bed for around a week, so he and the guys here will have to check and work through things like pressure ulcers, muscle cramps and stiffness, lack of energy, reduction of fitness, stamina loss, and so on."

Jaune looked at Melanie, in wonder at her sudden burst of jargon, and then said, "You certainly know your stuff."

"Heh, trust me, when compared to my sister, I was the idiot child", she paused, and then looked onwards to the sky, "I was always trying to surpass her. Always reading up on everything that I could find in my spare time. Hm, good times..."

Jaune paused, before nodding, and then looking up at the sky as well, Ruby following shortly after. Far away, the calls of an owl reached their ears, and the last wisps of light from the sun faded away over the hill.

"...I'm not sure if I'm gonna be good at this", Melanie went, drawing the attention of the other 2 near her, "I mean, being a leader, and even a Hunter. Or Huntress, or whatever. I... I wanna say that I'm gonna be great at it, but... Yeah."

"...Same", Ruby breathed out.

"Yeah", Jaune muttered, still thinking everything over.

He still didn't know why Ozpin had chosen him as leader, and not the others on his team. He was nothing compared to them and he was sure that everyone else knew it. Pyrrha was physically stronger and more skilled than him by a million degrees. Ren seemed to be the most level headed and rational person in the team, and much more capable of making the right choices when it came to leading. And even Nora beat him out on strength and charisma levels. He didn't really know that much about them, but from the looks of it, they were much better candidates than him for leadership, so he really didn't know what Ozpin was playing at.

He closed his eyes, and tried to collect his thoughts once more, before a memory came to the forefront of his mind.

The memory of a lullaby.

"Viola used to sing something to me", he finally said, earning the attention of the 2 girls either side of him, "When we were little. She had said that she'd made it with a Huntress years ago."

"Oh really?" Melanie went, "What, are you gonna sing to us now?"

"Well", he paused, tapping his chin, having changed out of his armour after leaving the amphitheatre earlier, and changed back into his charity shop casual wear, "Well, sometimes, when I'm, er, thinking stuff over, difficult stuff, I like to sing it to myself. It helps me think."

"Oh, so you are gonna sing to us."

"What? No, no", he waved her off, "I suck at singing. My voice get's scratchy and crackly when I go above anything other than a whisper."

"Aw, c'mon Vomit Boy", Ruby jested, "We won't judge."

"Well, I might judge a little", Melanie earnestly spoke, "I sing sometimes. Really good singing, I do, if I must say", she looked up at him, "But that doesn't mean I won't let you have a go! I'll be a like a judge! A really judgemental, er, judge, but still!"

"Ah, c'mon guys, it's really not worth it."

"Hey, we could take turns!" Ruby said to him in return, "Like, you go first, then Melanie, and then not me, obviously", she quailed under the stares of the both of them, "Okay maybe me as well."

"Oh, alright, fine", Jaune went, "But only because you guys are taking turns."

He cleared his throat, and then let out a few hums, trying to find the right pitch. Both Melanie and Ruby looked on to him with anticipation writ over their faces, one more condescending than the other, to which he just sighed, took a deep breath...

And then sang.

Well, it wasn't really singing, as much as it was a gentle whisper, as the words fluttered out of his mouth in their rhymes and patterns, a gentle chorus of words and tune. He tried to make his voice as smooth as possible, his tone only scratching once or twice, much to his own surprise, so that must be a sign that he was slowly improving.

As he went on, he found that his own troubling thoughts were fading away, his voice throwing away the doubts and unease that he had long felt throughout the day and beyond, all the way to when he first arrived as Beacon more than a week ago. Viola's song tended to do that to him. He had never personally thought about the meaning itself, but personally, he had a good idea as to what it meant.

As he leaned his head back and look up to the sky, he didn't catch Ruby and Melanie's expressions shifting from anticipation, to confusion, to realisation, and then to shock. Their faces went still as they looked at him with wide eyes, not even a whisper leaving them as the last musical words left his lips, fluttering in the sky, and gently weaving away in the air.

Jaune paused once more, trying to find his words, before he looked back down, and darted his eyes between the 2 of them, his face morphing into confusion as he finally saw their bewildered expressions, "What?"

""...""

"...Guys?"

"...My sister", Melanie finally spoke up, going, "You said... You said... You never knew her..."

"Um, yeah?" Melanie didn't say anything for a few moments, "Melanie?..."

"...How did... How did you know her song?..."

"...What?"

"She would sing that to me", Melanie began, "When we were younger... When things seemed... Well, when I was sad, and... She'd sing that to me... She always," her eyes widened, "She would always say that she learnt it from someone special", she looked back at him, "She would never tell me who..."

"...I-I learnt it from my sister", Jaune said nervously, unsure of how to process that information, as well as the more disturbing possibilities coming from that bombshell as well, "She... She would always say that she made it with a Huntress..."

"My mother..."

Both Jaune and Melanie looked at Ruby, who was beginning to form tears in her only visible eye. In seeing this, they both reached out a hand to support her, but her voice cut them off.

"My mum... Summer... She would sing me that song...", Ruby began, her voice quaky and breaking, "Before she... Before she left..."

"Oh...", Jaune went, putting an uneasy hand on her shoulder, and going, "I'm sorry...", Ruby shivered under the contact, but when Jaune noticed this and went to move his hand away, she took it with her own and kept it there, a quick sniffle leaving her as she held onto the hand with a gentle, yet firm touch.

It was then that Jaune asked a single question.

"Do you need a hug?"

Ruby looked up at him with vulnerable eyes, before nodding, and slowly wrapping her arms around his body, letting her head rest against his chest, and closing her eyes as her breathing began to calm, Jaune wrapping his arms around her as well and rubbing his hand around her back, in a similar way to what he would do with his younger siblings should they get any nightmares or on a dark, stormy night.

Jaune looked at Melanie, and Melanie looked at Jaune, and between them, a silent conversation took place. Whatever had happened to them, when compared to what happened to the girl with them whom was curling into herself like a caterpillar in its cocoon... Perhaps even combined, it might not even be able to stand up to the demons that plagued Ruby Rose.

"Can you... Sing it again, please?"

Jaune looked down at the black and red haired girl, and then to Melanie, who gave a simple nod, and once more down to Ruby, before himself nodding once more and going, "Okay", before clearing his throat once more.

In all honestly, he wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do. Ruby seemed to be very emotionally vulnerable. If he actually sang that song again, would it give her a panic attack, or open up a mental wound, or something? He really didn't know. He wasn't a psychologist, he didn't know enough about trauma or PTSD or anything along those lines to make an accurate or proper judgement, so he really didn't know how she'd react.

Or maybe he did. Maybe she'd find some sort of comfort in it. She certainly looked like she would as he held her, and it was what his gut was telling him anyways.

Ultimately, he was going to sing it anyways. She looked like she needed it, and maybe it would do all of them a bit of good.

He tested his voice once more, a little bit more confident in himself this time, seeing as the first round could count as a rehearsal, before taking a deep breath once more, and letting the first word slip from his mouth.

_Let's go in the garden_   
_You'll find something waiting_

His voice was slow, and quiet, more smooth than it once was a few minutes ago. Where he had once hiccupped, his singing had perfected itself, with not a waver nor quiver. He sang with a purpose, and when the lyrics left his mouth, they carried a musical hum with them that travelled through the air, and seemed to be made of comfort and warmth itself.

_Right there where you left it_   
_Lying upside down_

The song, the lullaby, that he sang had a simple meaning behind it, fitting as it was a simple song itself, with no hidden away techniques or understandings. It was sad, and yet it was happy. It was morbid, and yet it was hopeful. Melanie thought that it suited Jaune and Ruby perfectly.

_When you finally find it_   
_You'll see how it's faded_

To Ruby, his words were like vanilla. It was simple, one of the simplest flavours out there, and yet it was also sweet, and never dull.

He reminded her so much of her mother...

_The underside is lighter_   
_When you turn it around_

Now, Melanie had thrown her own voice into the song, allowing for the both of them to combine their melodies into a beautiful symphony. Whereas Jaune's singing, while good, wasn't perfect, Melanie's voice flowed through the air like water in a calm river, and sounded like lavender and honey. Her own voice was smooth and perfected, with neither a hidden sense of doubt or lack of confidence to be heard.

Now, Ruby wanted to sing as well.

So she did. She let her mouth open and let the words pour out, as quiet as a whisper, but also as loud as a lion, her words joining with theirs to turn a symphony into a choir.

_Everything stays_   
_Right where you left it_   
_Everything stays_   
_But it still changes_

_Ever so slightly_   
_Daily and nightly_   
_In little ways_   
_When everything stays_

As the last syllables left their lips, they looked back up to the sky, and spotted all of the stars shining their light into the inky black void, the broken moon over them bringing them the midnight light, and providing them a beacon in the darkness. Above them, the dragonflies danced and danced, before flying away, and becoming one with the night.

A white, red, and gold butterfly regarded them from afar, and then flew away.

For a brief moment in their lives, for the smallest of seconds, they found peace, with each other and with themselves, and it was in that briefest of moments, that they found, for the first time in a long while...

Happiness.

* * *

**Soundtrack:**

**Main themes:  
** [ _Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
[ _Soldier by Fleurie_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32W3J7XaNH8)  
_[This is War by 30 Seconds To Mars](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMAVLXk9QWA)  
[Ready Aim Fire by Imagine Dragons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHp48M8N3J0)  
Crossfire part [1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcsDG_jVYbc), [2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W71IbdgXYLk), and [3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XezIKxtGH7Y) by Stephen  
[The Humbling River by Puscifer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgwK9sHTu-8)  
_

 **Beacon Academy First Years:  
** _[Who We Are by Imagine Dragons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdMDjf9YDhU)  
_ _[Freaks by Jordan Clarke](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbsMU0qQTy4)  
[Soldiers by Otherwise](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p733z6aKwMA)  
[The Fear by The Score](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5U7b_E14cE) _ **  
**

**JNPER:  
** _[Save The World/Don't You Worry Child by Pentatonix (Swedish House Mafia cover)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YAcMgoSpDE)  
[Saviours Of The World by Skillet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKeLldG8YYU)  
_ _[Heroes by Zayde Wolf](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeTTeLTzDEQ)  
[Legends Never Die by Against The Current](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6zIGXun57U) _ **  
**

**Jaune Arc:  
** _[Star Wars: The Mandalorian Suite (Epic Orchestral Mix) by Samuel Kim Music)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzS52hLVUCU)  
[Who I Am by The Score](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwtvktjEuOM)  
[Human by Rag'n'Bone Man](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3wKzyIN1yk)  
_

 **Nora Valkyrie:  
** _[The Setup by Flavoured Nation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu3SdvNmBQY)  
[Thunderstruck from AC/DC](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhg9bYNLvOg)  
[Thunder by Imagine Dragons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKopy74weus)  
_

 **Pyrrha Nikos:  
** _[Feel Invincible by Skillet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzw6A2WC5Qo)  
[Champion by Barns Courtney](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLEn5MyXUfE) _

**AR-1 (Eri):  
** [ _I Want Candy by Aaron Carter_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaL9VrQOP0E)

**Lie Ren:  
** [ _Home by Philip Philips_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoRkntoHkIE)

**MNCC:  
** _[Immortals by Fall Out Boy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9PxOanFjxQ)  
[Smack Down by Thousand Foot Krunch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wvZ1axf9PM)  
_

 **Melanie Malachite:  
** _[Don't Get In My Way by Zack Hemsey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAp6M8Ln4Ug)  
[Fallen Angel by Three Days Grace](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuLMDvoshrk) _  
[ _Play With Fire by Sam Tinnesz feat. Yacht Money_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzVQkO92wNw)

**Neon Katt:  
** _[Kick In The Door by Xenia Pax](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvoxtJbTVLE)  
[Legend by Generdyn feat. Backchat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zxh3cOeeB4)  
_

 **Ciel Soleli:  
** [ _Never Going Back by The Score_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqNjxIZ6AnE) **  
**

**Flynt Coal:  
** _[Kiss and Tell by AJ Tracey and Skepta](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44AmlKINEWs)  
[Watch Me by Jaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAO5DuqUgLc)  
_

 **RSBL:  
** [ _Remember The Name by Fort Minor_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDvr08sCPOc)

**Ruby Rose:  
** _[Borderline by Nico Collins](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJz-F32FjFQ)  
[Bang by Ryan Caraveo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNOceS9J4Tw)  
[Afraid by The Neighbourhood](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrWwtU7iyl0)  
_

 **Weiss Schnee:  
** _[You're Gonna Know My Name by Watt White](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp7efZqs9d0)  
[Dollhouse by Melanie Martinez](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcVv9R1ZR84)  
_

 **Blake Belladonna:  
** _[Who Are You Really by Mikky Ekko](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMMbeaJV4HM)  
[Machine by Imagine Dragons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BahtnT13vH8)  
[Renegades by X Ambassadors](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j741TUIET0)  
[Run Boy Run by Woodkid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmc21V-zBq0)  
_

 **Leadpipe:  
** [ _Human by Manefest_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhwIqD3lkbI)

**CFVY:** _  
[Can't Hold Us by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zNSgSzhBfM)  
_

 **Coco Adel:** _  
[I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNoKguSdy4Y)  
_

 **Fox Alistair:** _  
[Terminate by Jeff Williams feat. Lamar Hall](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5ifFDuuOpI)  
_

 **Velvet Scarlatina:** _  
[Hey, Soul Sister by Train](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVpv8-5XWOI)  
_

 **Yatsuhashi Daichi:** _  
[Warriors by Imagine Dragons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uBPOu3si5w)  
_

**Others:**

**Yang Xiao Long:  
** [ _Stand Alone by Generdyn Music feat. Zayde Wolf_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFCrWvSpg_Y)

**Summer Rose:  
** [ _Journey (Vocal variant 2) from the Destiny 2 soundtrack_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z2NxnW7zng)

**Miltia Malachite:** _  
[Ahsoka Tano theme by Samuel Kim Music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgIv22umB98)  
_

 **Viola Arc:** _  
[Angel With A Shotgun by The Cab](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxd6pXSYkzE) _

**Ozpin:** _  
[Blame by Calvin Harris ft. John Newman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ACl8s_tBzE)  
_[ _Radioactive by Imagine Dragons_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktvTqknDobU)

**Glynda Goodwitch:** _  
[Season Of The Witch by Lana Del Rey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA4OjrpVsiY)  
_

**Winter Schnee:**   
[Stronger by The Score](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ubnhgZgsfc)

* * *

**And there we go! The next, long ass chapter of Ascendancy! Holy crap this was a lot longer than I thought it was going to be. Well, I did say last chapter that this one was going to be much longer, and from the looks of it, I have indeed delivered!**

**Anyways, now, onto the new outfits! When I was envisioning them in my head, some were easy to conjure up, while others were exceptionally difficult. I had to do quite a bit of googling in order to get them right.**

**A lot of my inspiration for these new outfits came from fanworks such as RWBY Cherish, Scars, Henceforward, 3.0, and so on, as well as other franchises like Call Of Duty, Star Wars, and onwards, so just keep that in mind.**

**For Summer's outfit, I felt that the one that Rooster Teeth had given her was way too bland and similar to Ruby, so I figured that I should give her something a bit more unique. Ultimately, I drew a lot of inspiration from RWBY Cherish, as I felt that it made an excellent outfit for her, especially the colour pallets that were used for her, considering the revelations about her past in this chapter. Ultimately I wanted to design her with certain aspects of Ruby's outfit design, while also giving her the look and feel of a knight, due to my headcanon of her being the complete opposite of her daughter when it comes to weapons, and only ever uses a sword and shield because she dislikes mecha-shift weaponry.**

**For Yang, I wanted to emphasis the biker feel for her, so I just went with that, drawing inspiration from Henceforward, Cherish, and so on, as well as with her now shortened hair from 3.0.**

**Weiss, in my head, was always going to have a Robin Hood feel. Even before Robyn Hill was introduced into the show, I wanted to give Weiss the look of Robin Hood, so that's my explanation for giving her a long coat with a hood and a bow and arrow.**

**With Ciel, she's a bodyguard, so I just rolled with that.**

**Flynt's new outfit, in my mind, was very difficult, as I couldn't picture anything different for him, so I just decided to modify his already existing outfit a touch. Hey, if it works, it works.**

**Neon, well she's a party girl, isn't she? I just looked up lots of outfits on Google for party girls and mix-matched them all together with her Volume 3 and Volume 7 outfits.**

**Leadpipe, I didn't think he needed a change in design from when he appeared in the Long Day arc. His design (Alex Milne's MTMTE Pipes) Works well, so apart from the small metal scar in his arm, he hasn't changed at all.**

**With Blake, I wanted to emphasise the Ninja aspect of her, by drawing inspiration from her Volume 4 and 7 outfits, as well as her White Fang outfit from Cherish, and getting rid off all of the white clothing that she wore, and replacing it with black. She's a Ninja, isn't she? That means that she won't want to be seen when on stealth missions. As such, the white outfit's gotta go.**

**Ren was also like Flynt, in that it was quite difficult to imagine what his new outfit would look like, but in the end, I drew up aspects of his volume 4 and 7 designs, as well as his appearance in Henceforward, and threw them all in a blender, to get what you get now.**

**For Nora, I wanted to go with an armoured warrior for her, so I had her completely armour up in full body armour, as well as a faceplate, visor, and helmet, which you'll see in action later on. I also wanted to emphasise the Viking part of her, and well, she's a demolitions expert isn't she? She'd need to suit up for it with protection, as well as... Other modifications that you'll be seeing later on.**

**With Pyrrha's new outfit, I also wanted to turn her into an armoured warrior as well, as well as emphasise her gladiatorial, Greek, and Amazonian aspects of her design as well, so I ended up drawing heavily from RWBY Scars to get that design right. She's also been given a certain few cues from a certain Star Wars warrior culture that we all know and love a heck of a lot...**

**This is the way. I have spoken.**

**;)**

**Eri was the name for a character from Boku No Hero Academia, and I was originally just going to call her Ares, in order to tie with Pyrrha's Greek origin, but the opportunity was just too perfect, and I had to go along with it. She was originally based on the Talon Drone from Black Ops 3, but I ended up changing it while I was designing her, in order to give her arms and a much more 'Cute' look.**

**For Velvet, I wanted to emphasise the fact that she was training to be a doctor, so I drew a lot from the different fan contest outfits that were made for her when Rooster Teeth announced that contest, so thanks a lot for all of that.**

**Coco, meanwhile, I didn't really have a lot of ideas for, so I just went on Google and looked up many fan outfits for her, taking a piece from every single one and then combining them together.**

**Fox and Yatsuhashi, meanwhile, I based off of their 3.0 outfits, and added some modifications and made some further changes to them, before putting them in, seeing as there weren't a lot of fan designs for them out there, which is a shame, really, as when compared to their teammates, who one of them has gotten an entire contest devoted to designing her Volume 2 outfit.**

**Ruby, meanwhile, I had put a lot of thought too. For her new found heterochromia and scarred left side of her body, I drew inspiration from Todoroki Shouto from BNHA (You're welcome, fangirls). For her outfit, I originally wanted it to be one side of it red, and the other side of it black as symbolism, like a playing card, but this didn't work, so I then began to draw inspiration from her Slayer outfit in Volume 2, as well as the many fan outfits out there, particularly the ones from Henceforward, 3.0, Scars, Cherish, as well as one outfit made by a Tumbler user called lythecreatorart, so thanks a lot for that, my friend, you certainly helped. There were also parts of Ahsoka Tano's SWTCW season 3 outfit that I drew from, so that was good.**

**Melanie's outfit, meanwhile, I completely made myself, by looking at Melanie's original design, and typing out what I thought would be a natural progression for it, so there's that.**

**Jaune, meanwhile, with his new threads, I completely visually based off of the Clone Paratroopers from Star Wars, with elements of the SWTCW Arc Troopers and the JFO Purge Troopers in there as well, what with the electrostaff combo weapon and all, as well as my own elements added into it as well.**

**If anyone wants to draw these out, then by all means, feel free to do so. Just PM me first and let me know before you go nuts. I'd like to see these drawn out, because in all honesty, I can't draw human faces or bodies for crap.**

**Anyway, with all of that out of the way, I hope that you have all enjoyed this long awaited chapter. As always, please follow, favourite, and leave a review.**

**Seriously, please review. I'm putting my heart and soul into these stories, and to see everyone reading this and hardly ever leaving any reviews is physically painful. Seriously, you lot left more feedback on the single Valentine's Day Extravaganza oneshot (Jaune literally get's a harem)then the individual chapters of this story that I'm putting my soul into, and it seriously hurts. Is that it? Is that what you people want? Do I need to shill out? Do you need me to make another harem or a react fic or something? WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE WANT FROM ME?!**

**Sorry about that.**

**Anyways...**

**The next batch of chapters will be shorts stories that fill in any gaps or spaces between the chapters, so be sure to look out for them, and as always, see you all next time.**

**Titanmaster117 out!**


	11. Greater Valerian Medical Centre

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Greater Valerian Medical Centre is one of the most important places in Vale, thanks to it treating all of the wounded shortly after the Battle in the Valerian Plains.
> 
> For it to be attacked is unthinkable...

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_**Arc Theme:**[ _Tangled Shore from the Destiny 2 Forsaken Soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BNC_rnpFb0)

* * *

_"Casualty reports read 1,000... 2,000... 10,000... We've lost a majority of... Sirs, madams, we've lost a majority of our fighters. We don't have enough Hunters or soldiers to defend the outer settlements. If we don't do something now, we could lose every major settlement in Vale overnight to this... This horde._

**Casualty report delivered to the Valerian Council by civilian militia leader Nathen Raymond**

* * *

_Tuesday (One day after the Initiation Massacre)…_

* * *

The Scion observed his scant forces with a concerned glance under his helmet.

His unit had been widdled down to just around a hundred by the destruction of the cave systems under the Emerald Forest, and the subsequent collapse of the Emerald Forest as well, before the bombardment of the Grimm plains had left them reduced to nothing more than a few dozen. They had lost so many of their comrades in their unit that you could fill out dozens of rows in a graveyard with their corpses (If they didn't always fade away, and all).

Still, the Scion- An evolution of the Baron Grimm, with 2 large spikes of bone on their shoulders and bone white chest, shoulder, and knee armour- Figured that they made for a sizeable force indeed, even if they were at a fraction of their original force, spotting down the stinking sewer tunnel dozens of Grimm, Disciples and Barons, Long-Shots and Rocketeers, Life-Givers and Guardians, and even a few Lancers (Disciples cloaked in black robes and wielding medium to long range hunting rifles and crossbows), Clerics (4 armed Disciples with talons on their lower arms and armed with red energy spears, with red cloaks with black fur outlining covering them), Lashers (Disciples with oversized arms and bladed whips embedded in them), And even a Marauder (Larger Barons covered in black and red patchy metal armour, and armed with bone maces) As they marched through the filth filled tunnels under Vale towards their destination.

However, what the Daughter had assigned to them, it wasn't the kinda job that was best suited for them. His unit, the Black Angels, were a light infantry aggressive recon force, meant to scout out and identify enemy positions, and begin skirmishes with them to identify their strengths and weaknesses, as well as serve as distractions to allow for other units to begin their attacks. They weren't specialised for seizing and holding objectives. That lesson had been reinforced in him in the Emerald Forest and Valerian Plains battles yesterday, where the only reason that even a fraction of his Black Angels had survived the aerial bombardments was because he had held part of them back in reserve, and was able to turn tail and hide out near the Valerian walls before the Daughter found them and given them their new task.

Though, to be fair, they were most likely the only remnant of the Ascendant Court's Emerald Forest army left, seeing as most of them had been completely obliterated by the Hunters and the Valerian forces up above. He hadn't received any word of any other Grimm survivors, meaning that they were either all gone or too scattered to link up with each other and establish communications, so, if the Daughter truly was desperate enough to complete her own mission, then the Scion supposed that, even in their weakened state, something was better than nothing.

The Scion narrowed his single eye under his helmet, remembering that he had had all of those in his unit begin wearing white cloaks, belt capes, white armour, and white helmets (Oh, the irony of their name) In order to distinguish themselves from the rest of the Grimm forces. Even if the Daughter was scraping the bottom of the barrel for Grimm to throw at the enemy, his remaining soldiers were in no true condition for a fight. They were still nursing and tending to wounds from the day before, some of them only just now scabbing over, and even then, they were exhausted, and needed a good night's rest to get their energy back- Preferably somewhere away from Vale and the rest of this hellhole- And on top of that, his few remaining troops that were left were utterly demoralised and hardly eager for a fight, due to most of their comrades dying in the Emerald Forest. They just weren't an effective fighting force anymore, and he really didn't think that the Daughter knew that. Or she did, and just didn't care.

Still, he pressed on, as did those under his command. There was a clear chain of command, and he had his orders, and as much as he didn't like them, it wasn't in his place to disobey them.

He stopped in place, analysing a dirty sign on the wall of the drainage tunnel, and then pulling out a piece of paper with a set of locations and instructions written down on it, before spotting a ladder leading up to a sewer grate nearby, before pocketing the paper, climbing up the ladder, and then opening up the grate just a tad bit, looking through the gap, and then closing it, and then looking down to his soldiers below.

 **"Alright"** , the Scion spoke in their shared Grimm tongue, **"We're at the objective. You all know the plan, everyone, so get in position. Let's give them one hell of a light show."**

* * *

Pyrrha laid in her bed, wishing that she was literally anywhere else.

Bandages and whatnot covered her body under her robes and quilt, while the wire from an IV drip next to her bed had been shoved into her arm, pouring in... Whatever was even in those drip bags, while across her body, the red glow of her aura kept eating away at her wounds, paving over them and replacing them with renewed skin and bone. An oxygen mask covered her face, as did a set of scars, and in her other arm, another wire from an IV drip stand had been needled in, only this one was connected to a blood bag that was slowly draining itself.

She was worse for wear, she knew that, and had only come out of surgery not too long ago, but she really couldn't wait to get out of this place. She'd always hated hospitals. The clinical and stale smell. The noises of the dead and the dying. The sight of almost corpses. The dull white lights and walls and ceilings and doors and everything.

She hated it all.

Of course, she wasn't meant to hate it. She wasn't meant to hate anything. She was meant to be patient and kind and completely selfless and everything that the Invincible Girl was meant to be. She wasn't meant to complain about the sounds and sights and the smell of death.

But she wasn't speaking to anyone right now, so she was allowed to.

She looked around the long, rectangular room to all of the other beds around her, to all of her fellow almost dead. The people in the beds looked like corpses, still and asleep, but luckily, their chests were still lifting up and down, and their hearts were still beating, the heart beat monitors beeping away in unison, filling the room with it's mechanical, stale, yet joyous noise that filled anyone who heard it with hope and happiness. A few of the beds were empty, their occupants having already healed and allowed to leave.

Pyrrha couldn't wait to join them.

Handy thing about aura, really. Those with aura could heal their wounds at an incredibly drastic rate. A much higher rate than a regular civilian, meaning that they would've have to stay in a hospital for very long, due to all of their wounds having practically healed themselves within around a third or less of the natural healing time of a regular person.

Like she said, aura was a really handy thing to have, and besides, she was lucky. Her wounds hadn't been that serious- Well, as serious as the others- And her body had always been good at healing itself, even without aura, so, if she was lucky, she could get out the next day, if not earlier.

She made a quick prayer, thanking the Mandarin God for her good fortune as she quickly brought her hands before her, and then moved them down to rest on her pillow. She had previously been rather lax with her prays for her religion, seeing as she had been busy training and working with her father (Really, she hadn't really had much time for anything), But considering that she had nearly died, well, maybe it would be best if she started practicing more.

And so, she sent her prayers to her god, and wished for good fortune to come to her. With luck, her prayers would be answered, and she would be able to leave by tomorrow without harm.

And yes, she was aware that she had been impaled repeatedly by frozen leaves, smacked in the throat, and then twisted around by a flanged mace, and a series of other things, but still, those were moderately mild when compared to a multitude of other people that were in the hospital with her as well.

Although, she didn't really want to think back to the surgery that she'd had on the same day as the Emerald Forest battle, when they had been picking her open to get all of the leaf bits out.

Apparently one of those leaves had a live maggot in them.

She suppressed the urge to reach up and scratch her cheek, the idea of an insect crawling around under her skin haunting her as she then looked outside, the harsh sunlight pressing against her eyes. It felt so oppressive, so cruel. So unlike the warming, welcoming feeling that it should be.

She felt like it was an omen of things to come.

* * *

"Are you sure this is him?" Back-Step asked, gesturing to the melted pile of slag that was laying down on the stretcher between them, "Because the mechanics downstairs will flip their shit if we bring another chair from one of the airships into the Techion med-wing."

"It's Scrapster all right", Matera Teale, otherwise known by his nickname Tusks due to his Faunus feature, said as he gestured with his free hand to a still intact brain and beating heart underneath the layer of melting metal, his other arm in a sling, "See, there's an optic, there's a voice modulator, and there's the brain and heart."

"Still alive?"

"Thankfully", he patted one of the medics that were carrying the stretcher on the shoulder, giving them the word to hurry along, watching them run to the engineering bay down below before saying, "Lemme tell you, sometimes I question how we are able to survive as much as we do. I mean, Scrapster's current condition, he looks like absolute crap, and yet from the looks of it, he'll still pull through as fine as ever!"

"The power of aura, I suppose", the purple and blue Techion with a glowing red visor, grey faceplate, and wheels on the sides of his shoulders shrugged, "And armour, obviously- Okay, dude, I really just don't question it. I mean, we're alive, aren't we? I've learnt not to look a gift horse in the mouth and start questioning the multitude of factors that have lead to my life not being horrendously cut short."

"Heh, yeah, I suppose", Tusks responded, "Heh, well, at least we're", he caught himself and allowed a mourning couple to pass by him, before awkwardly, and quietly going, "At least we're still here."

"At least we're still alive", Back-Step nodded, before letting out a sigh under his faceplate and going, "Dammit, I shouldn't be here. I should be out in the plains and the Emerald Forest, looking for survivors, no stuck here on security detail."

"Hey, you should be thankful that you're not out there", Tusks gestured his thumb to the door out of the atrium and into the car park, "You weren't down there, Back-Step, it's a wasteland. The fires are still burning out there, and from what I've heard", he lowered his voice now, "From what I've heard, the guys out there aren't finding people, only bodies."

Back-Step sighed, and nodded, "Yeah, well, I'd feel better being out there, anyways", he paused, and then leaned himself against a wall, "Makes you think, though. We've just come out of the biggest battle in what, 50 years since the Rights Revolution, or 80 from the Great War, and we were almost wiped out. Makes you think about how vulnerable we are, doesn't it?" Tusks nodded, "There's an old phrase, 'The darkest hour', was that it? Did we just go through it?"

"No, we're still going through it", Tusks amended, "Think about it, that wasn't the end, that couldn't have been the end. The Grimm've got new forms, and there's someone leading them now, if they weren't being lead before", he sighed, "The darkest hour is this hour, as well as the next one, and the next one after that."

He looked out of the atrium and through the windows in the door.

"I think our time on this world is finally up."

* * *

"Well, look at that."

Warren Mores, the chief of the Valerian police force, looked to his side to see a group of 3 fellow police officers- A yellow, white, and red Techion with a blue visor, red faceplate, what looked like the window of a cockpit in his chest, and the name 'Flash' printed on him, a female Faunus with cricket legs by the name of Connie Jessabelle, and a pale skinned human by the name of Tyler Guerra- Standing together in a group and watching the far away smoke trails from the Emerald Forest and the Valerian plains rise up into the sky.

"What, the smoke trails?" asked Tyler.

"Yeah, them", Flash went, crossing his arms together as he went, "They're like pillars, or ladders, stretching up to the sky."

"What, are you trying to write a poem, now?" went Connie with a raised eyebrow.

"Wha- No, no I'm not, I'm just- I'm just observing", Flash argued back, "Makes you think though, we, as a species, we've survived, what? So much as a species. Maybe we're about to fight our last war."

"We thought that during the Rights Revolution", Tyler said, "And during the Colour Revolution, the Great War, the Coca Wars, and so on."

"No, he's right, this feels different."

The 3 of them looked to the side in surprise, to see an orange haired Faunus with crab arms walking up to them, who then introduced herself as Alexis Kennedy, one of the survivors of the Emerald Forest.

"I mean, statistically, we number about a good 100,000,000. That might seem like a lot, but spread across the entire planet, our population count is at an all time low. This feels definite, or something along those lines. Like we're about to fight our last fight."

"What, against the Grimm, or each other?" Connie asked.

"Well, hopefully against just the Grimm, not each other. I mean, the peace between the kingdoms seems to be holding."

"That's a pipe dream, kid, and we all know it."

"Ah, c'mon, Connie, let's hear her out", Flash went, "Let's say that the kingdoms put aside their differences, join together, and push back against the Grimm. Perhaps afterwards we could finally hash out something good for once. I mean, maybe when this war ends, and we're left to pick up the pieces, maybe we won't be calling each other Valerian, or Atlesian, or whatever. Hell, who's to say that afterwards, we won't be calling each other by human, or Faunus, or Techion, but just people?"

"Again, it's a pipe dream, and it's one that's running on the belief that we're actually going to live through all of this."

"Oh don't be so moody, Connie, we can't think like that. We need to look at the future with optimism, with the correct belief that things can never get too bad. If we don't, then we'll end up just writing our own destruction by looking for all of the bad things in life and how they can get worse."

"I'm not being moody, Flash, I'm being realistic. We walked into one of the biggest battle in decades, on a scale not seen since the Great War, and we barely got out alive. Most of those who went into the battle, er, no offense", she gestured to Alexis. She shrugged, none taken. Connie continued, "Most of those who went into the Emerald Forest and the battle are now all dead, and all it's done is show that we are woefully and inadequately prepared for any major conflict."

"That's true", Tyler went, "I mean, we might not even be able to make it out of this one. I mean, look at all of the new Grimm. We're used to fighting against wild, mindless animals, not an organised military. This isn't what we've trained for, we're not prepared for this."

"Ah come on, Tyler, I like our chances", Flash argued, "I mean, we've got Hunters on our side", he gestured to Alexis, "And they're like, super soldiers, so I'm pretty sure we've got this."

"Hunters aren't invincible", Alexis sombrely said, "We aren't immortal. The Emerald Forest made this clear to us. And it's like Tyler said, we aren't trained for this. We're trained to fight against small groups of bandits and criminals, as well as mindless Grimm beasts, not... Not whatever the Ascendant Court is, or their Grimm armies, or these new types. We aren't ready to go against an army."

"Ah, what? What happened to that hopeful glimmer from before? We've got you guys, and we've got the Atlesian Military as well. Plus, with the Grimm, we've now- Finally- Got a unifying enemy. This'll finally be the chance to put all of our differences behind us and kick the Grimm down for good. And besides, we got out of the Great War intact, didn't we? That war was devastating and that was when we had the armies, and we're still here."

"Yeah, at the cost of everything else", Connie scoffed, "Flash, get your head out of those rosy clouds of yours. We were only able to get out of the Great War because of our armies, and even then, we completely devastated our world. Before the Great War, our planets population was about, what, 4 billion people? By the time that the first stage of the Great War ended, which, mind you, lasted for 20 years, the global population was a billion people less, and then we went into a 10 year long war known as the Cataclysm when the planetary population was halved and we had to band together to survive against a giant Grimm horde, only to, afterwards, go back to fighting each other for another 20 years, which left the global population at 200,000,000, only for the kingdoms to ban armies for some stupid fucking reason, and then allow the Grimm to halve us once again!"

Connie paused in her rant to catch her breath, before she continued on.

"We almost lost all of our culture and territory during that war. We've left scars across the planet, and we've lost most of our kind to the Grimm and to ourselves. There are entire cities out there that we've abandoned to the Grimm, and since then, we've had 2 more wars and have gotten absolutely nowhere to show for it. Now there's an entire army of Grimm at our doorsteps that want to kill us, and at this point in our history, we're at our most vulnerable. I'm sorry Flash, but there's no room for optimism here. We're at the end of our rope. This is it", she sighed, "The end."

Warren decided that that was the optimum place to end their conversation and order them back into their guarding positions, even the young Huntress. Thankfully, he didn't need to remind them of how important their positions around the hospital were and how crucial that it was that they held on to it, even if they didn't like it and would rather be, well, anywhere other than here.

Thanks to the massive battle that had taken place in the Emerald Forest, the hospital was, then and still, overflowing with hundreds of patients, most of them Hunters, soldiers, and fighters in general, with many of them in critical condition or being forced to sit or lay in the hallways, and most of them unable to be moved, either due to their injuries, unconscious, in a coma, or were currently in surgery, and since the hospital was filled to the brim with patients, that meant that medical supplies from nearby pharmacies, dentists, supermarkets, and the like, had to be taken and diverted to the hospital just to keep up with the amount of wounded warriors, and anyone with any medical knowledge were sent off to the hospital as well, to help out in any way that they could. As a result, with most of their fighters wounded and locked up inside the hospital, and most, if not all of Vale's central city medical professionals, equipment, medicine, and whatnot, the Greater Valerian Medical Centre had become one of the most important buildings in the city, and, in these difficult times, the Council had sent many of their remaining soldiers, police officers, and civilian militiamen, as well as any equipment that they could spare from the clean up operations in the Emerald Forest, to reinforce and guard the hospital from any possible attackers, while splitting up their remaining forces to guard the wall around the city of Vale, as well as the Central City Prison, the courthouse, the bank, the police station, and the council building.

He looked to his side, to see 2 MRWs (Mobile Recon Walkers), 1 manned, 2 legged open canopy walkers about 3 and a half metres tall, and armed with a single gun on it's chin, marching down the street between the parked cars, while on his other side, a USPW (Urban Single Person Walker), A single seater, closed canopy walker about 2 and a half metres in height, armed with a double barrel cannon on a swivel positioned on its top, standing near them in the car park as he and his group positioned itself outside of the atrium entrance, scanning the streets as it swivelled its cannon from left to right. Overhead, an old Scythe-class fighter flew past on it's patrol, being held together by scrap pieces of metal and other spare parts.

As Warren let out a breath leave him through his teeth, he wondered back to what Connie had been saying, and sighed when he figured that she did have a point. Back before the Great War, and even the Coca War, the global population of Remnant had been about 4 billion people, with the Grimm having been pushed back to the darkest corners of the world, thanks to the technological innovations of the Victorian Era, and the 4 kingdoms of Vale, Vacuo, Mantle, and Mistral expanding out across Remnant and staking their claim over as much as they could.

Alongside naturally formed occurrences-

Rings made of rock that rose from the ground, as well as massive trees in Vale that spiralled around each other and stretched up to be as tall as mountains, fields of rock that floated in the air thanks to the effects of gravity dust, jungles and forests that were lit up in the night by bioluminescent flowers and plants.

-And strange creatures that populated the planet-

Alongside Grimm, wolves, rapier wasps, bears, mole crabs, birds, Flatback Sliders, and the like, there were mass shifting, see through carnivores called Mass Shadows, flying feathered beasts known as Dragons, now extinct creatures known as Angels, long, giraffe like creatures known as Flattop Watchtowers, sentient rock golems known as Maykrs, and armoured, one eyes predators known as Reavers.

-Great structures and cities, such as the Citadel, the Rings of Athens, the 5 Handed City, New Fortressa at the Valley of Giants, the Rainbow Bridge, Chimera's Claw down by Lake Matsu, the floating sky city of Titan and the floating sea city of Marina, the forts that guarded Menagerie, from Fort Castle to Fort Bishop, the Reef, the Moving City, the Heaven's Reach, and the Salvation Gateway, were constructed all around Remnant during this golden age for mankind, as several former settlements turned minor kingdoms began to grow as well, such as Dreamer's Edge, the Mandarins, the Valkyries of the Night, and the Faunus Houses, rose up to contend with the 4 larger kingdoms, and build something for themselves as well. Great technological innovations, such as a massive global communications network that utilised satellites that were positioned in Remnant's orbit, fully advanced AIs, the Transcontinental Train Network, Builder Engines, massive dreadnoughts that pierced the heavens, machines that stretched up to the clouds, and so on, helped to push the kingdoms to a new era of peace and stability as their great armies and weapons of war pushed the Grimm back further and further, possibly onto their death roes.

And then, it all had to be ruined by the events of the Coca War and the Great War, the latter a conflict that lasted for 50 years (With the 10 year Cataclysm slap bang in the middle) And reduced the population from 4 billion to only 200 million, only for the armies to be almost completely abolished and for that number to be halved as settlement after settlement fell to the Grimm. Around the world, the great innovations of man were reduced to barren rubble and monuments of the follies of man. The Rainbow Bridge between Anima and Solitas was separated and sunk into the ocean, the tunnels that made up the TTN were flooded or sealed off, the Builder Engines were all destroyed when the dreadnoughts fell to the ground and detonated like nukes, the great forests and jungles of Vacuo were salted and scorched to deserts, Chimera's Claw was ravaged and became part of the many floating islands of Lake Matsu, the Rings of Athens above Menagerie were set down around the island's World Tree and Fort King, the 5 Handed City was fought over continuously, and now had become the headquarters of the Bandit Confederation, Heaven's Reach toppled over and fell to the ground, the Salvation Gateway became a nesting ground for the Grimm after the Valkyries of the Night were forced to abandon it, the Citadel was lost to the Grimm as well, the communication satellites fell from the sky and burnt up in the atmosphere, the floating sky city of Titan fell onto Mount Glenn and eventually became a new settlement there, while the floating sea city of Marina beached itself on the Reef, the Mandarin collective known as the Revanchists were reduced to almost nothing, the Faunus Houses were only just barely able to survive, and the Moving City collapsed and rested itself next to New Fortressa at the Valley of Giants, and then being renamed into the Sleeping City, the population within, being Dreamer's Edge, reduced to but a few that eventually became Grimm worshipping cultists that reportedly were finally all killed off in a massacre by the Grimm in an old church about a year ago, although there were reportedly no bodies that were found.

Warren sighed again. Remnant was very much a post apocalyptic world. Mankind's endless wars against each other had reduced humanity to, well remnants, shadows of what it once was. So much of their progress had been lost to the Grimm, and so much of their culture had been destroyed in the Great War. How many languages, dialects, traditions, cultures, technology, innovations, ideas, entire ways of life had been lost in the first Great War? How much had they destroyed by themselves and by the Grimm? How many abandoned cities were out there, left to the Grimm to repopulate and defile? How many scabbed over scars as well? How many war wounds and deep cuts?

They'd destroyed their planet over and over again, and for what? To get precisely nowhere at all? Warren didn't know the answer, and frankly, perhaps it was better that he didn't, because if he did, he was sure that the reason was stupid and worth banging his head against a wall for.

Still, he supposed that not everything that came out of the Great War was bad. Well, for instance, all 4 kingdoms, and even a few of the smaller ones, had built their empires up on the backs of slavery. In fact, slavery had, in the time of the Victorian Era, become so ingrained in the mentality of the kingdoms, that the bloody practice had become the central economical driving force behind all of the kingdoms, so much so that every single kingdom's economy would've collapsed if slavery had been abolished, since almost every business needed slavery to function. And, while Faunus were the primary source of slaves, they weren't the only ones. Many humans- Women, blacks, Hispanics, anyone who dared speak out against slavery, and so on- Were enslaved as well, and many slaves were regularly abused, raped, beaten, or killed, just for the hell of it by a corrupt ruling class.

During the Great War, many of these slaves would be put to work in concentration camps, or used as cannon fodder by the 4 kingdoms and slaughtered in mass by their armies, and even after the war, slavery was still utilised by the ruling classes of the kingdoms, but it was a practice that was slowly fading away, and was well on it's way out, though these families tended to use brute force programming to keep their slaves in line. However, thanks to the Rights Revolution 50 years ago, when the old councils had tried to banish and isolate the entire Faunus species to Menagerie and convert it into a massive slave processing facility, which then sprung about a series of revolutions and uprisings, some peaceful, others less so, many of these rich families were lynched and slaughtered in mass by different Faunus Houses and masses of regular people, and the councils at the time were all overthrown in coups, or were all killed, leading to the new councils of the kingdoms to finally abolish slavery and deem it as an illegal practice, granting the Faunus as a species the same free rights as any other regular citizen, though while it was definitely a good thing, it helped to open up a whole 'nother can of worms.

The less said about the Wolves, the better.

Sighing thrice, Warren looked back over the streets around the car park, paused, and stared at something in particular.

Had that manhole cover always been open?

* * *

"You know, you're very lucky, Miss Valkyrie."

"Oh, Nora. Call me Nora. 'Miss Valkyrie' makes me feel old as heck."

Velvet shrugged and then nodded as she looked down at Nora, the shorter girl sitting on the bed before her, while on a nearby bed sat Ren, the both of them wearing hospital gowns over their bodies as they balanced their feet over the bed sides. Around them, most of the others beds were filled with sleeping patients, slumbering away in either dream filled or dreamless peace.

Or nightmare filled horror. She didn't know, and part of her was somewhat thankful for that.

Velvet continued on anyways, "When you were stabbed, the sword missed your vital organs. And by vital, I mean that while it did tear through a kidney, the human and Faunus body only needs one to survive, and while it did tear parts of your flesh apart, your aura was able to repair the most immediate damage as quick as can be", she paused, looking over her notes on the clipboard once more, before looking back at Nora and going, "Actually, bar the stab wound and the... On your back..."

Velvet awkwardly gestured to Nora's back. The girl in question flinched, while Ren looked at Nora, a concerned look on his face.

Velvet let out a fake cough, and went, "Well, apart from all of that, you're in amazing shape. You've... Not been treated here before, have you?"

"Oh, no, never", Nora's smile became much more genuine as she then went on, "And, can I just say, me and Ren", neither Ren or she bothered to correct her on the grammar, "Heard a bit about you the day before initiation, from a rather wordy 2nd year. Name of our resident Coco Adel."

Velvet's eyes darted to the side. She knew she shouldn't have let her wonder off to commingle with the initiates. Who knows what she was going on about.

Nora would provide this answer by going, "You know, she said that when you do your work, tis like watching a flight of doves flutter away into the waning sun, joining the angels in the heavens as they sing their eternal choir. She said that it was like listening to the gentle hum of the worlds greatest singer as she spun her words into the most hypnotic of rhymes, soothing the soul and healing the wounds of the mind! She said that to be mended by you- To be cared for and nurtured- Is like a mother's embrace, weeping for those lost, and holding on to those with only the most gentle, but firm touch, like the blossoming embrace of an angel."

Velvet looked at her with wide eyes, taking a step back as her face began to heat up and grow redder and redder as she fumbled for words and oh goodness why was it getting so hot in here?

She didn't like compliments, she didn't mesh well with compliments. Insults were easy to deal with, you just ignore them, or shoot your own back, easy peasy lemon squeezy! Compliments? She didn't know what to do with compliments.

She looked over to Ren, who just went, "Coco just said that you were the best doctor ever", oh, okay, that's nice, she could deal with it, "And to be honest, she wasn't wrong", she couldn't deal with this.

"Ah", she just went, face flushed red. Her clipboard dropped to the floor, "Oh flippin' heck", she went, picking up the clipboard off of the floor and the going, "I dropped my clipboard. Damn", she looked back up to them, "Compliments make me clumsy."

"Oh", Nora went, before smiling, "You have very nice hair."

"Ah, please don't", Velvet asked as politely as she could.

Your ears look lovely!"

Ren smiled and got in on it, "You have very nice knees."

Said knees began to quiver, "Oh don't you start- Ah!" she dropped her clipboard again, "Oh don't you start, Mister Ren", she sighed, picking up her clipboard again, before going, "Don't forget, you 2, I helped put you back together, don't think that I can't take you apart as well."

Nora giggled, while Ren just held up his arms with a smile, "Sorry, we'll stop."

"Yes, you best", she sighed, before continuing, "Well, like I was saying before, you 2 are in fantastic shape physically, your aura's helping to heal up your wounds, so that makes treatment better, but I would recommend staying at the hospital for another day or 2. We had to pump you full of painkillers when we brought you in, so that'll take a few days to flush out of your systems, and we've also got to check up on all of your wounds, and since we've got so many patient here, and with almost all of our other doctors and nurses busy with them, I'm afraid that that may take a while."

"Aw what?" Nora went, flopping down onto the bed underneath her and exclaiming "Ah, what the heck are we suppose to do in the meantime? Just sit here like a bunch of numpties and do nothing?" she paused, and then smiled at Velvet, "What are you going to do, now? Kiss our boo boos some more?"

"Nora", Ren simply said.

"Ah, no, it's- It's fine, Mister Ren, it's fine", Velvet went, "Besides", she looked to another bed, the occupant within emitting a strange glow, "You weren't at the top of my to-do list."

There, in a nearby bed, giving off an ethereal white glow, was one patient #149/58, or Jaune Arc, his eyes closed tight and his head occasionally swaying from side to side, presumably in a fitful sleep, while tubes and needles of all sorts stayed jutted into the skin, pumping their sweet ambrosia into his form. The poor boy looked to be emaciated, a living corpse, his skin pale and withering. She had seen the damage done to him underneath his thin quilt, the massive chunk of flesh that'd been taken out of his left side, the blood loss, the damage to the skin and bones, the scarring, the blunt force trauma, everything. Underneath his quilt he looked like he was clumsily made out of patchwork skin and leftover organs, coated in clumsy stitching and torch marks. The only things to indicate that he wasn't just a body waiting to be moved to the morgue was the clinical beep of the heart monitor next to him, the twitching of his body, the shaky, yet steady breathing that was helped along by an oxygen mask, and the strange, haunting, and dare Velvet say, hypnotic glow of his aura, sweeping across his body like a wave in an ocean and slowly soothing away all of his wounds.

For a moment, her right hand left her clipboard and felt her elbow, remembering it being stabbed through and broken backwards, and then, when she awakened once more, the bone being completely repaired. She still didn't know if that was her own aura, or something else.

 _He should be dead_ , Velvet thought to herself as she moved to his side and rechecked his vital signs on a small scroll like computer attached to his bed. Don't get her wrong, she was glad he wasn't dead. They didn't need anymore dead warriors heading to the morgue. Not today, not any day. It was just... She'd seen him. Him and the list of injuries that'd been listed on his file as well. These injuries, and the amount of them, not to mention the blood loss and the sheer trauma of the Initiation Massacre and the bullhead crash... He should be dead. Any other man would've died from these injuries, and yet he hadn't.

His aura, the answer seemed to be. She had seen the white flames that'd been flowing across him after they'd dragged his body out of the flaming wreckage (And seeing him covered in white fire had caused quite a panic indeed), And had reasoned that it had been his semblance, before checking his aura count.

It wasn't his semblance. The flames had been pure aura, eating away at his wounds. His aura pool was so high that when he used it, it came out as pure flames.

Velvet had no idea how to react to this. Neither did anybody else. None of them had ever seen an aura pool this high before. No other aura pool had ever been recorded this high either.

It must've been what saved him. His aura. With such a large supply of aura on hand, he must've used it to shield himself from the crash and heal his wounds so-

She squeezed on her arm again, the gentle, yet sharp pain from the deep cut reminding her that it was still there.

Had that been what saved them?

"How's he doing?" she heard Ren ask as she looked over the glowing, living corpse of a boy.

"His condition is improving", she began, closing the opened tab on the bedside computer and straightening herself, "Rapidly, actually. It's his aura reserves, if you couldn't tell. He's got an entire team's worth stored up in him, and then some", she gestured with her notepad, "I've also got an entire team's worth of injuries on here and he's just powering through them like a champ."

She then looked around to the rest of the beds around them, filled with sleeping patients.

"Now, if only I could say the same about everybody else..."

She sighed, and then leaned against his bed, looking at Ren as he readjusted himself.

"Anyways, back to you 2, once some room pops up, we'll be moving both of you to the discharge longue, where you'll stay there until we can let you leave. If no room does pop up, then..."

She paused, squinted her eyes, and looked through a window to outside. Nora and Ren's eyes followed.

Were those... Flares?

* * *

Let it be known that it was Warren that saw it first.

First, the glaring red flares launched out of the sewer's manhole covers and high into the air.

Second, the flares began to arc downwards.

Third, Warren realised that mortars were intrinsically different from flares.

Fourth, the mortars slammed down into the car park with fiery explosions, flipping cars over and sending them flying into the air, crashing down onto the ground with a mighty crunch and sending fire, oil, metal, glass, and petrol through the air and across the floor. One of those cars was sent flying into the right leg of the USPW, bending it out of shape and sending it falling into the ground, crushing another car under it's weight.

The smoke from the various explosions and fields of fire blinded everyone closest to the hospital walls, causing coffin fits and burning eyes. Warren tried to push through it all, bringing his arm to his eyes to shield himself from the grime as he tried to pierce through the, thankfully, fading field of dark smoke as it began to rise in the air, bringing the burning cars to view and-

{KA-BOOM}

In the distance, a fireball and column of smoke rose into the air. Warren's eyes widened in horror as he tried to remember what had been in the location where that explosion had originated.

He then muttered out, "The prison..."

Seconds later, the smoke thinned, and a red glaring bolt flew through the air and slammed into the head of a nearby police officer, hollowing out part of his forehead in a spray of ichor and offal.

As the body fell to the ground with a dull {THUD}, Warren looked through the black smoke and orange fire to see dozens of figures of black and white, large to lithe of many shapes unique to each other, clawing through the ground and gathering on the edge, and between the car fires, he could see figures wearing white helmets and scraps of white armour, armed with white cloaks and rifles, while around them, figures made almost entirely of black joined them, pointing their guns and whips and blunt at the humans and Faunus and Techions before them.

The Grimm growled, and pulled their triggers.

* * *

**"Alright then, the stage is set, and Act 1 is underway"** , the Scion went to his squad of armoured Disciples as they gathered under the manhole cover in the dank sewers, **"Time for Act 2 to begin, eh?"**

The Disciples looked at him, none of them making a move, their boots and bottoms of their cloaks stained by dirt and other human waste that he dare not mention.

**"Guys?... C'mon, give me some enthusiasm... At least give me something..."**

One of the Disciples raised their hands, **"Er, 'Stage'?"**

**"Hm?"**

**"What'd you mean by 'Stage'? Or 'Act 1'? Or 'Act 2' or whatever?"**

**"Wha- You know, like a play."**

**"...A... A what?"**

The Scion did a double take at this, and then remembering that not every Grimm out there was as well read as he was, **"Ah, forget about it, just get into position"** , he went, before sighing to himself, taking notice of his subordinates hidden scoffing and growling.

 **"Feh, humie lover..."** , one of them quietly growled out. The Scion looked at that Disciple under his helmet and rolled his single eye, having long since gotten use to this kind of treatment from his subordinates, specifically about his fascination with human culture. So what if he liked to read? Big deal, everyone needed a hobby.

It was times like this that the Scion wished that he was back home in the Crimson Keep, back in his quarters with his ever expanding library of books of all sorts of genres and subjects, fiction, nonfiction, history books, autobiographical books, science books, cooking books just for the hell of it, even comic books, because why not? If it was a book, he was going to read it.

He didn't know why, but he had always found human culture as a whole to be so... Fascinating. So strange and unique. Don't get him wrong, he hated humanity as much as any good self respecting Grimm did, but he always found the things that they made to be so strange and wonderful in it's own right. Human culture was just so... Different. So weird. How did they perceive the world? What did they think? What did they feel? How did they feel? These questions had been on the Scion's mind ever since he was birthed, and since books were one of the best ways of looking into the human psyche, well, why not?

And so, he had taken to reading and rereading every single morsel of human creative writing and nonfiction that he could, absorbing and learning as much as he could from the various sheets of paper fabric, learning about niche little things about mankind, such as the difference between a human and a Faunus, how do make a nice beef pie, the names of the 4 kingdoms, the history of the Great War (From all 4 perspectives, as to try and avoid historical bias), The Azul Primus fairy tale, how do make a nice beef pie, and so on, so forth, every little drop of information that'd been hidden away by metaphors and syllables absorbed into him like a sponge.

(Of course, he did have books that he didn't particularly like as well, like that book about ninjas and love which wasn't actually a book about ninjas and love and one he had discarded and never bothered to continue with because- Among many other reasons- While he didn't know much about the human and Faunus anatomy, he knew for a fact that the average human male's genitals did not bend that way...)

Of course, one of the biggest challenges on his quest to read everything that the humans had ever created was, save for getting the books themselves, actually learning how to read themselves. He would never realise how useful of a skill it actually was. It was one of those niche talents that you never know will actually come in handy, like looking at Persephone and trying not to pat her on the head, or seeing the Daughter and trying not to poke at her mask and wonder what's underneath.

Still, he powered through it, and in time, he became one of, if not the most literate (He hoped he used that word right, he was still learning) Grimm in the Crimson Keep, if not on the planet. Sure, the other Scions and Barons tended to tease and pick on him for it, and many of the Disciples tended to belittle him for being a 'Human boot licker' or a 'Meat bag fucker' or whatever equally creative and equally vulgar insult that they could come up with, but hey, they couldn't read at all. They couldn't quote Violet's Garden, or the Third Crusade, or the Necronomicon, or The Man with Two Souls, so what did they know?

 _ **Anyways, time to move on**_ , the Scion thought to himself as he opened up the manhole cover above him and prepared to clamour up to the surface, before he felt a tug at his cape and looked down, to see one of his more loyal Disciples saying that he had found something to use, and handed him a...

Oh.

He finally understood what the humans meant by the word as he hefted the fully customised and decked out, jet black HK416 in his hands, _**Oh hey there, sexy.**_

* * *

Another swipe from one of the Grimm with large, bulky arms and whips attached to them (Flash had started calling them Lashers as a Grimm name) Messily beheaded another one of Warren's officers, but the chief of police quickly levelled his M4 Carbine rifle and emptied several rounds into the Grimm, the humanoid creature looking at him and throwing one of it's arms into the air, bringing the whip up, and then throwing it down, lashing the whip down as well, it's sharp tail end slicing his rifle in half and throwing him to the ground.

Warren growled as he fell onto the fractured ground, feeling the freshly made gravel and loose stone embedding themselves into his clothes and skin as he then looked up, his eyes widening as he spotted the Lasher stomping over to him, raising it's arm up and was about the bring the barbed whip down once more before-

"Chief!"

-The former initiate from before, Alexis Kennedy, jumped onto it's back and began to use her crab arms to claw away at the flesh of it's neck. The Lasher yelled out at this, clawing at the Faunus in turn and pulling her off of it's back, lifting her into the air and chuckling as it moved to grab her legs and rip her in half.

Upon seeing this, Warren pulled out his revolver from his holster and picked himself back up, running to behind the Lasher and pulling all 6 rounds into the back of it's neck, getting a gurgle from the Grimm as it's head slumped off in a spray of black blood, and it dropped to the ground, fading away as Alexis pulled herself out of it's fading grasp and clambered back up.

"Thanks", Alexis went, before she dodged a blow from a 4 armed, talon and red energy spear welding Grimm which she'd dubbed as a Cleric, and then launched a punch into it's eye, causing the Grimm to stagger back before it recovered, twirling its spear around and sending it down, slamming it against Alexis' shelled arm, but bouncing off of her aura and allowing her to grab the spear and pull it out of the Grimm's arms, twirling it around in the air and launching her own attack down, the Grimm deflecting it with the talons on its lower arms and going in for a double swipe itself, to which Alexis parried both of them and destroyed its guard, allowing her to use the Cleric as a springboard, jumping off of it and slamming down and decapitating what she had called a Baron Grimm in a spray of black blood and flesh and bone.

Using the momentum that she had gathered, Alexis then did a roll on the floor and jumped up onto the back of what she had called a rocketeer, using the spear to cut open one on the missile pods that it had on it's shoulders, shoving her claw into it and pulling out a series of fleshy wires, before clicking something and sending a barrage of missiles into 2 floating eyeball Grimm that she'd called Life-Givers and a stone golem Grimm that she called a Guardian, destroying all of them, before stabbing the Rocketeer in the chest and then jumping off of it, landing on the ground and slicing the hands off of a Disciple type cloaked Grimm that she nicknamed as a Lancer, before cleaving it in half with her commandeered spear, and then finally stabbing it into the head of the Cleric from before, killing it, the spear fading away as the Cleric did as well.

While Alexis moved on and continued her own fight against the Grimm, Warren had reloaded his revolver and sent 2 rounds into a Disciple, one of them bouncing off of it's white helmet, the other lodging itself in it's throat, black blood seeping out and staining it's white armour and cloak as Warren pushed it down, the body within fading away, and leaving only a poor set of armour and cloak behind. Passing in between 2 flaming cars, he then spotted one of the Grimm with a long barrelled gun for a head called a Long-Shot clinging to a nearby tree and firing off a round into the head of another police officer, popping it like a grape and sending blood and gore all around him.

In a fit of righteous anger, Warren sent another pair of bullets into the Grimm, hitting it in its chest and the barrel of it's head gun. All this seemed to do was anger the Grimm, as in a flash of red electricity, it suddenly appeared next to him and used one of it's claws for hands to slash him across his chest and sending him slamming down into the side of a still burning car, aiming it's head gun right down at his own, and looked like it was just about to fire before an orange blast hit it in the side of its head, popping it in a black burst and letting its now separated gun barrel fall to the ground in a puff of diseased smoke.

Warren looked to the side, to see Flash on the floor, one of his metal arms missing, and black and red liquid mixing together and dribbling out of the bloodied metal stump where his arm should be. His other arm was holding a smoking gun, the Techion then nodding to him, before turning his gun on a large, dual mace wielding Grimm which he called a Marauder, with Connie and Tyler helping him out, slashing and shooting at the back of the Grimm's knees and forcing the monster down, before placing round after round into the weak points of the Marauder between its armour, though, from Warren's perspective, they were only winning because the Grimm seemed to be horribly tired.

In fact, all of the Grimm present seemed to be tired and sluggish. Their reflexes were slowed, they were disorganised, and they were showing signs of fatigue, reacting slowly to attacks, and seemed to be poorly motivated, not moving forward and staying put, looking out only for themselves and abandoning their comrades to the gunfire and explosives that were flying towards them. In fact, from what he had seen, several of the Grimm had retreated back into the sewers, abandoning the fight for their own safety.

The Grimm were poorly motivated and wounded, but him and his forces weren't, and they were absolutely crushing the Grimm.

Warren fired off another round from his revolver into a Lancer's eye, and then into the throat of a Cleric. As he reloaded his gun, he spotted their Mobile Recon Walkers firing off their cannons into the Grimm in the line of trees, killing scores of them and sending others flying. Around him, the various police officers and few Hunters that they had continued to pick off any Grimm that they saw, while the few Grimm that were left began to fire back at them as they retreated, leaving the still burning car park as they jumped down back into the sewers and ran off.

The battle had ended before it had begun. In fact, the battle had ended yesterday. This... This was just clean up.

Warren wasn't happy about the changing tide of the battle though, as he allowed several officers to move around and flank the Grimm. Around him, he looked at the corpses of his fellow police officers as they continued to pool blood on the floor, their bodies mangled and gored, bloody and scarred. There were about 10, maybe 20 dead officers around the car park, killed in the mortar fire as well as the ensuing firefight, whilst nearby, the downed USPW had exploded in the ensuing battle, taking several more officers and any surrounding cars with it, pushing that number up to over 25.

Warren growled to himself as he dodged another stray round from a Grimm and launched 3 bullets at the monsters as well. That was 25 names to add to the wall of fallen officers. That was 25 graves that he had to see filled. That was 25 letters to 25 families that he had to write to tell them that they wouldn't be seeing their children and husbands and wives again.

He hated writing those letters. It reminded him of his own failures. Of his own mistakes. Of how he allowed these people to die because he couldn't save them, or how he couldn't do anything to save them.

He internally sighed and ducked behind a car, firing off 3 more rounds before moving to reload his revolver again. Once they'd cleaned up here and finished off the last of the Grimm, he'd half his forces, sending one half into the sewers below them to hunt down and mop up the last of the Grimm, while he kept the rest of his forces here, cleaning up the car park and putting out the fires around them, whilst also sweeping the streets and nearby houses for any remaining resistance. As much as he wished he could, he couldn't afford to send any of his remaining officers and Hunters under his command up to the prison to reinforce it-

In the distance, another flare of blue and purple gunfire launched into the sky, and an explosion followed shortly afterwards, a ball of orange fire and black smoke rising up into the air and joining the other columns of dark, oily smoke as they arched upwards and upwards on.

-At least, not yet. Not while the Grimm threat was so high and still present, and not while a battle was still waging. And besides, they weren't the closet fortified position to the Central City Prison. That would be the courthouse and the police station, so no doubt they were already sending their forces to contain the fighting and possible escaping of convicts in there.

However, as Warren kept his head ducked down and finished reloading his gun, he couldn't quite rack his head around why the Grimm had decided to attack the hospital. The Grimm were clearly disorganised and in poor general condition, and yet they had thrown their bodies into a full frontal assault, only to be killed in turn. And then they decided to attack the prison as well. Why not attack the council in their building, or the courthouse, or even the police station? Was it to do with terror? Was it to try and spread terror within Vale? Well, perhaps, but then again, wouldn't they be able to spread more of that terror by attacking the council? He didn't know, and he still didn't get it. The only reason that he could think of for these Grimm to initiate a suicidal charge against the fortified hospital was to get to the people inside, but-

His eyes widened.

He rose up from his cover, out into the open, and turned around, looking at the hospital and looking into the windows.

Red, blue, and orange muzzle flashes lit up the windows and the curtains, followed by gunshots and screams. On one window, a spray of blood splattered against the clean surface, dirtying it in red.

Warren's last thought before a stray round from a Disciple slammed into the side of his head and came out the other way, spraying the ground with red gore as he dropped to the ground, was:

_It was a distraction._

* * *

**_This is a slaughter_** , the Scion thought to himself as he and his Black Angels squad ran through the human's hospital, shooting down anyone in the crowded hallways who put up any resistance, double tapping them and letting them fall to the ground as they quickly moved from room to room, checking each one for their target, and then moving on.

After checking one of the rooms for their target, and then having to put down one of the patients who had gotten up to fight them, sending 2 rounds into the human, one for the heart, and one for the brain, letting him fall against the wall and slump to the floor, the Scion took a quick glance out of the window, and saw the one sided slaughter that was taking place outside the hospital and into the car park.

The Black Angels were being massacred. His forces were being routed and were in complete disarray, retreating back into the sewers for cover and to possibly escape the city.

 ** _Dammit_** , the Scion thought as he left the room and went back into the hallway, watching several others in his squad shooting and killing several humans in beds that couldn't defend themselves, and reprimanded them for wasting the ammo. There was no point in killing those humans if they couldn't fight back. Better to save their ammunition for any humans who posed an actual threat.

He heard a few of the Disciples scoff, but they recomposed themselves and moved on, moving down the corridors and unloading their rounds into a pair of human police officers that got in front of them. He knew that it was incorrigible (Oh, points to him for learning such a big word), The general Grimm hatred towards humanity- Well, he did share in it as well, they were all disgusting, wasteful humans- But he did wish that his soldiers would be a little bit more pragmatic in their hatred of the humans. If they stopped and paused at every room and bedside just to put a round in every human and Faunus that they saw, then it would just waste precious time and encumber them, as well as, as said before, waste their ammo.

Ugh, if any of the other Grimm heard his thought processes, they bully and mock him for it at best, or brand him an apostate and kill him for heresy at worst. Best to just keep these things to himself.

Still though, at least his Disciples were in high spirits, making a few jokes and cheers at the 'Humie meatbags' as they cleared the rooms and ran down the corridors, laughing and bantering with each other despite how tired they were, and agreeing to buy drinks for each other back home, despite the fact that they couldn't drink at all, and didn't need to. It was nice to watch.

He didn't have the heart in him to tell them that they weren't going to be leaving this place alive.

How could they? They'd needed their fellow Grimm outside to cause a good enough distraction to allow them to storm into the hospital with the element of surprise on their hand, and then get out as quick as well while the defenders were still confused and disoriented. But now, the humans were reorganising, and routing the Grimm outside, and no doubt the humans downstairs were reorganising themselves and moving upstairs to corner and kill them. Their planned exit was most likely being covered, and even as he was moving through the corridors, he could see the humans piling through the hallways and staircases behind them, moving through the corridors after them with their weapons raised.

 ** _Don't look back_** , the Scion thought to himself as he and the rest of his squad was fast approaching another room, _**Don't look back, find the target, hole up in his room, and go down swinging. If we're lucky, we can use him, and anyone else in their as hostages and negotiate our way out of here-**_

A round whizzed through the air past him and slammed into the throat of one of his Grimm. Black ichor sprayed out as the Disciple flung to the ground, helmet and armour clanging against the ground as the body within began to fade away.

 **"Boss!"** his most loyal Disciple yelled at him as the Scion looked behind him and spotted another squad- No, 2 squads worth- Of humans charging down the corridor behind them, **"Up front!"** to which he then looked in front of him and saw another squads worth of humans was glaring down on them, weapons trained and glowing angrily at them.

The Scion growled, **"Stay together!"** he called out, but most of his Disciples, already fatigued, wounded, unmotivated, and not respecting of his command, panicked, and began to fire onto the humans, their guns and shots scattered and confused.

Chaos followed, blue and orange and red rounds of light and fire soaring through the corridors, the humans firing at the Grimm from both sides in a crossfire, with several rounds flying past them and hitting the humans on the opposite sides of the corridor, resulting in embarrassing moments of friendly fire as their soul shields absorbed the majority of the blasts and shots. The Scion's Disciples, meanwhile, wore armour, which helped to tank and deflect as many blows as they could, but eventually, they themselves fell, their armour shredding and staining with fading black as one by one, the Disciples fell, taking as many of the humans down with them in a flurry of anger and suicidal rage. One of those Disciples, choosing to take control of his own fate instead of allowing the humans to choose it for him, quickly ducked down to behind a discarded bed, pulled his helmet off and threw it at the humans, before pressing his rifle to his eye and pulling the trigger, his head blowing to bits as his body faded away, his armour slumping down into a discarded pile.

 **"Down!"** the Scion yelled as he grabbed the last Disciple with him- The loyal one- And, after watching the rest of his squad die, pulled him into the room next to them and slammed the door shut, first by locking the door with the switch, and then grabbing a nearby broom and shoving it into the door, jamming the door properly shut.

In a panic, the both of them still leaning against the door, futilely holding it shut as they listened to the calls and voices outside, the Disciple still with him whispered through his helmet, **"What do we do now, sir?"** his dark voice shaking, his Grimm speak quaking.

The Scion tried to think of something, dipping his helmeted head down as he tried to come up with any good way to make it out of this situation with their lives, _**C'mon, think think think**_ , ran through his mind as he let himself ponder on what on Remnant could be the best solution.

And then, he remembered: He's in a hospital. He's in a hospital room. A hospital room with defenceless patients. He looked to a sign on the side of the door, thanking the Mother Eternal for learning the humans' language as he read 'Intensive Care ward 3' and then looked back to behind him, to see over a dozen beds, all of them filled with patients, one of them on the far end seemingly waking up, but the Scion didn't pay much mind to this as he began to think up a plan out of this.

 **"We hole up in this room"** , the Scion spoke back to the Disciple in Grimm speak, patting him on the shoulder as he continued, "We'll hole up in here, and do peace talks. We've got wounded humans in here, and we can use them as hostages. With any luck, we can negotiate a way out of-"

A weak, black aura came over the Disciple's helmet, and it was lifted off, revealing the Grimm's bewildered eye underneath.

Seconds later, a long pole that the humans called an IV drip stand- The top bit of it pulled off, revealing the sharp tip underneath- Flew through the air and impaled the Disciple right through it's head, killing it instantly as black blood splattered against the wall and pooled on the ground, before beginning the process of fading away.

The Scion's eye widened at the sudden death of his only remaining soldier, and looked to behind him to see, at the far side of the room, a tall, long red haired and emerald green eyed girl covered in scars and bandages and dressed in a hospital gown, staring down at her with an angry glare. In one of her hands was a trail of blood leaving down her arm, and in her other was another IV drip stand, with the needle and pipe still connected to her wrist.

Over her head was a floating hospital bed covered in a black glow.

That same bed was flung at the Scion at terminal velocity, forcing him to drop his HK416 just to catch it and throw it to the side with an angry snarl, charging at the girl who used her drip stand to deflect a punch and then deliver a blow to the side of his head, his helmet taking the blunt force of the blow, before he snarled in turn, and grabbed the end of the drip stand, wrestling it out of her grasp and smacking her over her own head with it, bending the metal and forcing the girl to stagger back, before he then grabbed her by the waist and slammed her into the ground, getting himself back up and pressing his foot down against the girl's neck, himself intent on now killing this human for herself killing his comrade.

But then, his HK416, covered in the same black glow, flung from the ground in the girl's left hand, and with a strangled choke and gasp for air, she raised it up and fired it into the Scion's unarmoured neck, the bullet penetrating and creating a bleeding wound, causing the Scion to stagger back himself and force pressure onto his wound, allowing the girl to climb back up to her feet and catch herself on a nearby bedside.

It was then that the Scion noticed that nearby, the metal ends of 2 wires were glowing with a black aura.

The wires shot out and wrapped around his throat, jacking into the hole in his jugular and tightening, forcing the Scion onto his knees as he clawed at the fires, before the girl jumped up onto his back and ripping off his helmet, then pulling back on the wires and forcing his head back, allowing her to stare right into his eye with her 2.

The last thing he saw was her fiery emerald green eyes before she launched her fist into his eye, clawing down through the black miasma that flowed out of his eye, and crushed his brain, killing him instantly.

* * *

_Wednesday (2 days after the Initiation Massacre)…_

* * *

It was night time, and Pyrrha Nikos was reading the still comatose Jaune Arc a bedtime story.

She didn't really need to. He was, as just said, comatose, and unable to respond to her or her, in her opinion, horrible story telling, and the hospital staff were perfectly capable of looking after him in any capacity, thanks to many of the initial patients from yesterday being cleared of any serious injuries and let go, including her, meaning that she could've left any time that she wanted.

But no, she was still here, reading a boy in a coma what she considered a bedtime story.

Why did she do this?

Because she cared.

Well, that, and another reason...

* * *

_It was evening, some time after the battle. She was sitting up in her bed as a nearby hospital worker finished off cleaning up the room, carrying away the last bits of armour and cloak and closing the door behind him._

_At the end of her bed, in a spare chair, sat Headmaster Ozpin, his cup empty and on the side, and a saddened, yet also relieved look upon his face as he looked at Pyrrha._

_"Good evening, Miss Nikos", he began, "How are you?"_

_"...I'm... Doing well", Pyrrha responded, rubbing her face as she went, "The scars are still raw, but they'll heal eventually...", she paused, and then let out a breath, "Hopefully they won't cause too much of a backlash..."_

_From her fans, she had meant, especially from her more... Fanatical fans. They were the ones she didn't like to talk about._

_"Yes, well, I'm sure that something as simple as a scar will not prove to be that much of a blow to your popularity", she knew his words shouldn't have hurt just that tiny bit, but they did, "In fact, I have known several Hunters over my lifetime that have benefited from the addition of scars on their bodies. People tend to trust warriors more when they have proof of their experiences and adventures, scars or otherwise."_

_Pyrrha bit her lower lip, before going, "Headmaster, please forgive me for my... Brusqueness, but is there something that you wished to ask me?"_

_Ozpin sat back and put his hands together._

_"As a matter of fact, there is. Tell me, Miss Nikos, how do you feel about leadership?"_

* * *

Headmaster Ozpin had come down to the hospital as soon as he heard about the battle there, to make sure that everything was in hand and that nobody was hurt. And from what she'd heard, when he discovered that around 50 people had died in the chaos, he had stayed at the hospital to help tend and talk to the wounded, and pay his respects to the dead.

(Pyrrha didn't know where Miss Goodwitch was, perhaps to help out in the battle at the Central City Prison, considering that the battle had ended shortly after. The headmistress seemed to be the type of person to be able to end a battle with but a glare.)

He had also come to talk to Pyrrha about a few issues.

Specifically, about a leadership offer.

"Okay then", Pyrrha went, looking to the still glowing, still sleeping blond boy in the bed near her, having lost her thread, thanks to her regrettable trip down memory lane, "Where was I?" she went as she found the paragraph that she'd left off, "Ah, there we go."

She had heard than when a person was in a coma, their aura was subconsciously activated and began the process of healing their injuries. However, this meant that, subconsciously, they had to preform multiple neural connections in order to activate their aura and focus it on the most serious injuries, which had to be done by themselves, which, if taken to long, could lead to the furthering of their coma and the possibility of brain death.

One of the best ways of stimulating the subconscious was by talking to the comatose person, or, even better, telling them a story. Stories relied on the listener to subconsciously bridge narrative gaps, which itself would massage and activate higher capacity brain functions, which would then be more active in healing both the mind and the body, which would then lessen the amount of time that their aura would need to heal their wounds and come out of their coma.

And so, here she was, reading off of the first draft of a retelling of the Emerald Forest that a writer under the pen name of Cipher had sent her, hoping that she didn't have to read anymore about herself as she went on.

There was a reason why she had never read real life retellings like this, where she had to listen to her own voice and words and be reminded of how stupid they were. Was she really that one-sided? Did she really seem like nothing more than an undefeatable one-dimensional angel 'Mary Sue' type of character or something like that, that always spoke and knew what was right, or something like that?

It was horrifying to listen to, and worse to read, and she suspected that Jaune would feel the same way, perhaps feel worse as she looked over the file on her scroll, and realised that he probably had it off way worse than she did. She didn't want to criticise Cipher's work- She'd hate to do that about something that he or she was clearly passionate about- But if Jaune had seen this- Having been unfortunately characterised as a glorified, undefeatable paladin and invincible, all knowing leader with muscles bigger than his head and language as flowery as a poet that could woo any woman- He probably would've had all of the copies gathered up and burnt out of embarrassment.

"Okay now, here we go", Pyrrha coughed, looking at Jaune, hoping for a sign of consciousness, a twitch of the finger, a flutter of the eyes, anything, and got nothing. She sighed, and continued on, "'Outside of the _Grimm Tidings_ , where we initiates were gathered like ants without their queen'..."

She stopped, and sighed. 'Ants without their queen'? There had to be a better analogy. She made a note on the scroll- One of many- About it, ready to be emailed back to Cipher, and continued.

"'Where we initiates were gathered like ants without their queen, and commingling with the dead men and the fresh debris made parchments and trenches, we were shown a terrible truth: A tide of Grimm, all around us, swallowing everything in their path with salivating, snapping jaws, coal black beasts and freshly made armies made from evil and violence themselves.'

"'We were panicked and fractured upon this realisation. Many of us wept, realising, if we had not before, that we were but children, the walking dead, in the face of monsters, ready to be given to the Grimm as nothing more than worthless rags of meat. Fear came over us, while pointless anger came over others, many others of us tearing into each other, trying to find someone to blame for events that were long since beyond our control.'

"'We fell apart. We were broken and bloodied, left as flotsam ready to be picked apart by the vultures.'

"'And then, once more, a gift was given to us from the heavens above.'

'Jaune Arc, once more, showed us the path of hope, though, in our hubris, we greeted it only with bile and hatred, many of our number turning him into a scapegoat for the events of the morning, hoping to rip him to pieces for some hope of satisfaction.'

"'And yet, when he spoke, when his hypnotic words of growing hope and everlasting compassion left his lips and reached our ears, it was only then that we realised the poor extent of our words.'

"'His words, so simple, and let so complex, gave us the hope for help that we oh so desperately needed. From his words, from his speech, he gave us a choice, "Go inside and wait for help, or stay outside and fight to the bitter end", it wasn't a choice with a wrong decision, nor one to invite the feeling of wrong to anyone who would make a decision. But from his words, he weaved us together, not as a leader bringing together an army under his command, but as one of us, as a man, a child, a person no greater or better than any other of us, lesser than us perhaps, asking us to stand with him, no more, no less, his eyes betraying the same fear as all of us, and yet hiding within them, was a great fire of conviction, of strength and will to fight on, to make sure that we would all survive, and to do everything in his power to make sure that that dream was realised.'

"'It was then that I realised that he was my true leader. That I realised that I would follow him to the bitter end, and wade through the valley of hell if he asked me so, braving the savages and monsters of the night with blade and gun in hand, for the sake of ourselves, and for all mankind. And like me, everyone else answered to the call, a few choosing to stay in the hold of the Grimm Tidings to guard the wounded against'..."

Pyrrha stopped, and sighed. Those people, Cardin and the others, had chosen to stay in the hold of the ship with the wounded because they were too scared for their own lives to fight against the Grimm outside, and not because they wanted to protect their wounded fellows within. She knew she shouldn't judge those who'd chosen to stay within based on their choices for doing so, but the inner Mandarin within her- She liked to call that voice her inner Morado- Was growling at their supposed cowardice.

She slapped herself for the thought. Cowardice? She was one to talk.

If anything, the document that she was reading off of, The Hunters Tale, smelt of historical exaggeration and propaganda like misremembering of events. Cipher had said so themselves, when they had sent her the first draft, saying that they'd made certain historical revisions to events when writing their piece, toning down the violence and gore to more audience friendly levels, changing around and playing with events and methods of deaths, and dramatizing and playing up moments of inspiration and heroism in order to make for a more... Inspirational, and motivating tale, something that people could gravitate towards and be inspired by, as well as just a good read, and a possible source of hope within the darkness, and while Pyrrha didn't necessarily like historical revisionism and manipulating events of the past for propaganda purposes, she could definitely see the point, before continuing on.

"'A few choosing to stay in the hold of the Grimm Tidings to guard the wounded against whilst the rest of us prepared ourselves, sharpening our blades and loading our rifles, ready to meet the onslaught of living death head on.'

"'And when they came, we would scream into the night with sword and shield and gun, and at the frontlines, our leaders would stand tall, and'... 'And'..."

She stopped, and put the scroll down onto her lap. Clenching her fists, she then looked to the comatose, thankfully still breathing form of Jaune Arc in his bed, his chest slowly raising under the thin covers.

"Jaune, I... I can't go on. Not until I... I need to tell you something. Something important."

She paused, and looked around. No one else was awake, no one was by the door. She let out a breath that she didn't know she had, and continued.

"Yesterday... Yesterday, after the breach at the Hospital and the prison Headmaster Ozpin arrived to- To check up on us. To look over us, and... And to talk to me", she paused again, before continuing, "He... He heard about what I had done during the hospital breach. About how I killed those 2 Grimm... But he... He didn't know about what happened... What happened in the Emerald Forest, and the _Grimm Tidings_."

She took in a breath, not hearing the door silently opening behind her.

"He... Ozpin wanted to discuss leadership. He said that if you ever get up again, he was going to put us in a team together, and... And he was going to make me the leader... For my actions here."

She paused once more, looking for a sign from him, a twitch, a sudden hitched breath, anything, but got nothing in return.

"He, yeah, he wanted to make me leader. I told him no. I told him to not make me leader. I begged him to not make me leader. I..."

She bit the insides of her lips.

"I told him to make you the leader."

Still no response from the boy in the bed.

"I didn't do it for you, you know. I knew you would've hated the position, and you still would, but I still told him to do so. And I didn't do it because you're a good leader, or a better fighter, or a braver warrior, or just a better person... I didn't do it because you could handle the choices and the decisions and all of that stuff."

She took in another deep breath.

"I did it because I knew that I couldn't do it. I couldn't handle the guilt of making a bad decision, or the responsibility of leading others behind me, or keeping them safe and forcing them to trust me with their lives, and... And I just couldn't do it, and I still can't. I can't handle any of that. And at the time, I knew that you couldn't either... But I didn't care. I didn't care if you could handle the chores of leadership, and the responsibilities, and the choices, and the regrets, and the fact that if someone dies under you command, you'll have to be the one to tell their families that their children won't be coming back because of you. I didn't care. As long as you had to deal with it, and I didn't, it was all the better."

She looked down, and put her hands together, tapping her fingers together and biting her lower lip.

"I suppose... I guess I've been leading up to something, haven't I? Like, an apology. I know it won't do anything, and I know that it won't change anything, but... I'm sorry, Jaune. Really, I am, for forcing all of this on to you, onto why, when you wake up, you'll be forced into a position that you'll hate, but... Yeah. I- Yeah, like I said, I know that it won't change anything, and I know you won't be able to forgive me, but... I'm sorry."

She put the scroll onto the bed, and hugged her knees to her chest.

"I suppose that's all I can say."

A forced cough at the far end of the room made her jump, and she looked to the door, eyes widening in shock of her confession of contrition being heard, to see a tall, blonde haired girl standing at the now opened door, her arms crossed over her chest, a panicked look to Jaune, an angry look to Pyrrha.

She introduced herself as Violet Arc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, this chapter was meant to just be a short story, under the 10,000 word mark. But then, it charged over the 10,000 mark and surged up to over 14,600 words, so now it's just a regular old chapter, just told entirely as a flashback to the mentioned Hospital battle and prison breach in the Aftermath Arc, as well as seeding for later stories. I guess I just like worldbuilding like this.
> 
> For the new Grimm division that I've added in, the Black Angels, in my head, I based them off of the First Order Snowtroopers from Star Wars, especially the ones with the capes.
> 
> For the ending bit with Pyrrha and Jaune, I was actually inspired by James Robert's Transformers work, more specifically in MTMTE Shadowplay arc, where Chromedome talks about another character's vegetative state, and Zero Point with Roadbuster and Springer. I just felt that something like this would help to add a little bit more character towards Pyrrha, and add another dimension to her. And don't worry, if nothing else changes, then this little piece of information will become important later...
> 
> Anyways, with that, I'll leave this chapter here. The next one will definitely be a short story, I promise. So, leave a review, favourite, and follow, and I'll see you all soon.
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	12. Short Story: A Patchy Sacrifice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the past, a choice was made.
> 
> With it came the scouring of a home, and the decision that sealed Remnant's fate.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)_  
 **Arc Theme:** _[Utopia Fallen from the Destiny 2 Soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_vCRgRIIQg)_

* * *

Patch had fallen.

Around the small island, the fortresses that guarded it, Scrap, Mend, Forge, and Tool had been destroyed from the inside out, breached by Beowolves and Ursi, ripped apart and devoured, before their corpses were toppled into the sea for the Sea Feilongs to finish off. A group of humans, known to work with the Bandit Confederation, had shut down the defences and held the door to Patch wide open, allowing for a massive surge of Grimm to flood the island.

These humans were rewarded as a traitor deserves by their employer, their heads rolling off of their bodies in a bloody mess, their corpses left for the Grimm to play with and tear apart, all for their entertainment.

Before long, the entire island had been flooded by the Grimm. Signal was the first to evacuate, almost all of it's young students herded onto the first airships and flown out of the island's airspace towards Vale.

None of them would make it, coming across flocks of Nevermores and Manticores and the like, the Grimm slamming themselves into the airships and ripping them to shreds, sending those within into a watery grave.

The rest of the airships were destroyed before they could take off, the airfield of Patch being the first location to be swarmed by the Grimm, before they moved on to Signal, which would be consumed in a fiery blaze and toppled over, and then to the smalls towns and villages one by one. Each time, they would encircle one of these settlements, box the humans within into a corner, and then charge in and slaughter them all in mass in a mess of bloody carnage. Fires broke out around the island, burning away at the forests and houses, and leaving the earth below scorched and barren, filled with nothing but fire and smoke and ash.

A few Bullheads and airships were able to pierce through the Grimm horde, though, but only a few. These ships would travel to the places with the heaviest populations and fighting, and extract any people that they could, removing them from the falling island and bringing them to Vale. All of these people would be incredibly wounded, with many of them becoming the first in a new generation of Techions.

There had been a single boat, though, which had escaped, but it was largely ignored. A single group of humans escaping was hardly worth shedding a tear over, not when a plentiful bounty of slaughter was waiting for them on the island.

Eventually, the island was burnt, and almost all of the people that had once called it home were lying on the floor in a pool of blood, some of them dying to the Grimm, others choosing to die by their own hands. The few dozen who had escaped the massacre were bloody and wounded, both of mind and body.

The Slaughter of Patch was almost absolute.

And yet, that was not what concerned the last living person on the island, standing on a cliffside, a pair of Beowolves behind her, bowing down to her feet, whilst she looked over the cliffside to the burning island, and then to the ground before her, looking over a slab of rock with a few words written over them.

_Summer Rose_   
_Thus Kindly I Scatter_

_He hit it under a grave_ , she mentally scoffed, looking upon the blank white slate with a grey rose printing on it, _Sentimental old fool._

Still, she supposed that it had taken a while to figure it out. She'd have to thank Leonardo later on for letting her know where it was. Ozpin had been lording over Beacon Academy for years, of course he'd take the time to move it to somewhere where nobody would ever think to look. And most people would ever think about looking in a grave.

Well, an empty grave, in this case.

Still though, she wasn't most people, and a simple case of grave digging wasn't beyond her. Sacrifices had to be made, of course...

Sacrifices.

Sacrifices...

Her shoulders hunched together, and her head tilted down. Her arms began to shake as she wrapped them around herself. Her Beowolves behind her began to bay and whimper as a pair of teardrops left her eyes and join the warm ash on the ground.

She rubbed her eyes and took a glance behind her, past the Grimm and the burning trees.

Sacrifices...

Sacrifice...

She had made her sacrifice today.

She had made the greatest sacrifices of all.

This was it, the turning point, the final stepping stone. She had done what was required of her to get past the final hurdle.

She had finally, fully embraced the Grimm.

There was no turning back now.

She knelt down, burying her hands into the ground and began to dig underneath the grave. The Beowolves, upon seeing her, attempted to join her, but she motioned for them to hold still. This was her task, her calling. They needn't take the burden off of her.

Down and down she dug, dirt and stone clawing at her skin and getting under her nails, dirtying her hands and tearing at the skin, breaking them in small places and letting black blood pool in tiny droplets around them, but she didn't stop.

Not until she unearthed the hatch.

The power within her began to fester and grow, and with a graceful sweep, she pressed her hand against the hatch. An orange glow came off of the hatch, and it opened up in a rather uselessly dramatic fashion, leading to a staircase that travelled downwards.

The Grimm behind her tried to follow her, but she ordered them back, and then travelled downwards, down the stairs and into a wide, artificial chasm, filled with portraits of all of those who had inherited the power of the maidens and died in their conflict, in the war between Ozma and Salem, always changing, always being added and updated with the paintings of those who had fought for Ozma, as a sort of reminder of guilt.

One of those portraits was of a woman with red tipped black hair, silver eyes, and a pure white cloak, with a butterfly pendant in her hair.

She pushed it away, as well as the final door, wide and glowing with magic. Forcing it open, she came into another wide chasm. A sort of pocket universe, high above a world with plains of grass for miles upon miles.

She walked forward, across a stone path, and to the floating object at the end of it, and with a single swipe, she took it into her hand.

She turned it over in her hand, and teased at the metal, before putting it level to her eyes, and staring deep into it, inspecting the metal and the frame, and sensing the magics within.

And then, she left, using her powers to blast into the portraits of the maidens around her-

She spared 2 for the white cloaked woman's painting.

-And then into the ceiling, destroying the frame and beginning a chain reaction that started to bring the roof down, rocks falling in tandem and in an increasing rate, sealing the vault behind her forever, forcing her to flee from the wide chasm in a calm, yet also mad dash, sprinting through the halls and up the massive flight of stairs as the cliff face collapsed in on itself and tumbled away.

Nearby, the gravestone of Summer Rose impacted with the ground and shattered into a million pieces, lost forever.

From the masses of stones and rubble, she climbed through and out, wading through the dust and the smoke, and being met by her Grimm, presenting them with the object- With a name that she found to have a certain degree of irony behind it- That would bring about the salvation of Remnant.

The Relic of Choice.


	13. Short Story: Silver

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby Rose has some questions for Ozpin, regarding the nature of her eyes...

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Arc Theme:**[ _The Impossible Astronaut from the Doctor Who Series 6 Soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX3IS3cdw7g)

* * *

"Your eyes?"

Ozpin looked down at the awkwardly shuffling Ruby Rose as she sat in front of his desk in his office, the ticking of the clockwork built into the tower around them gently echoing through the room. Many people would often complain about this noise, saying that it was distracting and noisy, but Ozpin had always found it to be exceptionally soothing. It always helped him to think.

"Y-Yes sir, Headmaster", Ruby quickly said, taking note of Glynda Goodwitch nearby, her riding crop to her side, and then fidgeted in her seat once more, fingering at her skirt and then awkwardly going, "It's just... When we first met... 2 years ago, after we left Patch, you... You said something, about my eyes... You just... Said that they were silver. Out of the blue. At first I didn't say anything about it because I thought that you were reminded of mum, but...", she paused, relented, bit her lower lip in anxiety, and then went, "A-At the Grimm Tidings... I... Weiss, and Leadpipe… They said that I did something... With my eyes... Beams of light, shot out of them and killed one of the Brothers Grimm, and it's just..."

She paused once more, not sure how to continue, before her right arm grabbed the left, rubbing gently at the tender, burnt skin, and then adding on:

"I just thought that you knew something about that."

Indeed Ozpin did. He knew a lot about the silver eyes. He knew about their power, what they represented, and where they'd come from. He'd helped her mother, Summer Rose, awaken her silver eyes when she was a third year at Beacon, and he had heard of the age old Hunter Maria Calavera, or the Grimm Reaper, had silver eyes, and regularly used them, before she was found dead with her eyes cut out.

But, then came the question: Was the young Miss Rose ready to hear about it?

He looked to her, taking note of the still red left side of her body hidden behind hair and clothing, as well as the heterochromia in her left eye under her swept over hair and the dark bags under her right. She looked tired and fatigued, and her body language was shaky and wary, obviously a sign of mental trauma, something which the poor girl had been accumulating much of in her life.

Ozpin was very much unsure if he should be telling her of this all. Did she really need any more baggage on her? Did she really need that sort of responsibility on her shoulders, that sort of awareness of her powers, that understanding of how important she truly was, when she was still just a child, barely 16 years old? He hadn't told her before because he had wanted her to have some semblance of a childhood after the fall of Patch, and to have some form of happiness, in part to his debt to Summer and his unwillingness to send a child such as herself, or any child that young, into the squalor and horrors of his secret war, just for the sake of adding a new chest piece to his side of the board.

And yet, she had already come to him. She had shown awareness of his words and had made the connection, and hadn't just sat at the sidelines, kept it to herself, and tried to figure it out on her own? A good sign of an aware mind, and a better sign of a Huntress in training.

And even still, there were now so many factors on the chessboard that Ozpin had no idea how to counter. So many new players and pieces. He supposed that he no longer had the choice of keeping it from her any longer.

Wherever it was ethical or not, or wherever she was ready or not, it had to be now or never.

"As a matter of fact, I do", Ozpin began to explain as he pushed his still steaming cup to the side and put his hands together in front of him, "Long ago, before the age of Hunters, before the Great War, before even the kingdoms that we know of today, during the eras of myths and legends, there was a great lineage of warriors that rose up to fight back against the Grimm", he paused, letting his words sink in and also for dramatic effect, before continuing, "The Silver-Eyed Warriors."

Ruby's visible eye narrowed, and she reached a hand up to feel around it as she paid close attention to him.

"The Silver-Eyed Warriors were the best of the best, the most elite fighters and combatants against the Grimm. It was said that those born with silver eyes are destined to become warriors", Ruby looked to the side, spotting her still incomplete mark 2 of Crescent Rose to the side, but Ozpin continued on, drawing back her attention, "It is said that those with silver eyes are so powerful, that they can destroy a Grimm with but a single look."

Ozpin unfolded his arms and put them back together over the table, moving his chair up and leaning forward as he continued.

"That is because those with silver eyes have, at their disposal, great powers of light. Through their eyes, they can summon to them the powers of the old gods and petrify the Grimm, turning them into stone, or summon their own creations of light, their own proxies to fight with them, or many other powers that even I do not know, and they can summon this power by focusing on the opposite of what the Grimm are: Creation. If the Grimm are the representations of the God of Darkness, of death and destruction, then the silver eyes are their opposite, as they are representations of the God of Light, of life and preservation and creation."

It really did pain Ozpin to speak of the Brother Gods that way, in a respectful manner, but it was something that he had to do in spite of his own feelings towards them, as Miss Rose seemed to get the idea, before asking, "The Brother Gods... They're real?"

Ozpin nodded, and continued on, "That is your lineage, Miss Rose. That is what makes you special. You are a Silver-Eyed Warrior, one of the greatest lines of warriors against the Grimm, and our greatest chance against them."

Ruby paused, her eyes widening as she took it all in, hesitantly nodding as she accepted all of this, before asking, "My mum... Was she... Was she a Silver-Eyed Warrior?"

"Yes", Ozpin answered, "I helped her to unlock the power of her eyes back in her third year at Beacon."

"So... Why didn't she tell me about it?" Ruby asked, "About my eyes? Why didn't you tell me about it?"

Ozpin paused, collecting his words in his mouth, before answering, "Miss Rose, please understand, your mother, nor I, nor anybody else, told you of your eyes earlier, not out of malice towards you, but out of kindness."

"Kindness? What do you mean?"

Opzin paused, his hands fumbling together, "Because a Silver-Eyed Warrior's powers can only be unlocked via a severe traumatic event."

"...What?"

The Headmaster sighed, his hands tweezing the bridge between his nose, and this time, it was Glynda who took the initiative, moving to Ozpin's side and going, "The powers of the Silver-Eyed Warriors are the representations of creation and preservation, of the want and will to protect and preserve life, but in order for them to activate, they must be at a severe point when that wish to protect all that they love and cherish is at it's greatest, I.E. A traumatic event."

"Like, the death of a loved one?" Ruby asked.

"Before you asked, I never subjected your mother to anything like that", Ozpin interjected, "I had let her know by her second year of the powers of her silver eyes, and by her third year, with her consent, I helped her awaken them by subjecting her to a plethora of...", Ozpin looked to the side, a look of displeasure on his face, "Unpleasant material..."

Ruby cocked her head to the side, "'Unpleasant'... Like, the Ninjas of Love book series?"

"Oh, no, nothing that horrid", Ozpin chuckled, before his face turned grave, "It was more like... Torture films... Videos and audios of... Death and violence... That sort of thing..."

"...Snuff films", it was a statement, rather than a question.

"Shock videos", Ozpin corrected, not liking the term, "But, yes... In order to unlock her powers, I had to ask Summer to watch... Much of those videos...", Ozpin looked down, "It was... Extremely unpleasant."

"There was a room that was constructed for her", Glynda added in, "Where she would be continuously bombarded with stressful sights and sounds until a certain stress threshold was reached, and her powers activated. After that, she was treated for mental trauma and PTSD from the experience", Glynda sighed, massaging her forehead as she then said, "You can't just go through that kind of experience and not have bad dreams..."

"...Oh...", Ruby breathed out, before continuing, "So, is that why nobody told me? Because of that whole traumatic event thing?"

"Well, partly, of course", Ozpin began, "But there is another reason", he paused, letting Ruby's attention catch up to him once more, before going, "Miss Rose, for much of your life, you have been followed by nothing but despair and trauma. You know this, and I know this", Ruby looked down, and nodded, "After the fall of Patch, I had wished to give you a good childhood, something in which you could live in comfort and peace until I thought that you would be ready to learn about your silver eyes."

"Which wouldn't be until my second year of Beacon?" Ruby asked with a eyebrow raised, a hint of hostility in her voice.

"...Well, I suppose that is correct", Ozpin sort of answered, "Well, like I said, I wished to give you a pleasant childhood after the fall of Patch, give you and your sister a nice place in Vale's central orphanage, let you make friends, and so on, and waiting until I had judged you ready to learn about the silver eyes", he paused once more, "But then, that... Ugly business with Iris Marilla happened..."

Ruby looked down and squirmed in her seat, a shiver coming over her, and her face becoming pale.

"Well, yes...", Ozpin slowly said, "And then the battle in the Emerald Forest happened, and then the _Grimm Tidings_ , and... The events of that day", being only under a week ago, "Must've been enough to unlock the power of your silver eyes."

"...Didn't activate before though", Ruby dryly muttered out, "That wasn't enough for them, eh?...", before Ozpin could add anything onto that, Ruby's shoulders had hunched together, and she whimpered out, "Could've done something...", her words became shaky and even quieter, "Could've saved mum..."

"Miss Rose", Glynda then spoke up, "Whatever happened to Summer wasn't your fault. You were too young to do anything- You were still a child, and we still don't now what happened to her. If you had gone with her to wherever it was that she had gone, then we would've lost you too, so please, don't blame yourself for whatever happened to her."

"...", Ruby didn't say anything for a while, folding in on herself, before asking, "If the Silver-Eyed Warriors are so powerful, then why haven't I heard of them before? Why hasn't anybody else heard of them before?"

"Because after the Great War, it was decided that the Silver-Eyed Warriors should be less well known", Ozpin answered.

"By your guys?"

"Yes."

"Why? Shouldn't the Silver-Eyed Warriors be at the forefront against the Grimm? Shouldn't they be rallying everyone to them and charging off against the Grimm?"

"Because the Silver-Eyed Warriors were, and are, being hunted by our enemies, that being the Grimm, and those that work for and worship them", Ozpin explained, "As the silver eyes are the greatest weapon against the Grimm, there are those that would seek to destroy that which would harm their masters."

"The Ascendant Court", Ruby began, "The Brother of Light, from the Brothers Grimm... It pointed out my eyes... Were they the ones hunting people like me?"

"I don't know", Ozpin answered truthfully, "I've only heard of this 'Ascendant Court' on the day of the Initiation Massacre, when some of the initiates told me about it."

"But other people have been? Other people that you've heard of?"

"Yes", Ozpin replied.

"Who?"

"A group of very dangerous people", he slowly said, "With agents that even I can't find, headed by an ancient master."

"The Mother Eternal. That's what the Ascendant Court had said. 'In the name of the Mother Eternal'..."

"Hm", Ozpin hummed, "Perhaps", _If that's what she's calling herself now..._

"...", Ruby went quiet again, pressing her hands together, before going, "B-Back in the _Grimm Tidings_... Around the airship... The Brother of Light... He said that he killed my mother... He said that he murdered my mum... That he... Desecrated her... That he mutilated her..."

Ozpin paused, looking for something to say, but it was Glynda once more who interjected as she then said, "Miss Rose, let me ask you something: Do you believe that it is wise to trust the words of a Grimm?" Ruby looked up at her with a questioning glance, and Glynda continued, "How do you know that it wasn't just saying that just to elicit a response out of you? Grimm feed on the suffering of others, and so they will choose the most painful and horrible ways of tormenting and inflicting pain onto their prey just to feed that hunger, so it is possible that this 'Brother of Light' creature was lying to you about your mother just to torment you."

Ruby paused, tapping a finger on her chin, before asking with a slightly hopeful tone and expression, "Do you really think so?"

"It's a high possibility. Grimm have been known to show sadistic tendencies when it comes to killing those weaker than themselves, and nobody still knows what happened to your mother, so we can't say for certain. But, like I said", a small smile graced her lips, "It's a high possibility."

Ruby looked back down for a second, fidgeting in place, before looking back up, a glint of hope in her eyes, as she then nodded and said, "Okay."

She didn't notice the remorseful hint in Glynda's face. Ozpin did.

Ruby then asked, "So what... What now?"

"Now", Ozpin began, "We focus on training you on how the power of your silver eyes. I've helped to train Summer and many other Silver-Eyed Warriors over the years on how to use their eyes, and Beacon Academy is the safest place to do it. There is a lot for you to learn, Miss Rose, but Miss Goodwitch and I will be there for you every step of the way", Ruby was quiet, and Ozpin then added in, "I am aware that this is quite a lot to take in, Miss Rose, so maybe it would be best if you had a good think about all of this, figure out what you want to do. If you have any questions, feel free to ask Miss Goodwitch and I, and we will do as much as we can to answer them.

Ruby looked to the side, and then nodded, "Okay then", before getting up, and saying, "Right, thanks for... For all of this. I've just... I've got a few things to do", picking up her Crescent Rose and moving to the lift, "I'm making something for someone, so I've just... Thank you. Really."

"Of course", Ozpin said, reaching for his mug and picking it up, "Oh, and Miss Rose?" Ruby looked back to him, "It would be best that you kept this conversation about your eyes to yourself. The less people who know about it, the less chance there is of this Ascendant Court possibly gaining any information on them."

"Oh", Ruby simply said as the lift behind her opened up, "Wha- What about the other people? Weiss and Leadpipe and the others. What about them?"

"Oh, don't worry, Miss Rose, I'll fill them soon as well."

"Ah, okay then", Ruby said as she stepped into the lift, before waving at the 2 of them and going, "Thanks then", the lift closed before her, "Goodbye."

The lift began it's descent down, and then after a few moments, Glynda's soft smile morphed into a sharp frown, and she quickly turned on her heel to Ozpin.

"How long are we going to lie to her, Ozpin?"

"Until she's ready, Glynda", Ozpin put down his mug once more, and leaned back with a saddened expression across his face, "Until she's ready..."


	14. Short Story: Let The Church Bells Ring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the bowls of the Sleeping City, a girl is found amongst the mad and the dead...

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Arc Theme:**[ _Trust Me from the Doctor Who Series 6 Soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97d18bcIJF0)

* * *

**Warning: Graphic depictions of violence and strong themes ahead**

* * *

Within the ruins of the Sleeping City, made up of the gargantuan, but wrecked Moving City and New Fortressa, near the Valley of Giants, there was an old church.

It was dilapidated and ruined, with a hole in one of it's walls and one of its towers toppled to the side. The walls were crumbling, dented, and stained in grime, dirt, and blood. Its insides were broken, and it's windows were shattered, and it tilted to the side on the leaning tops of the old Moving City and was overshadowed by the broken and shattered skyscrapers that teetered to the side and toppled over, becoming bridges between these rusting towers covered in vines and Verdigris.

But the church still stood, and worse still, it was populated.

Why was it worse still? Because the population within was the last few dozen of Dreamer's Edge, the pseudo-kingdom that'd once populated the Moving City, and now laid within the rubble filled Sleeping City.

And Dreamer's Edge had evolved over the decades since the Great War, when the Moving City had nested down next to New Fortressa. Once, they were artists and philosophers and scientists.

Now, they were cultists and Grimm worshippers.

And they had just caught a new band of sacrifices.

Within the church, what was left of Dreamer's Edge filled the rotting and stained pews, chanting... Something. Something horrid. A strange song with words and hymns that were sharp and jagged and ugly to hear. It was made by them, for them, in prayer to their disgusting gods.

The windows were covered by crosses that had been placed upside down, with rotting corpses nailed upside down onto them, having been bled like pigs, their heads above their laws removed and placed on broken glass platters below them, their eyes shrunken and looking upwards, covered in a pool of dry blood. Pentagrams and ugly symbols had been carved into their rotting, withering skin that'd now stuck to the bone and began to peel off in flakes and veils. These bodies gave off a smell that these Grimm worshippers had come to love: The smell of iron, rotting waste and skin, blood, and death.

At the altar of the church, in front of the pews, there were 3 more crosses, positioned the right way up, and facing the dozens of lined cultists. On each of them was a person, nude and bloody. A mother, a father, and a child, their hands and feet nailed to the edges, spewing fresh blood from their wounds, with dried blood staining their bodies. On them, those same horrid symbols of angry letters and numbers and satanic runes had been carved into their flesh with shards of glass and makeshift knives, and their mouths having been ruined and cut open, their cheeks torn and shredded, their jaws fractured, and their tongues messily cut out, leaving their mouths and chins stained red with their own blood.

They weren't the first scavengers and drifters that the cult had caught for their sacrifices, and they certainly won't be the last. Not until the last of them had finally faded away in time, and joined their dark objects of worships in the kingdom of sin where they would become dark gods amongst men, as they were always destined to be.

"Brothers and sisters!" the priest at the alter spoke, his robes stained by blood as he gesticulated his arms wildly, "Our masters have brought us good fortune once more! 3 new travellers have come to our humble abode, ready to offer their bodies and their souls to our great cause!"

The congregation cheered wildly, hands clapping and voices breaking in joy, some of them rising to their feet in splendour.

At the feet of the 3 occupied crosses, children stood.

Blades in hand.

"They have already sacrificed much, brothers and sisters! They have given up their voices for us, to give our words more power, to let our prayers become more powerful, and to let them be seasoned and flavoured by the words of the weak, and the sinner, so that they may feast upon them, and become fat with strength on the weaknesses of all of those below them, all of those that we once were, stupid and ignorant, little lambs walking towards the slaughter, blinded by our own bigotry and foolishness to see the truth of the world, and our masters, before us!"

The congregation cheered even louder than ever, their cheers and cries for succour from their gods of darkness piercing through the world around them and echoing into the air beyond them. The father tried to say something (A cry for help? A scream of protest?), But his mouth was too mangled and bloody to say anything, only coming out as incoherent moans of pain, wet tears travelling down his face, as was for the mother and the child.

"But they are unclean, my siblings!" the priest called out, "They are filthy, their hearts and minds and bellies filled with the fruits of sin! They defile our lords and saviours by treading this holy ground with their unwashed footsteps!"

This time, there were angry snarls and growls from the congregation, hollers and jeers of heresy and apostates, of blasphemers and heretics, calling out against the father, mother, and child, baying for their blood and viscera. The children at the altar began to grow impatient, their knives twitching and their feet fidgeting in place. It was the child on the cross this time who tried to call something out, but it was mumbled by her ruined throat and mouth and lack of tongue, coming out as spluttered groans and fitters.

"Our sacrifices must be made clean, siblings!" the Priest cried out, his hands flying to the air as he screamed, "And only when they are clean, can they truly be saved!"

"But how will we clean them, high brother?" one of the congregation, a human girl, no older than a teenager, with a deranged look on her face as she smiled and tweezed her fingers together.

"The only was to clean them is through blood, my siblings!" the priest yelled, "For only blood can wash away our mortal sins! Blood is the ultimate purifier! Blood is the ultimate proof of faith, wherever it be our own or others!"

The child began to scream through her mangled mouth, and the mother and father began to cry even more than before. The children at their feet, however, began to giggle and laugh with joy. Their time was coming.

"Bring down the first sacrifice!" called out the Priest.

The congregation cheered as the father's cross, connected to a set of chains built into a medieval winch, was slowly tilted down to a 45 degree angle, and brought facing down to the ground, where at his feet, 2 of the 6 children gathered, improvised knives at the ready.

The cult screamed, """"" _ **SACRIFICE!**_ _**SACRIFICE!**_ _**SACRIFICE!**_ """""

The father tried to scream out something, begging them to stop, or to make it quick, something.

Both of the children plunged their knives into his chest.

The mother screamed and the child on the cross wept as the children, no older than 10, began to drag their knives down, cutting open the father from his chest to his pelvis, spilling blood and exposing his innards, his ribcage visible and his intestines and stomach ruptured and spilling out. The children then began to cut away at his ribcage, picking at the tissue and the bone, prying it open and pulling at his still beating heart, messily cutting it out of his chest and showing it to the rest of the congregation as they cheered, spittle and bile flying from their ugly mouths as they cheered and jeered.

Throwing the dead man's heart to the side-

(The daughter considered the fact that he was now dead a mercy for him. Any longer would've been but the most horrific torture. In this place, death was a mercy.)

-The 2 children then got to their knees in front of the pool of blood and raised their knives to their necks.

The cultist cheered in joy.

The mother and child screamed and cried.

The children smiled...

And then slit their own throats.

They fell to the ground amidst the cheers and orgasmic cries of their parents and friends, blood spilling from their necks and mouths and mixing with the pool before them. Survival instincts kicked in for the both of them as they began to claw at their own throats, trying to stop the bleeding and prolong their own lives, but only worsening the cuts and increasing the bleeding, before their bodies went limp and they stilled, eyes wide open and screaming as they stared up at the ceiling.

The mother's sobs and the child's cries of fear and horror were drowned out by the joyous applause of the congregation, as the process was repeated again for the mother, her body lowered-

(She had pointed to the child and tried to scream out something. Was she trying to save the child, or was she trying to save herself. The child didn't know.)

-And then 2 other children plunging their knives into her chest, each one ripping open her front and picking apart at the internal organs, killing her, and then slitting their own throats, clawing away at their necks before they fell down and died.

Only madness laid here, and it was infectious. The crowd was mad, insane. Their eyes screeched of insanity and the fracturing of their own minds, and their mouths and diseased teeth spoke the same as well. Just what had happened to these people? What had been done to them to make them delve into this madness? Was it circumstance? Was it a choice? Did it even matter in the end?

No, it didn't, because the child was not going to be alive to find out. She could feel the cultists' stares, could see them licking their lips at the sight and taste of blood, of licking up the red ambrosia and bathing in it, feasting on their corpses and seasoning their skin, ripping them apart with wild glee and hunger.

The child felt her cross being lowered, but instead of crying, she began to snarl and growl, what was left of her teeth snapping and blaring to the cultists, promising pain, and her own share of death onto them if they so much as even touched her.

And then, she remembered her parents. She looked to the sides, seeing the wide eyed, pained stares and hollowed corpses of her mother and father, and then wondering, in a macabre fashion, how much pain they were truly in, and how much would she suffer as they mutilated her.

Maybe it was for the best. Maybe when they were finished killing her, when she died, she could join them, in a better life. Yeah, that sounded nice.

A tear streaked down her face, and the bastard of a priest noticed this and had the audacity to wipe it away as he proudly said, "Do not cry, sister, your life is going to a higher cause. You should be thankful, really. When you die, you will be the sin free water that washes our sins and crimes against our masters away once more."

The child's face scrunched up into a snarled look, her jaw still ravaged by the cuts and stomps, and she growled something out through her bloody, jagged maw, "You... Are... Not... My... Brother..."

The priest just smiled, and then screamed out, "LET THE FINAL SACRIFICE BEGIN!"

""""" _ **SACRIFICE!**_ _**SACRIFICE!**_ _**SACRIFICE!**_ """""

Oh god, why did they keep screaming? Was there even any point to this at all, this mindless murder?

There was. To fuel these madmen and women's dreams of insanity and destitute, and hatred upon their own kind, nothing more, possibly even less.

The last 2 of the children- These poor children, who'd been brainwashed by these monsters into doing their bidding- Looked up to her with gleeful eyes, as if this was an action akin to playing with a toy or colouring in a colouring book, their knives stilled and certain, aimed at her chest.

The child whimpered something, a beg for mercy or a plea for her death to at least be quick.

_Mum... Dad... Don't worry... I'll be with you soon..._

The children's knives shot forward.

But, just before they touched her tender skin, before they ripped her open and mutilated her, they stopped.

Why?

Something slammed against the doors, meaty and cracking, loud and powerful. Many within the congregation of deranged cultists and madmen shot up out of their seats, eyeing the door and the windows as shadows loomed all around them, coming in through the windows and growing larger and larger with each second.

The congregation began to panic as the shadows enveloped the windows, and the bangs against the doors became so loud and forceful that they began to rock the very foundations of the broken church, dust and pebbles falling from the ceiling, and wood splintering from the diseased doors, before-

{CRASH}

-They came falling down, breaking into pieces as both of the doors to the church slammed into the ground, bringing a sharp sound and echo to the church as they did. Through the now opened entrance, 1, no, 2, no, 4, shambling shadows morphed from the blinding sunlight, before taking their first steps into the comfortable darkness of the church.

4 hideous, tall, black and white bodies, looking like emaciated skeletons with long limbs and bony fingers, blood red glowing eyes, and dislocated jaws with a red glow in them, slowly stumbled and shambled into the church, moving like zombies that'd been out in the sun for too long.

The Apathy, one of, if not the rarest Grimm to ever exist in the history of Remnant, said to only exist in the bare dozens, and here 4 of them were, shambling down the church walkway, their arms so low they may as well as dragging themselves along the floor. Had they activated their legendary powers, yet? Their fabled ability to drain the will of those around them by just being in their presence? The child didn't know. She didn't feel any different than she was about a minute ago, and from the looks of it, neither did the congregation, as they stood and gaped with their mouths wide open and eyes shaking and shrunken.

At the windows into the church, pushing past and down the dead men's crosses, Beowolves, normal and Alphas and Ascendants, lined the broken opened improvised entrances, letting out growls and howls, while in the air, Nevermores were visible, both big and small, fluttering through the air like Valkyries and arbiters of death, their shrill cries echoing all around them.

Then, at the entrance came a new shadow, more human sized and shaped, covered by a dark black cloak and mask with a white, red, and gold butterfly pendant in the middle, piercing red dots with a fiery glow covered by the shadows of their cloak. At their side was a diseased blade, jagged and rough, trailing smoke behind it as a group of Seer Grimm glided in behind them and travelled up into the air, right above the pews, and low another that a curious member of the congregation may reach up and touch them.

The priest, meanwhile, looked like he was about to cry with joy as he then, once more, threw his arms and hands into the air and cried with with an orgasmic vigour, "REJOICE, MY SIBLINGS! OUR PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED! OUR MASTERS HAVE SENT DOWN A HEAVENLY MESSENGER TO OVERSEE OUR SACRIFICE, AND BRING US TO GLORIOUS SALVATION! TRULY, OUR TIME HAS COME, AND OUR JOURNEY TO THE ETERNAL PARADISE OF DARKNESS HAS FINALLY BEGUN!"

This got the cultists around them cheering, screams of joy and laughter filling the broken hall of the church as the figure in the centre of the walkway continued their walk, 2 Seers at their side. The cheers and screams of joy were growing louder and louder, becoming so loud that the child at the cross was certain that her ears would begin to bleed just from hearing the raw elation in their shrill voices.

The Apathy replied to this with their own ear piercing scream, bringing the rest of the congregation to silence, their bodies slumping down in a fresh wave of exhaustion as their cries echoed on and on. The child slumped on the cross as well like a ragdoll, her eyes closing and her breathing becoming heavy as she thought, _I'm tired_ , her mind feeling like it was shutting down, a wave of apathy to herself and everything else washing over her as she forgot about the pain in her hands and legs and the damage to her jaw, only wishing to fall to sleep.

Yeah, sleep sounded nice, right about...

She didn't feel tired anymore.

The Apathy's screams had stopped, that was why, their heads slumping back down and their jaws hanging low. Above them, the Seers had quivered but now had recovered, and the Grimm at the windows continued their growling and baying.

It was then that the child on the cross noticed that the figure in the black cloak and mask was standing right in front of her, looking down at the 2 remaining children- A boy and a girl- On the floor, the 2 of them picking themselves back up with their knives in hand, unsure of what to say or do to the figure as they looked down upon them.

Then, the figure clasped her sword to her side, took the 2 knives by their blades, and pulled them out of the children's hands.

 **"Why do you wield these blades, children of man?"** the figure- A woman, from the sound of her voice- Spoke. The child on the cross looked down on her with wide eyes. There was almost a second voice behind hers, and it was hauntingly... Hypnotising, ethereal. It was made of smooth edges and the sweetest of aromas and tastes. The child on the cross closed her eyes and realised that she could listen to it until the end of time itself. The figure continued on, **"You have no battle here, do you? You have no reason to die?"** The child on the cross heard- Or rather didn't hear- The figures pause, before she then said, more harshly and angry, **"Were you going to join them, the dead young ones on the floor?"**

She could hear the 2 children shuffle in place, before the boy, with presumably tears in his eyes and a shaky voice, said, "Miss... Miss... It is our destiny. It is our birth right to die, so that these souls may be cleansed for you."

 **"And who told you that, young one?"** The child on the cross opened her eyes once more to see the figure placing a hand on the boy's cheek, caressing it and stroking away a tear, **"Who was the one who told you to shed your own blood for this... This... Torture den?"**

There was a murmuring and scent of hushed confusion from the cultists in the pews, but the boy spoke up once more, "Our mama.. And papa... They said that we'd... Me and Gillian... We'd be going to a better place... Where we can be loved by the Grimm... Where we can be happy...", the girl nodded as well.

The figure put her hand on the boy's shoulder, and then her other on the girl's, and said to them in a hushed tone, **"Oh, you can be happy, my dears. You do not need to take your own lives just to find it. You are so young, so new, so filled with potential and good... Perhaps, if you could find no happiness or love here, mightn't I find a place where you can?"** the children looked up at her, and she continued on, **"Come with me, my children, and I can find a family for you. A true family, one that will love you for all that you are"** , she paused, and then asked, **"Would you do that for me, please? Would you accompany me to a place where I know that you will be loved?"**

The children paused, looking between each other, and it was the girl this time who spoke up, "Okay then, miss..."

The figure smiled, and then took off her mask and cloak, to reveal... The most beautiful woman that the child on the cross had ever seen. Her skin was blemish free and looked to be as soft as cotton. Her lips were rosy red and extremely kissable. Her face was smooth, clean, and free of bumps and rough edges, her hair was short and long and straight, and her eyes... They were deeper than the furthest oceans, and looked to be filled with so many ambitions and ideas, so many thoughts and emotions.

The woman smiled, and kissed the both of the children on their foreheads, before hugging them close and going, **"Thank you, my dears. Shush, shush"** , she soothed as the children that she held began to weep, of sadness or joy, the child on the cross didn't know, **"It's okay, it's okay to cry, don't worry. You're safe now..."**

The priest seemed to take this as an opportunity to continue on again with his unholy preaching, "Do you see, my brothers and sisters? Our masters have come to grant us salvation!"

""""" _ **SALVATION! SALVATION!**_ """"" chanted the congregation.

"They have come to grant us safe passage into their kingdom of heaven! Let us give thanks that our prayers have been answered, and that this miracle has occurred, so that we may-"

**"Silence."**

The woman's voice was sharp and curt now, filled with impatience and anger, presumably at the priest's words (The child on the cross realised that she did not like this tone). The priest himself quailed and began to utter unctuous apologies, but the woman cut him off with a knife's edge sharp glare, before looking up.

At the child on the cross.

The woman, with the 2 children right next to her, stood up, and tilted her head at the girl on the cross, **"Child, can you speak?"**

The child on the cross responded to this with a groan through her destroyed jaw.

 **"Ah, a stupid question, it seems"** , the woman spoke, her right hand glowing as she began to run it around the child's ruined mouth, fragments and flickers of light dancing off her hand and onto her face, right into the wounds, **"I apologise, I should've known better. I have been in this position before, of course, where my body has been ravaged and desecrated by the likes of man, torn apart and put back together like a jigsaw puzzle, and bled out like a pig by the Grimm in human skin, but do not fear, my dear, I will not leave you here for..."**

The woman's eyes widened as she scanned the child's body, before beginning the process of quickly running her hands over the cuts and bruises and markings and bloody engravings, and then moving her hands over the child's sensitive areas, not slowly or chillingly as the cultists had done before, but surgically and methodically, and a process that was over in seconds, the woman taking a step back, her face writ with anger and repulsion and disgust.

 _Please_ , the child on the cross thought, _Please don't look at me like that..._

 **"Your body..."** , the woman spoke, **"...What have these savages done to you?"**

"Sh-She was unclean, my lady", the priest spoke up to the woman in an attempt to salvage the situation, "Tainted. They needed to be made perfect, they needed to take the burden of our sins and relieve us of our evils so that we might-"

 **"You deflowered them"** , the woman growled, her eyes closed and her teeth blared, still facing away from the priest and towards the child on the cross, **"Against their will. You... Soiled them... You sodomised them, and decided to bleed them dry, just like all of those other corpses in the windows"** , she paused, her head pointing downwards, **"I wonder, did you touch them? The dead ones. Did you run your hands down them as if they were still alive?"**

"I-I...", the priest was trying to find his words, and the congregation of cultists were beginning to look side to side at the Grimm in a panic, "My lady, these humans and Faunus are heretics, apostates, unbelievers. They needed to be cleansed, made free of their imperfections. What we are doing here is-"

 **"Filth"** , the woman spoke. Before the priest could ask as to what she meant, the woman continued on, **"Disgusting. A waste of flesh and blood."**

She tilted her head back and turned it to the side, looking at the priest with fury in her eyes.

 **"Do you know what you are, heresiarch? You, the rest of your congregation, and other people like you"** , the woman asked.

"We... We are the chosen. The true worshippers who will-"

 **"You are the wastes of humanity"** , the priest and the congregation looked onto the woman in silent shock, and she continued on, **"The dregs and the washouts. You are those who have abandoned what makes them pure and forsaken it for sin and horror. You taint my love for mankind with your hideous sin. Do you know what a true member of mankind is, heresiarch? A true member of mankind is one that does not rape their humanity, who does not molest and murder it, and then throw it away for some delusion of power and grandeur. A true champion of mankind is one that holds on to their humanity, who fights to keep their morals and their standards, who rages against the dying of the light when their time comes, and fights tooth and claw onto all that they love and hold dear. A person of mankind is one that never backs down from protecting what is right from what is wrong, and that is what makes them perfect. That is what saves them. That is what clears them for the ascension."**

The woman looked away to the side, front still facing the child.

**"But there is too much filth that has corrupted mankind. Too much sin and disease, too much lost to infighting and pestilence of the mind and body. War, sin, greed, lust, anger, all of it, it has corrupted mankind, made them sinful, made them impure, unable to ascend and take their rightful place in our new empire. The Grimm, however, the Grimm are what will purify them, what will save them. The Grimm will make them right, will unite mankind and join me in the Elsewhere, where we might start Remnant again, this time, more perfect, more loving, happiness and tranquil. A true heaven on Remnant, where we will build an empire anew."**

She smiled, and put her hands on her chest.

**"There is one man out there, who represents all that is good about mankind, though. One man who's purity brings love and life to all around him. He is a man who I would gladly give my soul too, filled with all of my love and happiness. He is the man who will join me on the throne of our new empire as emperor, while I his empress, and we will make our empire together, one built on the love of our bond, and the strength of our wills."**

Her smile then faded, and her hands fell to the side.

 **"But you"** , she turned to the priest, **"Your kind, you are all that is wrong about mankind, and why it needs to be swept away, why it needs to be destroyed, so that it can be rebuilt, and ascend. You rape our morals and humanity, and each other, convince your children to kill themselves, and rape and murder one another, all for chasing after the lustful promise of a dream that will never come to you. Do you know what it is liked to be raped, heresiarch? To be molested, deflowered and tortured, to be strung up and taken apart piece by piece, bled and then filled with blood that is not your own, to wither away and wish to die, be try and bite your own tongue and hope that the sweet release of death may overtake you and free you from this hell?"**

She jammed a finger into her chest. The children next to her hugged her legs.

**"I do. I know what it is like. I know what it is like to have my flowers plucked and taken from me. I know what it is like to be dissected and tortured, branded and bred like fertile cattle! I KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE STRESS TESTED AND RAPED AND VIOLATED AND MURDERED AND CUT AND SLICED OPEN OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN! YOU! ARE! NOT! PURE! YOU ARE NOT HEAVENLY! YOU ARE FOUL BLIGHTED CREATURES THAT NEED TO BE CULLED! WHO NEED TO BE SENT DOWN TO THE DEVIL SO THAT HE MAY BRAND YOU AND DELIVER PUNISHMENT TO YOU FOR YOUR CRIMES AGAINST ALL OF US, SO THAT YOUR SINFUL TAINT MAY BE WIPED CLEAN FROM THIS WORLD FOREVER! THAT, IS MY RESPONSE TO YOU, YOU FILTHY FUCKING MAGGOT!"**

Her angry screams echoed beyond the church and into the valley beyond. Around her, the Grimm began to cry and cheer and howl out in anger towards humanity and the cult. The children at the woman's feet quivered and cried. The child on the cross felt like she was about to cry.

The priest looked shocked by the woman's screams at him, but began to compose himself, before snarling and crying out, "W-WITCH! FAITHLESS! UNBELIEVER! You are not our saviour! You are a devil who has taken the form of our angelic masters."

 **"Oh, you are right on that regard"** , the woman spoke, having now calmed, and stroking the heads of the children next to her, patting their heads and cooing to them in order to get them to calm down, **"I am a monster. I hold no reservations about that. I have no qualms about accepting the title. I will not delude myself into thinking that I am otherwise. However, sometimes, to do what is right, what is just, one must take the title of a monster, in order to save that which they love."**

"Then you admit that you are not our saviour!" the priest screamed, pulling out a knife from his waist, "APOSTATE! I shall kill you where you stand!"

The priest charged forward to the woman, and the child on the cross was about to call out to the woman to defend herself, but the priest was then stopped by the hand of one of the Apathy resting on his shoulders, the foul Grimm looking down on him with... She didn't know what it was thinking. Was it contempt? Agreement? Something else entirely? She didn't know.

The rest of the congregation began to climb and claw their way out of the pews, their teeth and claws showing, ready to rip the woman and the children apart piece by piece, but they then stopped when they saw the Beowolves at the windows climbing down and towards the altar, their claws and fangs showing, and their blood red eyes locked onto the woman and the children.

"Haha, HAHA, YES!" the priest screamed, "Our masters, our dark gods, they see you for the heretic that you are, the diseased sinner that you always will be!" he cried out with mad elation on his face, "Yes, kill them, my lords, rip them to pieces and let us bathe in their blood! Let them be our new sacrifices!"

The rest of the congregation jumped onto this with gusto, chanting, """"" _ **SACRIFICE!**_ _**SACRIFICE!**_ _**SACRIFICE!**_ """"" once more at fever pitch, spittle and slime flying out of their mouths as they cheered, their eyes bulging open so wide that they might pop out.

Meanwhile, throughout all of this, the woman had noticed something on the ground. A tongue. The cross child's tongue. With a swift movement, not at all bothered by the madness of the cult, she leaned down and picked it up, before looking at the girl on the cross.

**"Open your mouth, please."**

The child on the cross didn't know why she obeyed, but she did, only just realising that earlier, the woman had been using her aura to completely heal her jaw and cheeks.

The woman gently placed the tongue back in her mouth, **"I apologise for this"** , she said as a slimy, horrible feeling came over the child on the cross, before a great light came over it and the slimy feeling left her.

The woman took her hand out of her mouth and pulled out a wipe from her cloak to clean it, while the child on the cross used her tongue to feel around her mouth, realising that her teeth were back and had been healed.

She then realised that the woman had used her aura to reattach her tongue to her mouth.

The woman then pulled out another wipe from her cloak, and used it to wipe away the stray saliva and blood around the crossed girl's mouth, and then she caressed her cheek and gently asked, **"My dear, if you could ask for anything right now, what would it be? Would you like me to free your hands and feet from these nails and let you off of this cross? Would you like me to kill you, allow your soul to transcend and join your mother and father in heaven? Anything you ask, I shall give, no questions, no hesitation."**

The girl on the cross looked at the woman, this guardian angel, this being that had come down from the heavens just to bring her succour. Anything she asked, she'd have? It was almost too good to be true. It had to be a trick, a ploy, a deception of the mind made from the loss of blood and the trauma, or just a symptom of the madness, the infectious disease of the cultists known as insanity.

And yet, could it be something otherwise? Was this real? Could this angel from heaven truly give her what she wanted the most at this moment?

Could she really do what she wished?

Perhaps it was worth a shot.

"K-Kill them", the child on the cross spluttered out with her repaired jaw and tongue, her eyes narrowing and her new teeth allowing her to snarl out her words, "Kill them all... They took my mama... And my papa... They took my everything... They ruined me...", tears formed in her eyes and mixed with blood as they trailed down her cheeks, and her teeth began to grind together, "I want them to suffer... I want them to burn... I want them to feel every pain that I've felt, every horror that I've suffered from. I want them to bend and break. I want them to bleed. I want them to feel the most pain that they've ever felt before! I want you to kill every last one of them! I want you to bleed them dry! I WANT YOU TO MAKE THEM PAY FOR WHAT THEY'VE DONE TO ME, AND TO MY MAMA AND PAPA, AND EVERYONE ELSE THAT THEY'VE KILLED!"

The Grimm began to growl and howl, and the Nevermores outside sent our their shrill cries. The cultists, however, began to laugh, mockingly and in genuine humour. The priest himself was laughing the loudest, not noticing the Apathy's other hand morphing through a cloud of shimmering black smoke.

"Do you really think that will happen, you stupid girl!?" the priest guffawed, "Do you really think that the Grimm will listen to you, follow your orders and kill their faithful followers!? We are the Dreamer's Edge! We are the divine chosen, blessed by our heavenly fathers! We have worshipped our Grimm gods, and in turn, have been granted succour by them! What in all of your divine wisdom", he said that last part mockingly, "Makes you think that our blessed masters and lords and gods will ever listen to an apostate like you-"

The Apathy's spare hand shot down his throat, it's hand morphing in his neck through a thick, black smoke.

The priest, in shock, moved his head back ever so slightly, as much as he could, and moving his eyes to stare right into the dead, glowing red pits of the Apathy, the zombie like Grimm tilting it's head to the side and letting it's jaw hang low for a low, shrill growl.

Then, the priest began to cry blood, and red began to leak from his nostrils and ears, before white, bony fingers wormed their way out of his nose and ears, before another pair of fingers pushed his eyes out of their sockets, the pale orbs still attached to the cords, before the worming fingers travelled out of his sockets and burst the loose eyes under them.

The Apathy tilted its head to the side, and then pulled its arm up, the priest's head from above his jaw being pulled off in a spray of red gore and ichor, before crushing what was left of his head in its long hand, blood flowing out of its grasp as the headless body slumped to the floor, twitching for a few moments, before falling still, blood flowing out and pooling in front of it.

The congregation fell silent.

The Grimm turned to them and bared their teeth.

The woman covered the eyes of the children near her.

She then turned to the cultists, and said a single, simple word.

**"Run."**

The cultists screamed, and began to climb over each other in a mass panic, shoving each other to the side and slamming their foots against the ground, occasionally trampling over anyone who had been tripped up in the maddening panic. The Beowolves stayed put, staring down the fleeing cultists and baring their teeth, but the Apathy were on the move, not using their powers, but extending their long limbs and dragging to them the trampled cultists that were on the floor, pulling them closer and lifting them up, either pushing their fingers into their eyes and piercing their brains, or shoving their hands into their chests and wrapping around their hearts, crushing them or pulling them out in bloody messes.

Meanwhile, in the midsts of the madness, the woman gestured to a nearby Beowolf, and motioned it to her, the Grimm bowing it's head to her as she patted its head, and motioned to the children around her to go to it, **"Do not be afraid, my little ones, it will not harm you"** , the boy and the girl looked to them, and then, with tears in their eyes, they moved forward to the Beowolf, the bewst looking up at the woman as she then ordered, **"Take them to Vacuo. Headmaster Theodore can find and look after them."**

The Beowolf looked up at her, and then bowed its head down in affirmation, using its long jaw to poke the children into trying to get onto its back, the children trying their best, and then getting up with the woman's help, lifting them up onto the Grimm's back, and telling them to hold onto it's fur.

The children looked up to the woman, who then put a finger to her lips and then said, **"Hush now, my children, you will be safe. There is a new home out there waiting for you out there, ready to accept you for all that you are"** , she paused, before going, **"May I please be selfish, and ask for a single thing from you?"** the children looked to each other, and then nodded, **"Could you please not speak about me to anyone? Could you please keep this to yourselves? If anyone else knew about my existence, then that might be bad for me"** , the children nodded once kore and said their thanks and cries of happiness, **"It's okay, my children, you're safe now. Now go, and live a good life, for me, and for you."**

She patted the Beowolf once more, gesturing it to leave on its journey, and so it did, quickly, yet also gently, making its move down the side of the altar, and out of the large, shattered window. And all the while, the children were looking back to the woman, never taken their eyes off of her as they slowly began to fade away from view, and then disappeared all together.

The woman then looked back to the girl on the cross, and pulled her sword from her side from one side, and in her other, a ball of pure aura and... Something else, something raw, something powerful... Manifested in her other hand, as she motioned for the Apathy to pull on the chains and lift the cross upwards.

As they did, and she knelt down and began to use her sword as a nail remover, prying at the nails in the child's feet and pulling them out, and then using the manifested power in her open palm to heal the wounds and open holes in his feet, the child still on the cross, through the pain and snarling, grinding teeth, seethed out, "You... You let them go?"

 **"Yes"** , the daughter replied as she stood up to look at her and moved to tear out the nails in the crossed child's hands, but was stopped when the child started to thrash about, kicking her legs and blaring her teeth. The Grimm around them snarled at her, but the woman waved them off.

"You let them go?!"

The woman nodded.

"WHY?!"

The woman's head tilted to the side, and she chuckled.

She raised a hand.

**"To give them hope."**

With a snap of her fingers, the Beowolves raised their heads and howled into the air, before showing their claws and charging off out of the church with snapping jaws and salivating maws. Outside, the Nevermores soared and launched their feather quills from their wings, the screams from the cultists outside intensifying as wet crunches and splatters and screams and groans and pained cries of torment sounded off into a cacophony of maddening screams and well deserved pain.

The woman chuckled at the slaughter, and began to pull the nails out of the child's hands and pushed her power onto them and healed them, saying along the way, **"When you kill a person, what joy does it bring? What happiness and satisfaction? Nothing. Sure, the Grimm take joy from the pain of everyone. They enjoy suffering, they practically feed on it, filling their bellies and growing fat from the pain of mankind, but that is what they were built for. They were created by the false God of Darkness to be the personifications of evil, and know no other way. Personally, I find no pleasure in the act of killing another person. Yes, in my quest, it will be a necessity, and a fact of life that I will be forced to stomach, for in the future, I shall be killing many people, but I do not enjoy the act. It is a distasteful business indeed."**

She pulled the nails out of one of the child's hands, and moved on to the next, the child hanging there limply.

**"But, when you kill a monster- When you kill a murderer, or a rapist, or a paedophile, or anything else along those lines- Oh, that's when you feel truly alive. Those monsters, they have lost their right to be called people, to be called part of the species that I love called mankind, they have lost that privilege, because of their sins. So, when you kill them, you will feel oh so much satisfaction, knowing that the monster that you have killed is worse than you, slimier than you, more evil than you, and by killing them, you are doing the gods' good work, removing their filth from staining this world any longer, thereby doing good for us all. So, you can rip them to pieces, hollow them out, crush their eyes between your teeth and break their necks with your bare hands, inflict any and every kind of torture ever conceived onto them, and you will never be sinned for it, you will never feel guilty for it, and then, eventually, you will grow to love the heavenly act."**

The woman finished pulling the nails out of the child, and gently set her down onto her own 2 feet, the child wobbling in place for a second as the woman held her up, looking at her right in her eyes as she continued.

**"But then, you can do something truly special, truly wondrous, truly magnificent: You can give them hope. Hope that they will survive, hope that they will continue on, hope that they will be able to spread their toxin and their poison elsewhere and continue on with their bastard, sinful ways. So then, you give them false hope, so that when you take it away from them, they will have more to loose. When you reveal that false hope for what it truly is, then the fear in them, the dread, the pain, and the suffering that these monsters will feel will be so much more pure, so much more real, so much more satisfying... So much more everything."**

The woman stepped away, and presented her hand to the now freed girl, beckoning for her to take it.

**"Come."**

The child, moved by her speech, by this woman's words and wisdom, yet still cautious once more, hesitantly took her hand, and the woman smiled, before leading her down the altar, past the headless priest and the ruined remains of said head, down the central walkway between the pews, over the corpses of cultists with missing eyes and hearts, and out into the blinding light of the open doorway, outside into the fresh air that was stained with the metallic smell of iron.

Once her eyes adjusted to the light, she bore witness to a beautiful slaughter.

The last remnant of Dreamer's Edge was being wiped out to the last. Nevermores shot down from the sky and impaled many of the cultists on their quills, the feathers going through heads and chests, spraying blood everywhere and killing them instantly, or severing arms and legs, sending them spiralling to the ground, unable to get up while those same Nevermores picked up other cultists in their taloned feet and flew upwards to great heights, before dropping them and letting them turn into fine red puddles on the floor.

The Beowolves, meanwhile, chased after the other cultists like dogs, lunging up at them and catching their heads between their jaws, either crushing them into bloody messes or ripping them off, while others took hold of some of the cultists and began to rip them to shreds, tearing off their limbs and flesh with their claws, while nearby, 2 got hold of a single cultist and tore him in half between them, and a few Beowolves even began to feast on several of the cultists, a few of them dead, the rest of them alive, too weak to move or resist as the Grimm tore the flesh off of their bones chunk by wet chunk.

In the staggered and dilapidated buildings nearby, through the windows, several remaining cultists could be seen looking down at the slaughter, some of them in fear, others in sadistic glee. Then, the walls behind them broke down, and in a panic, they looked behind themselves to see either the claws of an Ursa cleave them into pieces, blood and gore splattering against the broken windows, or be hit by the acidic vomit webbing of a Weaver spider Grimm, their faces and heads and bodies melting under the pale green sludge.

Soon, the last of the cultists were being killed off, driven out of their hiding places by the Grimm and subsequently ripped and clawed in wet, meaty ribbons.

The last of Dreamer's Edge, the remnants of a long forgotten culture and possible rising kingdom from before the Great War, had been completely destroyed. The destruction of the last remnant of the world before the Cataclysm was absolute.

Save for one.

On the floor just below them was the human woman from before, the one who had asked how to cleanse the child and her parents, laying on the floor, her left arm and legs shredded and covered in blood and bone fragments. Looking up at the woman and the child, the human girl raised her only good arm, blood dripping from her mouth, and whimpered, "P-Please..."

The crossed child just looked down at her, still as a statue, her eyes shadowed by her hair, her mouth framed into a frown, "..."

"Please..."

"..."

"I..."

"...", the child looked to the ground near her. There was a long, sharp shard of glass, and she leaned down and picked it up.

"No... Please..."

The child flipped her over onto her back, front facing the clear blue sky.

"I don't... I don't wanna-"

The child shut her up by slamming the makeshift glass knife into the human girl's chest.

The girl screamed, blood spitting out of her mouth as she gurgled, tears flowing out of her eyes that mixed with blood as she squirmed, her head rolling from side to side, and her body growing weaker and weaker.

The child pulled the glass knife out of the girl's chest, and glared down at the squirming girl, her face framed with anger, rage, her eyes burning with fire, and her teeth grinding together, her fangs painted with her own blood.

She motioned the knife up once more, raising it above her head-

"This is for my mama."

-And plunged it back down into the girl's chest, right into her heart, before pulling it out-

"This is for my papa!"

-And stabbing it into her once more, this time into her torso, piercing through into her stomach, and breaking the blade in several places. The child then pulled the now jagged knife out of her stomach-

"This is for everyone else that you've murdered-"

-And then once more stabbed her in the chest, piercing through her heart, and then pulling the jagged shard of glass out once more, ready for the final blow, and then-

"AND THIS-"

-Bringing the knife down into her throat, twisting it around-

"-IS FOR ME!"

-And breaking the glass knife in her neck, ruining it and letting a torrent of blood flow from the bloody mess of a neck, the girl's body twitching one more time, before going limp and still, her eyes empty of life, and looking skyward.

The once crossed child fell to her knees, covered in blood and trembling. Around her, the Grimm had gathered, baying to her and licking away the blood from around her jaws. Once, she would've thought that they were only performing this strange ritual to taunt and scare her, but now... Now she wasn't so sure...

She felt a soft hand grace her shoulder. She looked up, and saw that the woman, the angel from heaven who had saved her, who had brought her happiness in this mass murder, with not a single drop of blood on her form, gave a gentle smile, and said, **"Now that I have done something for you... Would you kindly do something for me, please?"**

This figure, this woman, this angel... Who was now asking for the simplest act of payment for helping the once crossed child... Mutual exchange...

How could she not agree?

She nodded dumbly, and then looked around to all of the mangled corpses of the cultists around them all.

Grimm worshippers...

Maybe they had the right idea after all.

She looked the woman right in the eyes, "Who are you?"

The woman's smile flickered, then smoothed out.

**"I am the Daughter."**

* * *

**Soundtrack:**

**Ascendant Court:**   
_[Villain by Wild Fire](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BBHJMPK4U8)   
[Evil Prevails by Cristobal Tapal de Veer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPv7aD02V5Q)   
[Regicide from the Destiny: The Taken King soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F9Nvxyt9t8)   
_

**The Daughter:**   
[ _Darth Revan theme by Samuel Kim Music_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xIHIQiGXBo) _  
[Sucker For Pain by Lil Wayne, Imagine Dragons, Wiz Khalifa w/ Logic & Ty Dolla $ign feat. X Ambassadors](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-59jGD4WrmE)   
[Mad Hatter by Melanie Martinez](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04UjShXZbD0)   
[The Evil Within Rap by Dan Bull](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF_LESnz39U)   
_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> …Well... That got dark...
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


	15. Short Story: Chat Logs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amidst the growing turmoil of the Second Great War, a group of kids remember what it's like to be kids.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Theme:**[ _Pranking Tina from the Bumblebee soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV-UmQsEXxM)

* * *

**Nora Valkyrie has created: _Weirdo Club_**

**Nora Valkyrie has added: Eri, Lie Ren, Jaune Arc, and Pyrrha Nikos  
**

**Nora Valkyrie has changed her name to: Weirdo Club President**

* * *

**Weirdo Club President:** Welcome, all ye filthy degenerates to the Weirdo Club group chat, hosted by your gracious Weirdo Club President herself! Which is me. Nora Valkyrie! Now, I want a memey fight, you lot, so don't disappoint, otherwise it's the ban hammer, and the real hammer!

 **Jaune Arc:** I still don't recall a ballet being held.

 **Weirdo Club President:** My hammer is twitching, Arc. Which one it is, I'll let you figure out.

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** Oh, hello again!

 **Weirdo Club President:** UwU, what's this? **  
**

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** Um, I beg your pardon?

 **Weirdo Club President:** Beg.

 **Jaune Arc:** Nora, behave.

 **Weirdo Club President:** You can't tell me what to do!

 **Jaune Arc:** I'm the team leader!

 **Weirdo Club President:** But you're not the Weirdo Club President! I am! It's in my title!

 **Lie Ren:** Nora, be nice.

 **Weirdo Club President:** Okay.

 **Jaune Arc:** WHIPPED.

 **Weirdo Club President:** Shush.

 **Eri:** ^m^

 **Weirdo Club President:** Hey, Eri!

 **Eri:** (≧∇≦)/

 **Jaune Arc:** I can see Eri near Pyrrha, at the opposite side of the room. She's flying up and down.

 **Jaune Arc:** She just did a cartwheel in the air.

 **Jaune Arc:** Hi Eri!

 **Eri:** ＼(^o^)／

 **Jaune Arc:** I can also see Pyrrha. She's sitting on her bed, looking at her phone, and also looking confused.

 **Lie Ren:** Can confirm.

 **Weirdo Club President:** Can confirm

 **Eri:** d(*⌒▽⌒*)b

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** Um, I am still confused. What is this?

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** Hello there, Eri.

 **Eri:** XD

 **Jaune Arc:** Oh, have you never been in a group chat before, Pyrrha?

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** A what?

 **Weirdo Club President:** Gasp

 **Eri:** :O

 **Lie Ren:** Have you ever text anyone before, Pyrrha?

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** Only my mum and dad.

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** And now you guys.

 **Weirdo Club President:** GASP

 **Eri:** 8O

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** Also, what does 'UwU' mean?

 **Jaune Arc:** …

 **Lie Ren:** …

 **Weirdo Club President:** …

 **Eri:** …

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** Guys?

 **Jaune Arc:** Oh, my sweet summer child...

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** Wait, is that a reference, or something?

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** I don't get it.

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** I'm so confused.

 **Lie Ren:** A group chat is a texting session, but instead of between 2 people, it between multiple persons.

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** Ah, yes, I suppose so, but that still doesn't explain what 'UwU' means.

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** Ren, why is Nora laughing?

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** And why is Jaune giggling?

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** And why is Eri looping around in the air?

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** What is happening, I'm slightly scared and very confused.

 **Lie Ren:** That's because you tried to say 'UwU' out loud.

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** ?

 **Lie Ren:** You literally just said, "UwU, what's this?"

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** ?

 **Eri:** (/◕ヮ◕)/

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** What is that? What does that mean?

 **Weirdo Club President:** My god, Pyrrha! How innocent are you?!

 **Jaune Arc:** Yeah, how have you not been exposed to the nuances of the group chat before? I've never been in a group chat before, and even I know about how these things can go!

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** Well, I mean, I don't really go on my phone that much, nor do I go on the internet that much either. Never found the time, nor the need. I mean, I do check my official Tweeter, sometimes, but most of the time, I don't really touch the internet. Too busy training, and studying.

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** Also, seriously, what does 'UwU' mean? I don't get it.

 **Jaune Arc:** …Ren, is it bad that I thought you were going to be, sorry if this is offensive, the group's social bumpkin?

 **Lie Ren:** A little.

 **Jaune Arc:** Oh.

 **Jaune Arc:** Sorry.

 **Lie Ren:** That's okay, you're forgiven.

 **Weirdo Club President:** Aw, look at that, my boys are getting along! It's a dream come true!

 **Eri:** _(*^3^)/~_

 **Pyrrha Nikos:** Why is Nora's nose bleeding?

 **Weirdo Club President:** Ignore it.

 **Weirdo Club President:** And don't worry, Pyrrha, will help you to learn all that there is to learn about the art of the group chat!

 **Lie Ren:** *We'll

 **Weirdo Club President:** Oh, and speaking of which! Behold, my apprentice, your first lesson!

* * *

**Weirdo Club president has changed Eri's name to Best Child**

**Weirdo Club president has changed Lie Ren's name to Weirdo Club Vice President**

**Weirdo Club president has changed Jaune Arc's name to Minion#1**

**Weirdo Club president has changed Pyrrha Nikos' name to Group Chat Virgin**

* * *

**Weirdo Club President:** When it comes to the names, it's every man and woman for themselves!

 **Minion#1:** Why am I the minion?

 **Weirdo Club President:** Why are you not the president?

 **Minion#1:** You gave yourself that role!

 **Weirdo Club President:** Exactly!

 **Group Chat Virgin:** I... I don't understand... This is... Very rude.

 **Weirdo Club Vice President:** Better get used to it. When it comes to Nora, madness is destined to follow.

 **Weirdo Club President:** You love it!

 **Weirdo Club Vice President:** Yeah, I do.

 **Minion#1:** Nora has just started to combust.

 **Minion#1:** I can see steam coming out of her ears.

 **Minion#1:** She's starting to babble about being 'Together together' and whatnot.

 **Best Child:** (°o°)

 **Weirdo Club Vice President:** She likes to tease me, I like to tease her back.

 **Minion#1:** Mutually assured teasing.

 **Weirdo Club Vice President:** Exactly.

 **Group Chat Virgin:** Um, all of... That, aside, seriously, what does 'UwU' mean?

 **Best Child:** UwU

 **Group Chat Virgin:** Yes, but seriously, what does it mean?

 **Best Child:** OwO

 **Group Chat Virgin:** …

 **Group Chat Virgin:** That is... Quite terrifying, in all honestly.

**Best Child: _OwO_**

**Group Chat Virgin:** Please stop.

 **Best Child:** UwU

 **Group Chat Virgin:** Thank you.

 **Group Chat Virgin:** Wait, is that what it means? Like a face with it's eyes closed, or something.

 **Weirdo Club Vice President:** Along those lines.

 **Group Chat Virgin:** That... That doesn't explain much.

 **Minion#1:** I feel so old having to teach someone about what memes are. It's like my hip is about to break.

 **Best child:** ＼(°ロ＼)(／ロ°)／

 **Minion#1:** Me too, Eri. Me too.

 **Weirdo Club President:** Aight, I'm back. Ren, for that little piece of sass, get ready for your fully deserved punishment glomping!

 **Weirdo Club Vice President:** Oh no.

 **Minion#1:** Good luck, bro.

 **Best Child:** ┌(；`～,)┐

 **Group Chat Virgin:** Wait, what's glomping?

 **Weirdo Club President:** _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH_!

 **Minion#1:** OH GOD MY HIP

 **Weirdo Club Vice President:** Oh my goodness the pain

 **Best Child:** ヽ(ｏ`皿′ｏ)ﾉ ┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ) (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

 **Group Chat Virgin:** …I bet this doesn't happen to everybody else...

* * *

**_MNCC Meat_ group chat**

**Current users: Fiery Explody Grill, Zoom Zoom Zoom, And The Trumpets They Go, and Altas' Finest Robots**

* * *

**Fiery Explody Grill:** Neon, I swear, if you change the goddamn usernames one more time I will shove a sword up your ass and twist it

 **Zoom Zoom Zoom:** Beat me harder, daddy

 **Fiery Explody Grill:** God, I hate you

 **Zoom Zoom Zoom:** UwU

 **Fiery Explody Grill:** Don't you start with me on that shit

 **Atlas' Finest Robots:** Wait, 'UwU', what's that?

**Fiery Explody Grill: NEVER**

**Fiery Explody Grill: EVER**

**Fiery Explody Grill: ASK**

**Fiery Explody Grill: ME**

**Fiery Explody Grill: THAT**

**Fiery Explody Grill: SHIT**

**Fiery Explody Grill: EVER**

**Fiery Explody Grill: AGAIN**

**Atlas' Finest Robots:** What?

**Fiery Explody Girl: EVER**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because in between the horrors and the trauma and everything else, we all just need a good chuckle every now and then...


	16. CSI: Vale part 1: The Divided Self

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a surprising turn of events, Ozpin sends the newly appointed team leaders of Beacon out on days long internships with various Hunters, leaving Jaune to deal with the stern-faced Winter Schnee as his watcher.
> 
> However, when a string of brutal murders hits Vale, Jaune finds himself thrown into a web of lies, corruption, and vigilantism, as he races against time to stop the murderer before they can strike again.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Arc Theme:**[ _No Time To Die by Billie Eilish_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BboMpayJomw) _  
_ **Theme:**[ _Writing's On The Wall by Sam Smith_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jzDnsjYv9A)

* * *

**Inspired by the _Transformers: Punishment_ comic.**

* * *

_"In other news, in the 2 weeks since the tragedy of the Initiation Massacre, negotiations between the Valerian and Atlesian councils has come to a standstill. Just after the battle in the Valerian plains, the Valerian council had been the first ones to contact Atlas and petition for military assistance and protection, but now, with the growing possibility of Atlas using the Initiation Massacre as an excuse to try and impose their own law and order onto the kingdom, the Valerian council has begun to argue back against several orders and suggestions that Atlas has imposed, such as assistance in police investigations, and the ability to begin their own investigations on Valerian soil._

_"In response to this, as well as the growing refugee crisis and presence of White Wolf terrorists in the city, the Valerian government has imposed a new conscription law for the police, and has begun to draft multiple persons from the public into the police force, pressing them into service on the streets and around the few remaining settlements around the city of Vale._

_"However, many have criticised this new law, stating that these new police forces have been rushed into service and poorly trained for combat, and leading to a ride in confirmed cases of corruption and police brutality in the already corrupt police force, and has also lead to poor coordination between Atlesian officials and soldiers and these new police officers, with several Atlesians and Valerians intentionally aggravating and angering the other, leading to further poor communication and disorganisation between the 2 forces, all the wide allowing for the crime rate to grow, not helped by the corruption in the police force and the growing flood of refugees from all around Vale._

_"More at 11..."_

**_Recovered audio footage from the Vale News Network, hosted by Lisa Lavendar_ **

* * *

"You got the stuff?"

Fyre-Fly looked at Pat Lie, and went, "Yeah, I got the passports, now let's just-"

"Hey, hey, dude, don't say that out loud, not here. Who knows who's listening in?"

Fyre-Fly moved his head back slightly at the Faunus' words, and looked around, spotting the tall walls that surrounded Vale right behind them, the massive structures blocking out the morning sun as gargantuan cannons, both anti-ground and anti-air, freshly brought in from Atlas and Mantle, nested themselves on top of the rounded wall that stretched of the port of Vale all the way around to the other.

Right now, they were just outside of Vale's walls, having sneaked out one by one over the night under the cover of darkness, and were currently resting in one of the old entrances to the city through the old tunnels and sewers that'd been blocked off by the council in the wake of the Valerian breaches and the Initiation Massacre. Around them, trees hugged and grew on the stone and metal walls, and ivory vines and Verdigris climbed those same walls, colouring the metal and green and blue and orange, and letting mounds of dirt and grass rest themselves against the stone and steel.

Fyre-Fly looked back to the snake Faunus with sharpened claws and a snake's tongue, and said, "Pat, don't be ridiculous. You're being ridiculous."

"What? I'm not being ridiculous. They could have cameras up there", Pat pointed up to a random part of the wall, "The council, I mean. They could have cameras up there."

Fyre-Fly looked to the other Faunus in their group of 3, one wolf Faunus with sharpened claws and a wolf's tail named Jaylon Karamel, and he shrugged and went, "He's not wrong. What if the council or the Hunters or someone else finds you?"

The Techion with mechanical firefly wings on his back rolled his optics under his visor, and just went, "Well, if the authorities do know we're out here, what makes you think they'll care? They're all too busy with the Grimm and shoring up the city. They won't give enough of a damn about 3 guys with fake passports to divert anyone to try and stop us from leaving."

"But", Pat began, "But what if they do?"

"Wha- Pat, did you not listen to what I just said, like, 5 and a half seconds ago? No one's gonna care. So what if we've got fake passports? We're just 3 random people trying to leave the city and start over somewhere else. Preferably somewhere safer. Why should the council or the cops even give half a damn about that?"

"No, we're not 3 people, Fyre-Fly, we're 3 Faunus", Jaylon pointed out, "Well, 2 Faunus and 1 Faunus Techion."

"So?"

"So, it means that the council, and definitely the cops, are gonna be paying a lot of attention to us. Humans can travel between kingdoms, Techions can travel between kingdoms, hell, Hunters can travel between kingdoms. We Faunus, we can't. We can't travel between kingdoms. We're too suspicious, you see. We might be White Wolves, or murderers, or criminals, or at least something worthy of arresting, or even killing."

"We are White Wolves, Jaylon. We are part of the White Wolves."

"Yeah, well that'll make it even worse."

"Yeah, well, screw that. Screw the Wolves, screw Vale. Screw it all", pulling oven the bag in his hand, he presented 3 false passports to the 2 Faunus near him, "Look, like I said, the Valerians and Atlas are too busy securing the city against the Grimm, that's where they're focusing all of their attention on, and in times like these, I doubt that Taurus and the rest of the Acolytes of the Ascended are going to notice 3 grunts deserting from the Wolves."

"You kidding me!?" Pet yelled out, "You saw what happened to that Tukson guy, didn't you? They sent a death squad after him and shot up the Central Valerian Market just to kill him!"

"Yeah, well he was always a flake, even during his service. Never had the conviction to do what needed to be done. They had a better excuse to kill him, not us. Look, we've got the passports, now let's huff it out of here. Try our luck in Jewel, or Argus, or Kenyte, or some other settlement far enough away from here to not worry about a possible Grimm invasion. I've got the passports, now all we just need to do is-"

Nearby, the bushes rustled, and a twig snapped. The 3 Wolves looked to the bush and tensed up, "What was that?"

"Oh, er, s'probably just a squirrel, or some-"

The barrel of a gun poked out between the bushes and fired twice with a blue muzzle flash.

The round impacted with Fyre-Fly's head, burning away the metal, and then coming out of the other end, bringing with it a spray of metal and flesh, black oil and red blood. Armour piercing rounds, it seemed. Another round went right into his chest, the armour piercing round doing its job and tearing apart the metal, slamming right through Fyre-Fly's augmented heart and slamming him onto the floor. He was dead before he hit the ground.

Pat and Jaylon screamed as the muzzle lifted up, firing off into the wall and knocking out a security camera, before the figure revealed themselves from behind the bushes. Jaylon reached for a nearby gun and yelled, "Pat, run! Call Yuma, tell him-"

The figure fired off 2 more rounds. Once more, these rounds went through the head and the heart, killing Jaylon instantly as he dropped to the ground, blood pouring out of his exit wounds.

Pat screamed, but the figure cut him off by firing another round from their gun. Pat, however, had twisted around quick enough for the round to hit him and barely miss his heart, but he still dropped to the ground, crying and whimpering as he held his chest, trying to stop the blood from rushing out in a torrent as the figure walked up to him and looked down on him.

Pat looked up to the figure in turn, and groaned out, "P... Please..."

The figure didn't respond with words. A blue muzzle flash and a bullet lodging into his forehead, spraying blood over the ground, was the answer he was given.

* * *

Report number #1: Inner City Incident

Beginning:

_Right, so this is the first time that I've ever written one of these before, so keep that in mind._

_Or don't. Your choice._

_Ah, poor choice of wording. I won't hand this in immediately. I'll just look over it once I've finished and edit it all down into something more professional. Like a first draft for an essay, and all that._

_Why am I even typing this stuff down? Whatever, doesn't matter, I'll edit this all out later._

**Editing note: _Stop waffling on about stuff, Past Me. It's time wasting and it's silly..._**

_Right, anyways, after that little rant, or detour, or whatever, let's get on with it._

_I guess that the first place to start, would be with our team leader's meeting with Headmaster Ozpin and Miss Goodwitch, where she introduced us to a few veteran Hunters from around the world, and told us what we were going to be doing..._

* * *

"Work experience?" Jaune asked, as he and the rest of the assembled team leaders of the first year sat assembled in the classroom on the Saturday of their first week into their new Beacon life, with Miss Goodwitch and Ozpin standing before a assembled troop of Huntsmen and Huntresses (Or Hunters for short), Who had been introduced as Joanna Greenleaf, Winter Schnee, Elm Ederne, Carmine Esclados, Marrow Amin, May Marigold, Bertilak Celadon, and Vine Zeki, some of them, the ones dressed in white uniforms, standing patiently with their arms folded behind them, the others acting much more lax and less uniform, with the one called Bertilak leaned against the wall and glaring daggers at Ozpin and the assembled troop of team leaders, much to the annoyance of the one called Carmine next to him.

Ozpin took a sip from his mug once more as he then said, "Of a sorts, Mister Arc, of a sorts", nearby, Skipjack, DJ, Razor, and a few other team leaders tilted their heads, and Ozpin elaborated, "For the next few days, starting from midday today to Wednesday of next week, you shall be assigned to a group of professional Hunters in order to see and understand how they act in a professional environment and pick up on anything that you could use in your own teams, as well as ask any important questions that you may have about how to operate as an effective team leader."

Melanie, having just been forced to silence an exited Ruby (She'd kept geeking out at the thought of being around real Hunters and seeing their weapons), Raised her hand and asked, "Um, Headmaster Ozpin, with all due respect, shouldn't we be doing this later in the year, when we've more properly gelled and moulded with our teammates? And are our teammates even going to be with us during all of this as well?"

Ozpin raised his mug to her and then went, "Good questions, Ms Malachite, and to answer the first one, originally, these Hunter shadowing missions and activities were supposed to have happened later in the year, when you would've been considered ready to partake in these missions and learn from those experiences, preferably shadowing one of the teachers", he took a sip of the mug, ignoring a few of the pointed stares from the Hunters behind him, and continued, "But, with the recent events of the last few weeks, and the fact that you all survived one of the biggest battles since the Rights Revolution, I have decided that you are ready for this task. Plus, with the amount of Hunters from Atlas and Vale gathered in the city, it is an opportunity that shouldn't be wasted."

He took a final sip from his mug, and then brought the now empty cup into both of his hands, tapping the nail of one of his fingers against it.

"As for the second question, it was originally going to involve your teammates as well, but the Valerian Council has judged that you are an exceptional case, and must be evaluated on your own, to identify how you react to scenarios on your own, and the capabilities of your judgement and analytical skills as the next batch of team leaders."

There seemed to be something else behind his words, but no one but Jaune caught on it, who then asked, "Is there another reason, sir, because that can't be all of it."

Miss Goodwitch looked at him with a cross look on his face, and Jaune, realising his tone, moved to apologise, before Ozpin cut him off with, "A wise question, Mr Arc", a faint smile came over the headmaster, before he sighed and said, "All that I am allowed to say is that there are a few people out there who... Have their eyes on you as team leaders. That is all, I'm afraid."

There was a faint shiver of uncertainty from the assembled team leaders, before Skipjack loudly groaned and went, "So we're going to be having freakin' politicians scrutinising us", he sighed and muttered, "Great..."

Ozpin just laughed at this, and went, "If it's any consolidation, I greatly dislike politicians myself as well, despite myself being one."

Ruby then shot her hand up (So fast that Jaune was sure he could see the phantoms of rose petals falling onto her desk), And asked, "Are these going to be the only Hunters that we work with, sir?"

"No, Ms Rose, there are other Hunters over the next few days that you will be able to shadow and work with. The Hunters behind me are just the ones that you will be working with for the rest of today and tomorrow."

Ruby began to squeal with excitement as her legs almost started to kick the table she was sitting at. Melanie gave Jaune a look that said, _Your turn_ , And Jaune just rolled his eyes and put a hand on Ruby's shoulder.

"Down girl, down", he said to the little reaper, causing Ruby to realised what she had been doing and glare at him. Well, he said glare, but it was really more of an adorable pouting face.

Ozpin chuckled, and then asked if there were any more questions, to which he answered, and then sent the team leaders to their assigned Hunter guides, who informed them to gather up enough clothing and gear for their time out for the next few days, and to inform their teams on what was going on, even though those same teammates would be told in an assembly later on in the day.

Jaune then looked to the Huntress whom he had been assigned to, "Um, Miss... Er, Winter Schnee, was it?"

"That is correct", the Huntress that was now confirmed as Winter Schnee said, her hands still behind her back and her posture stilled and formal, looking over him with scrutinising eyes as she then went, with a stilled face, "Pack your things and meet me at the Beacon Docking Bay at 1200 hours, on the dot", she then turned to leave, "I do not believe in fashionably later", and walked away, out of the room and down the corridors, not offering him a second glance.

"..."

Jaune looked to the corridor, and took a guess that that was Weiss' mother or older sister, or something. She definitely had the looks to back it up, and the... Attitude? He really didn't know Weiss that well to make any kind of judgement like that on her. He supposed that he should change that, and try to get to know the white haired girl more.

Well, in all honestly, he had tried. A lot of people had tried to talk and get to know Weiss, but almost every time, she had shot them down.

Ruthlessly.

With a tommy gun.

Every time someone had tried to approach her about anything, she had turned them away, sticking her nose up and putting them down with veiled insults and haughty tones. Only a few days ago, Jaune had tried to approach her and ask about how her team was doing, but she had just turned the opposite way, and said, "Do you plebeians know any better than to try and smooth talk someone of my stature? At any rate, you would have much better luck slamming into a brick wall rather than asking anything of me", but when he had tried to, awkwardly, ask again, she just wheeled back at him and stuck her finger in his face, "Do you know who I am? Of course you do, obviously-"

He really didn't.

"-Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, thank you very much. I don't need another idiotic charlatan trying to ask me out for my money, or whatever other reason you may have, so if you could kindly be gone from my sight, that would be great."

…Yeah, she wasn't exactly approachable.

Not even her own teammates, or even her team leader Ruby was safe, as she stayed away from them as much as she could (She specifically avoided Ruby like the plague) And chose to hang out with Ciel and Pyrrha as much as she could.

Actually, Pyrrha was one of, if not the only person that Weiss would willingly, and even eagerly approach and chat to (Which he supposed was fair. I mean, who wouldn't want to be friends with the Pumpkin Pete mascot, right?), Always going off with a happy smile on her about this and that, while Pyrrha sat next to her and talked back with her own smile on her face. He was glad that, despite the seemingly growing negative attitude towards Weiss by the rest of the first years, at least she had one person in Pyrrha to be friends with. At least Pyrrha liked her.

Then again, Pyrrha seemed to like everyone, so maybe he was cheating with that.

Didn't matter. Weiss had a friend, and that was all that mattered.

Jaune then looked past an awkward Ruby as she talked to Carmine while Betilak sneered at her (If she was going to be partnered up with him, then he was really worried for her), And looked back down the open door.

Maybe that could be a conversation starter between them, Winter and himself, a way to break the ice. He could ask about Weiss and how to get her to open up, and she could help him figure out how to get past her haughty shell, and they could have a good laugh about it.

Or maybe he could have a good laugh, and she'd stand there with a straight look on her face.

He supposed he was going to find out.

* * *

General James Ironwood looked down at the bodies with a growing sense of dread in his chest as he watched them be picked up, one by one off of the ground, and placed onto stretchers, before being carried onto a nearby Bullhead, ready to be flown back into the city walls.

He'd hated seeing dead bodies. He knew that it would be routine in his job, seeing as how he was a general within the Atlesian military, and it was his job to fight wars and kill other soldiers, men and women, and order his own men and women, brothers and sisters in arms, to die in combat as well, for the good of Atlas, and the good of Remnant.

But he still hated it. It was a reminder of his own failings as a general, his own failings as a leader, and his own failings to keep these killings from happening, no matter what. It was always a personal strike at his heart, at his conscience. For most people, when they see corpse after corpse like he did, overtime, they would become numb to such a thing, and in a way, so had he, but there was always that strike to him, that personal attack against his morals and his conscience.

It was one of the many things that kept him moving forward: To never have to see another dead person's body ever again. Most would think that it was unrealistic, and it was, but he thought that it was an ideal worth following at least. The more people he saved, the less of a chance he'd have to look upon their broken bodies in a morgue.

A random memory- A chameleon Faunus covered in her own blood, with a specialist trying to save her and stop the bleeding, calling for a medic, while nearby, a pair of limbs laid clumsily on the concrete ground- Came to his mind.

He shook the thought away as he looked around at the crime scene, blood splattered against the grassy and muddy floor and the bushes, now having been cornered off by police tapes, lazy forensics, and freshly recruited CSI analysists. Above them, the Valerian walls stood tall, but with a fresh blast mark on the side of it, the remains of a broken, burnt out camera dangling off of the wall, tilting side to side in the soft breeze of the late morning. Police evidence markers were clumsily placed here and there as police officers, freshly recruited off of the streets and pressed into service by the Valerian Council, stumbled around, trying to look for anything of importance, coming across duds and false leads.

In Ironwood's opinion, the entire handling of the crime scene by these police officers was poorly managed and a bumbling mess. It was obvious that these officers, from the way they moved, acted, and handled themselves, were from the new wave of policemen and women that the Valerian Council had been conscripting or hiring off of the streets and giving them a crash course in police ethics and protocol before letting them loose on the streets with a badge and a gun, which was an extremely stupid decision, and fraught with holes and flaws.

In the council's defence though, they did have a good reason for doing so. Simply put, most of their best officers, as well as militiamen, soldiers, and Hunters, had died above the Emerald Forest and the Grimm Tidings, and then more were killed in the following breaches at the time of the CCP Massacre and the GVMC Breach, meaning that Vale had a massive lack of law enforcement, meaning that they had to call upon Atlas for protection, and with the sudden influx of refugees from across Vale to the central city, and the city itself stopping all food from leaving it's walls, the council would need all of the law enforcement that it could get.

So, firstly, they began to recall all of their Hunters from around the kingdom to the city, followed by every settlement's militia forces (Most of whom were themselves poorly or barely trained conscripts), And tried to unify them together into one cohesive force. But then the refugees began to flood into the city by the hundreds, they found that what they had just wasn't enough at all. So, in a panic, and scared for their own safety, the council started to bring in anyone who could hold a gun, and filling out their ranks with as many people as they could.

Too many, in fact. So much so that supplies were strained between them, and training was rushed, which left them poorly trained and motivated, not helped out at all by the deaths of most of the city's defenders, as well as their children, in the Initiation Massacre by the once largest army of Grimm ever seen on Remnant, and the rise of this new Ascendant Court. Corruption began to fester within these new police ranks, and bribery became even more common than it had ever been before. In fact, Ironwood suspected that there were so many new police officers, that in every gang and criminal organisation in Vale, there was at least one officer in them.

In all honesty, Vale's police department was never that good to begin with. If anything, it was already plagued with ineptitude and corruption, not as bad as Mistral, but it did allow criminal groups such as Roman Torchwick and his Circus of Horrors to set up and embed themselves within Vale's criminal underworld, and begin paying off many officers, and even a few Hunters, to look the other way when it came to his crimes. Forensics themselves were never that good as well, being lazy and poorly managed, leading to many cold cases and serial killings that could only be solved through the intervention of a Hunter, who regularly raised complaints to the council, who, along with Chief Warren Mores, at the time were trying to put in for more reformations and clear out the corruption in their ranks, until the Initiation Massacre happened, and then the next day, Chief Mores was killed in the GVMC Breach, leading to their current situation now.

Ironwood also suspected that the council had begun to train up all of these masses of officers as a way of trying to get another bargaining chip on the table in the negotiations with Atlas' council. Ever since the Initiation Massacre, Vale had petitioned Atlas for military support and protection (Which was a decision that Ironwood had voted for, as it allowed him to more closely monitor the Grimm and protect the Maiden under Beacon, moral reasons aside), But was now fearing a possible complete takeover of Atlas, and was using the recovered remains of the Atlesian jamming field from Outpost Orion as a bargaining chip in their negotiations with Atlas to allow them to have more control over the forces in Vale, and what they were and weren't allowed to do, and with the sudden rise in police officers and law enforcement, then it might convince the Atlesian council that they can protect themselves with their own army, and give them better leverage against anything that Atlas may try and impose on them (He knew that Jacques Schnee was looking to impose new regulations in the dust trade to Vale that he could exploit, and he was not letting that bastard of a man anywhere near anything to do with dust. Not with his reputation).

"This is embarrassing", the words of one of the Ace-Ops, Harriet Bree, broke him out of his thoughts as he noted her watching the fumbling forensic team stumble around the crime scene with an unmotivated look to them, a hand to her face as she shook it, "I mean, look at this, I'm pretty sure they've just missed, like, 30 different pieces of evidence."

"Be nice, Specialist Bree", said a Hunter that was not part of Ironwood's Ace-Ops or the Atlas military, but had been called here by the Atlesian council, one Fiona Thyme, a member of the Happy Huntresses, an all girl team headed by Robyn Hill that supported and worked to better the city of Atlas (Robyn was the only member of the group to have not been called by the council to Vale, which Ironwood suspected was a political reason), "It's not in our jurisdiction to interfere with an ongoing investigation. We're just here to provide security for them."

"'Jurisdiction'?" Harriet asked with an edge to her voice, having not gotten along with Fiona or any of the Happy Huntresses at all, due to moral and (Obvious) Political differences, "Oh c'mon, Thyme, look at them. They're waddling around the place like penguins, with their asses hanging out as well. Aren't they suppose to be 'Crime Scene Investigation', not 'Dilly-dallying until the sun goes down'?"

"Hey, lady, don't tell us how to do our job!" one of the forensic officers yelled as he clumsily placed a broken, cylindrical object into a bag with tweezers. Harriet just looked to the side and grumbled something in annoyance, before the forensic officer in turn then muttered, "Fucking Atlesians…"

Harriet scowled and looked at the forensic officer with a glare that screamed she was going to vault over the police tape blocking them off and land a haymaker on his jawline, but Fiona put an arm before her and went, "Miss Bree."

"What?"

"Just... Just cool it, okay?" the white haired sheep Faunus said to her in a hushed tone, "As much as I have my own criticisms of this investigation so far, and as much as I would like to lend my own hand, we can't."

"Because politics?" Harriet asked with a frown.

"Unfortunately, yes", Fiona sighed out, "If we, as Atlesian and Mantlian officials, try to assert ourselves as interlopers in a Valerian investigation, no matter our intentions, it will be seen as a breach of jurisdiction and invasion of Valerian affairs. We're here to provide security for Vale as it heals, not to interfere with ongoing sovereign investigations, no matter how poor they may be."

"Miss Thyme is right", General Ironwood spoke up, "If Atlesian officials were to begin investigating crimes on Valerian soil on their own, then it would be seen as akin to surrendering sovereignty and trying to impose our own laws and ideals onto another nation, and no one would ever want that", Harriet looked away for a second, a scowl still on her face, and Ironwood continued, "Think about it this way: If Valerian officials began to impose their own laws onto Atlas, and began to invade our own investigations, how would that make you feel?"

Harriet looked up to him, and then sighed, "Right, right..S'just infuriating, you know?" she stopped for a second, before amending, "Oh, er, sorry sir."

He waved her off. Not a problem.

"Apologies for being rude, General Ironwood", Fiona spoke up with an apologetic tone, "But may I ask why you are here? I mean, no offence, but wouldn't you be better suited in the centre of Vale, trying to coordinate Atlas' and Vale's forces together, instead of staying outside of the walls?"

Harriet looked like she was going to say something out of indignation, but Ironwood stopped her by saying in an unoffended tone, "Because, Miss Thyme, I have found that when it comes to things like murder investigations, sometimes one's presence can be a good motivator", he spotted another forensic officer almost stumble over a stray log, and sighed, "Of course, that's not a universal law."

"Doesn't matter now, we're done here", the head of the CSI officials spoke up as he and the rest of the forensic officers began to pack up and move to the Bullheads, not bothering to remove the police tape as they moved, "We'll get someone to replace the camera when we get back."

"Wait, did you find anything out?" Fiona chirped up, "About who murdered those 3 men?"

"That's confidential information, Miss", the head officer spoke up, "But I think we can close this case already."

"Wait, really?" Harriet spoke up, "You're sure? Just like that?"

"Yep, just like that", the head officer got onto the Bullhead and called out, "So get packed up. "We're done here."

Ironwood just sighed, and Harriet looked over to him and said, "I can always come back later, sir, and try and find out anything else."

"That would be considered tampering with a crime scene, Specialist Bree", Ironwood said, "As well as an breach of Valerian affairs. I'm afraid that we can't."

"Can you not do anything about that?" Fiona asked as they reluctantly turned to the Bullheads, "I mean, you are on the Atlesian council, aren't you? Can't you just ask the Valerians to... I don't know, do a better job?"

"Well, it's like you said, Miss Thyme, that would be an invasion of Valerian laws and politics. I can suggest it, but I doubt that it will do much."

As they got on the Bullhead, and as it began to lift off, Harriet muttered out, "I hate politics..."

"As do I, Specialist Bree, as to I", Ironwood patted her on the shoulder, before going, "Now, let's get back into Vale. We need to accommodate for the new Hunters in training from Beacon."

* * *

"So, um", Jaune went as he held his stomach, feeling queasy from his motion sickness as the Bullhead lifted up, not knowing why it had to strike now, in front of a professional Huntress as he then said, "Er, is there a bag, or something, please, that I could-"

"There is a bucket in the cabinet in the corner", Winter Schnee spoke up as she pointed to a corner with her sabre, not sparing a look at him as she stayed sitting down, her hands at her side as they sat in her personal Bullhead, "And there is a toilet in the other corner. And please, do not... Empty yourself on the floor. I just had my ship cleaned."

"Ah, right", Jaune went as he sat up, opened up the cabinet, and pulled out the bucket as he took off his helmet and sat in down on his lap, "Thanks."

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh, er, thank you, ma'am... Sorry."

She looked away from him once more.

Jaune just stayed sitting in place, tapping away at the (Thankfully) Empty bucket on his lap, before he went, "So, er... Do you... Er, this might be a dumb question... It probably is, but... Do you know a Weiss Schnee?"

This caught Winter's attention, and she turned to him with a curious look and said, "Yes, she is my younger sister. Why?"

"Well, I- Wait, really?" he questioned, "I- Forgive me for sounding rude, but I kinda had you pegged as her mum, or something..."

Winter's eyes widened a tad, and she looked down to the side.

"...Best she's got..."

Jaune quirked an eyebrow, "Pardon?"

"Nothing, disregard", Winter waved it off, before looking back to Jaune with a narrowed gaze, "You know, it is rude to assume a woman's age."

"Ah, sorry, sorry!" Jaune waved in a bit of a panic, almost causing his bucket to fall to the floor before he quickly caught it.

Winter looked away once more, content on looking at the birds outside of the airship's windows.

"...How do you know my sister?"

Jaune turned to her, "Oh, er, she was with us in the Emerald Forest, and around the Grimm Tidings. She fought with us, and she's currently in my- I mean, one of my team's sibling team, RSBL."

"'Rosebloom', hm?" Winter looked like she was tasting the word on her tongue, before nodding, and asking, "Is that all?"

"Hm?"

"Is that all that you know my sister for?"

"Oh, er, she was the one who- Er, sort of- Introduced me to my partner, Pyrrha. I mean, she was kinda, er...", he trailed off, and looked at her.

Winter's eyebrow quirked, "Kind of... What?"

"...Forceful about it", Jaune rubbed the back of his head, "I mean, I'm pretty sure that she wanted to have Pyrrha as her partner, so that might'd be the reason."

Winter's eyes narrowed, "Oh, so, what's so special about this... Pyrrha?"

"Oh, well, she's on the cover of every Pumpkin Pete cereal box in the word!"

"...Hm? What is- Wait", Winter paused, and then stared at him with slightly widened eyes, "Pyrrha as in Pyrrha Nikos? The 4 time winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament?"

"Oh, yeah, all of that stuff too", Jaune added, "Whatever that is. I know that Weiss really likes talking to Pyrrha in their spare time, so she's really attached to her."

"...Hm", Winter hummed, before looking away once more, "I see", there was silence once more between them, before she asked, "How is Weiss performing, may I ask?"

"Hm?"

"In Beacon. How is she... Doing?"

"Um, in terms of grades?" Jaune asked in turn, "'Cause I know that she's pretty much at the top of our class, and-"

"Not that, you dolt", Winter said in a frustrated tone, "I mean how is she doing? Does she have any friends? Is she eating and sleeping well?"

"Oh, er", Jaune paused, tapping his finger against his chin in thought, before going, "Well, for the last 2, I don't know. I'm not on her team, so I can't say for certain, but... Well, Pyrrha's the only one she willingly talks to. Her and Ciel. Everyone else, she... She kinda shoots down, or turns them away. She's- I don't mean to sound rude or offensive, but... She acts kinda haughty about it. Like's she better than everyone else. She doesn't even talk to her own teammates. I've tried to talk to her before, but she... I think she thought that I was trying to flirt with her, or something. Honestly, I had hoped that you might know something about that. I mean, you are her sister, do you know what'll get her to open up a bit more? Talk to her teammates a bit more?"

Winter paused, nursing her lips and trying to find the right thing to say, before coming out with, "It's... It is not my place to say."

"Ah", Jaune went, sort of satisfied with that answer, if a little disappointed.

Winter continued on though, "She... Hasn't had the best experience with people, that's all. I'll have a word with her about it, but... But ultimately she has to be the one to open up about herself. She's stubborn like that, you see."

"Hm", Jaune nodded, before adding, "Well, stubbornness can be a good trait in someone."

"Yes", Winter quietly added, "Sometimes..."

Jaune didn't say anything else, not sure what else to add onto that.

They spent the rest of the ride down the Vale in an awkward silence.

* * *

_The ride down to Vale was nothing to (Pardon the pun) Ride home about. Apart from the nausea from my motion sickness, and a little interaction between me and Winter, nothing happened at all._

**Editing note: _Take out the motion sickness bit. No one want's to hear about me almost puking my guts out._**

_It was when we got down to the surface, that things started getting interesting..._

* * *

"And this is the central Atlesian military staging ground", Winter said as she led Jaune out of the airship and made their way through the airport that he had walked through less than a fortnight ago, only now it had been fully converted into, as Winter had just said, a staging ground and refuelling centre for Atlas' forces, as well as a few of the hotels that were near the airport as well, with soldiers marching from left to right, and Bullheads and Verity-class fighters parked and sectioned off into refuelling columns as technicians and workers saw and tended to them, while walkers and wheeled vehicles transported supplies from left to right across the airstrip and between the terminals. Up in the air, the massive airship that was the Saviour-class carrier airship called the Endurance hung above Vale, casting a dark shadow and bloting out the sun. Winter continued on, "This is where you will be staying until Wednesday next week while you're on rotation. For today and tomorrow, you will be working with me, so you are to follow my orders to the letter. I have no patience for recklessness or idiocy, so be sure to do exactly as I say, whenever, whatever, and however, understood?"

"Er, yes ma'am", Jaune said as he quickly carried his things with his behind Winter, the woman in question walking in a formal, quick paced formation as nearby soldiers and workers in Atlesian uniforms saluted to her, _She must be high up in Atlas' food chain in order to command this much respect_ , he thought to himself.

As they past what appeared to be the airport's control tower- Which had been reconverted into the Atlesians main HQ, Winter then continued with, "That is our main headquarters, and nearby is our new barracks", gesturing her head to a different terminal that was sectioned off with tents and covered entrances and windows, "You'll be staying in there until it is your time to leave. Once you get there, you will unpack your belongings and then follow me back down to the HQ where you will be provided the details of our assignments, understood?"

"Y-Yes ma'am", Jaune quickly replied, feeling slightly intimidated by the older Huntress as she commanded him along.

Fortunately, someone seemed to take notice of this as a voice, with a slight jovial tone behind it, quickly called out, "Specialist Schnee, please feel free to not intimidate the Hunters in training?"

Winter's head quickly darted to the side, and Jaune followed it to see a tall, older man dressed in a white long sleeved overcoat and trousers, grey undershirt, black sweater and red necktie walking up to them- Or to her- With his hands crossed behind his back. Flanking him on his right was a brown skinned woman with violet eyes and brown hair, as well as platinum blond in the middle, separated into a V that resembled rabbit ears, whilst also wearing a short sleeved Atlesian uniform with trouser legs that left her inner thighs exposed, and a metal backpack clinging to her. Nearby, what Jaune assumed to be another Huntress- A white haired sheep Faunus dressed in a green and black coat, white and green shirt, black trousers and grey boots- Moving over to speak to May Marigold and their charges for the day, Skipjack and DJ.

"Sir!" Winter quickly called out as she saluted, darting her eyes to Jaune as if to tell him to do the same.

Jaune, picking up on this, moved his hand to salute, but then found that he was still carrying very heavy boxes.

So, in a fit of genius, he began to lower himself to the ground to try and reach his hand, going lower and lower until after a few moments, he found himself squatting on the ground and leaning to the side to try and reach his hand, looking like a constipated dog as he tried to do so.

Winter, somehow not breaking her pose, looked down to him and hissed, "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to salute but my hands are full."

"Let go of the boxes, you dolt."

"Wait, I can- Oh yeah, I can do that! I completely forgot about that!" Jaune went as he quickly got back up and dropped his very heavy boxes with a-

{THUD}

-And quickly held his hand out for a handshake, before looking down on it, "Oh, woops!" and bringing it in for a salute, before remembering that he still had his helmet on and taking it off, slinging it under his arm as he then saluted again.

A single tear rolled down his cheek.

"Er", the violet eyed woman began, "Are you okay?"

"...I dropped my boxes on my toes... Please help."

Winter, despite herself, slapped her hand against her face.

The violet eyed girl just rolled said eyes and lifted the boxes from his feet, dropping them right next to him.

"Thank you."

The violet eyed girl sighed and muttered to the man next to her, "Why are we stuck with the idiots?"

"Hey..."

"Be nice, Specialist Bree", the man said to her, before looking down at Jaune with an amused smile on him and going, "You must be Jaune Arc, correct?"

"Oh, er, yes sir", Jaune gingerly rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry about all of that. I just... I'm not usually like that, I just... Had a bit of a dum-dum moment, is all. Oh, and, er, whom may you be, if I could please ask?"

"General James Ironwood."

"...Oh... You're a gener- Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh fudge cakes", jaune slowly drawled out, "Er, hey, er", his head darted to the side as he then quickly went, "Actually, y'know what, let's just- Can we just pretend that the last minute didn't happen, please, thank you, hi I'm Jaune, nice to meet you."

Winter let out a quiet groan, the violet eyed girl- 'Bree', apparently- Raised an eyebrow, and General Ironwood just chuckled and took his outstretched hand, "Hello there, Headmaster Ozpin has told me good things about you."

"Oh, has he?" Jaune asked, "Well, that- That's good, I suppose", he paused, relieving his hand from Ironwood's, and going, "I mean, if he said bad stuff, then that'd be bad, obviously", he paused again, "Sorry sir, nerves. I'm not, er… I guess I'm not good with people", he rubbed his side, and went, "Sorry, am I interrupting something? Did you want to speak with her about something? Should I go?"

"Ah, well, I just wished to talk with Specialist Schnee about something. It doesn't concern you", General Ironwood said, before gesturing to Bree and going, "I'm sure Specialist Harriet Bree can show you to your barracks."

'Harriet Bree' looked like she was about to argue against it, before biting her lip and going, "Yes sir, I wanted to polish my weapons anyways", patting Jaune on the shoulder as she then said , "C'mon, I'll show you to your room."

"Ah, right", Jaune went as he quickly picked his boxes back up and went, "Sorry about that, by the way, I'm not- I'm not usually that dumb. Hopefully."

"Ah, it's fine", Harriet waved it off as they began to walk, "Just having a bad day, is all. Got paired with someone that I really... Dislike, and then-"

"Please, don't worry the poor boy with things that he doesn't need to hear, Specialist Bree", Ironwood called out to her.

She just sighed and muttered, "Well, I think murders might be things that he needs to-"

"Murders?" Harriet winced, obviously not having intended for Jaune to hear her as he wheeled around in front of her, a concerned, suddenly focused look on his face underneath his helmet, his straightened body language communicating all that needed to be said, "What murders?"

Harriet groaned, and went, "It's nothing important. Nothing to worry yourself over. We've got... Professionals... Looking over it."

"You paused. You hesitated. You put too much emphasis on the word 'Professionals', meaning that these guys- Whoever you're talking about- Aren't actually professionals at whatever they're doing, or at least you don't think so."

Harriet looked at him with a surprised look on her face. Had he been accurate? Looked like it, "Huh, you're quick on the update. Seriously, though, don't worry about it. Just gotta let the authorities handle it. They'll pull through."

"...Will they?"

Harriet spared a glance at him, "It's their job. Just worry about following orders and learning as much as you can. It'll be fine."

Jaune just looked down as he walked, and after a moment's hesitation, nodded. She was right, he was worrying about nothing. The authorities- The cops and the investigators- Knew what they were doing. They had it all in the bag.

* * *

Jaune had a sneaking suspicion that the authorities did not have it all in the bag.

"I trust you've never been to a police station before?" Winter Schnee asked him as they, as well as a few other Hunters- Elm Ederne, Joanna Greenleaf, and May Marigold- Walked up the steps to the overpopulated police station, trying their best not to bump into any of the hundred officers that were packed into the station like sardines. Outside, a small crowd had begun to gather, chanting and protesting against the poor treatment of Faunus and refugees, police brutality, and the conscription law, hands and picket signs in the air as pairs of officers got before them, pistols and batons in hand, their eyes training on the crowd, looking for anyone who would stand out of line.

"Er, if you're asking if I've ever been in trouble, then, no, no I haven't", Jaune went, fully decked out with all of his weapons attached to his armour, his voice having an radio like tone to it as it sounded through his helmet into the open. He looked behind him, back to the crowd that was chanting on and on, and pointed to them, "So, um, should we be... Be doing something about... You know, that?"

"Ah, don't sweat about it, kid", Elm Ederne spoke up as she hit him on the back with a hefty slap, causing him to stumble forward a step before she apologised and continued on, "Me and the guys and girls, we've seen these kind of crowd protests before. They hardly ever go violent, so it'll be all fine and dandy."

"Yeah, you say that, but look at the response from the cops", May went as she jabbed a thumb at the police officers standing guard, "These guys are jittery. They're asking for a fight."

"They're militiamen", Jaune looked to his side to see a female Faunus with cricket legs walking over to them, "Just came from the former settlements on the outskirts of Vale. Still shaken from it all. Just shaken nerves, or however the saying goes", she gestured a thumb to them, "They're itching for a fight, all right. We're trying to install some trigger discipline into them, but... Yeah."

"If that's the case, then why the hell are you letting trigger happy gunmen walk around with badges?" Joanna called out, "That's just asking for a whole hell of a lot of trouble."

"Don't blame me, blame the council. It was their idea, and despite everything, out of all of the new guys, these ones are by far the best officers of the bunch, which is fairly depressing to think about", the cricket Faunus then turned and held out a hand to Winter and went, "I'm Officer Connie Jessabelle, one of the original police officers in Vale before the conscription law got put in."

Winter seemed to hesitate, before taking her hand and going, "I am Specialist Winter Schnee, please to be of your acquaintance."

"Ah, a Schnee, I see", Winter flinched at this, "Don't worry, it's alright", Connie amended, before turning to the group and going, "So I heard there was a junior Hunter or whatever that was going to be shadowing you, or is that another day?" Jaune quickly indicated to himself, and Connie continued, "Ah, I see. You need anymore guns on you, by the way?"

"Oh, er, well, I'm, er, not as good as the rest of-"

"There's no need for you to divulge that kind of information to anyone, Mr Arc", Winter chastised, "It's called 'Sensitive information' for a reason."

"Ah, right, sorry."

Winter seemed to supress a sigh as she then turned to the 4 Huntresses that'd come with them and said to them, "You 4, stay out here, and make sure that the... Militiamen, don't do anything foolish, understand?"

""Yes ma'am"", Elm and Harriet spoke at the same time, whilst May just rolled her eyes and muttered something, which Jonna silently giggled at.

Winter nodded, and then went to Connie, "Well then, if you would please show Mr Arc and myself around, Officer..."

"Oh, right then", Connie went, "Right, let's go have a mooch about then, shall we?"

Winter just raised an eyebrow at her.

"...'Have a mooch about'... Have a look around... It's slang."

"I do not do slang."

"Well, yes, that is very much evident", Connie muttered, before gesturing to the police station's opened door, "Follow me", and walking off, Winter following close behind, and Jaune shortly after, closing the door to the police station behind him as he went through.

* * *

The police station was packed to the brim, filled with the calling voices and tapping feet of officers with fresh faces and nervous postures going left and right, flowing through the station's atrium and hallways like water, while Winter and Jaune tried to fight against the current, weaving through the crowds of officers as they followed behind Connie, their shoulders banging and pressing against others as they moved.

"It's so crowded in here", Jaune muttered as he tried his best as to not get pushed over., "What the hell is going on here? Why are there so many officers? Is this normal for Vale?"

"Hah, we wish", Connie called out as they began to make their way to the break room, moving past a group of chatting officers, their postures laxed and chilled.

"It's because of the council", Winter pointed out to Jaune, "The Valerian council, at least. They were panicked about the new Grimm forces and began to conscript people into the officer ranks in mass", she paused in place, coming closer to Jaune as she then said, "Quantity became more important than quality."

"Oh?" Jaune quietly asked, "So, these guys are poorly trained, like the officer leading us through here said?" Winter nodded in response, "Is this what it's like in every other city? I've only ever been to my old home and the town of Jewel, and I don't remember it ever being this bad there."

"You have never really been into a city before now, have you?" Winter asked with a genuine tone.

"No, why?"

"Well, all of this", she gestured to around them with her finger, "Is because of one thing: Fear", Jaune raised an eyebrow, and she continued, "There had never been an attack on Vale like the one 2 weeks ago since the end of the Great War. Not even the Rights Revolution was that bad on the kingdom, as that conflict was mostly secluded to urban rioting and lynch mobs. But then again, there hadn't been a battle at all like the Initiation Massacre since the Rights Revolution and the battles of the 7 Forts, nothing that devastating. Even if the city wasn't directly attacked, the thought of an army of Grimm that size somehow arriving in Vale under our notice, and then the possibility of another army of Grimm attacking Vale... Well, it caused the council, and everyone else that lives inside the city walls to panic."

Jaune nodded along, signalling his understanding.

"And, to say that the main city of Vale, as well as the central cities of every other kingdom are important is to undersell the magnitude of their presence. The central kingdom cities are the lynchpins, and the hearts of every kingdom. Almost all trade goes through the cities. The main Hunter and military bases are located within the cities, as are the Hunter academies, as is much of each kingdom's population, as well as their central leadership. Apologies for sounding dramatic, but if the kingdoms are the bodies, and the settlements are the veins, then the kingdoms are the hearts. If the cities fall, then the kingdoms fall."

"Ah, I see."

Winter nodded, "I hope that you do, because if you do, then you can understand the severity of the situation, and the perspective of the situation. The council's, in order to protect themselves and the city, introduced the conscription law, and then recalled all of their militias around the kingdom and inducted them into the police forces to boost their numbers, before pulling in as many people as they could from the conscription law. Although, that's obviously causing problems."

"They're not doing well?" Jaune asked, "Poor cooperation, I guess, between all of these new officers."

"Indeed. Because they've been rushed out of training, these new officers still don't know enough about the laws that they are meant to follow. They don't have discipline or organisation, and they don't have the right attitude at all."

"They're acting like mercenaries?"

"That would be an insult", Winter paused, "To the mercenaries, because most of the time, PMCs at least have some form of order, but these people don't. Like I said, quantity over quality has become a standard. They've essentially been given a barebones crash course in policing, a badge, and sent on their way, as if the council expects every single one of them to be utterly obedient and law abiding themselves", she looked him right into the glowing blue visor of his helmet, as if she was looking right into his eyes as she then said, "From what I have seen, the council has mostly been pushing most of their recruitment drives into the new arrivals and refugee population, in order to get at least something out of them, but it is a poor decision, because psychologically, they are in a bad state and ridden with PTSD and trauma from just loosing their homes and children, and will most likely been more susceptible to corruption and bribery. Since they just lost their homes and their livelihoods, they will need to put bread on the table somehow, and if someone's willing to pay just to look the other way when a tiny little bad thing happens, then all the better."

"But has it ever really been this bad?" Jaune asked, "In Atlas, or Mistral, or anywhere else, I mean?"

"Well, after a shooting in Mantle by the White Fang, the Atlesian council did push for higher recruitment rates, but never went so far as to pass a conscription law. Of course, the situation was much better. Well, things were morbid, of course, but nothing compared to a war scale battle on a kingdom's own soil."

"So, I'm guessing we just have to make the best out of a bad situation?" Winter nodded, and Jaune then asked, "So, why are we here, anyways?"

"And here's the break room", Connie stopped them as she pointed to a closed door, with the sounds of commotion and laughter coming out from behind it, "Well, I mean, there it is", she took a peak in, and then looked to Jaune and Winter and went, "Yeah, I don't think that we're gonna be able to go in. S'a bit packed, and, well", she gestured to Winter, "They might not be very friendly to a... Well, you know..."

Jaune tilted his head to the side, "Er, no, not really."

"Yes, I understand", Winter interjected, "We will stay out here."

"Ah, right", Connie went, rubbing the back of her head, before going, "Well, I'm, er, I'm on my break now, so, y'know, have a good enough day, I suppose", and with that, she opened up the door to the break room, and walked in, getting a small cheer from the people inside as the door closed on them.

Winter then turned and looked at Jaune, "You wished to know why we're here?" Jaune nodded, "Well, we're here because, as a Hunter, it is not uncommon for us to work with kingdom police forces, providing security for them during their investigations, and sometimes even participating in them in order to further those investigations along and, eventually, catch the people behind them. Now, while you won't be participating in any of them, I will, and since you are meant to be shadowing me, you will be following me along as we provide security for several police operations until the day after tomorrow, where you'll be handed off to another Hunter for the rest of your time."

 _'Handed off to another Hunter', huh? Feeling a little insulted right now_ , Jaune thought to himself, before admonishing himself and going, "Right", Winter gave him a look, "Er, I mean, yes ma'am", Winter kept looking at him, "What?"

"Nothing", Winter said as she looked away, "Forget about it..."

"...Oh... Okay, then...", he looked to the side, before adding on, "Hey, I've gotta, erm, find a bathroom, quickly. Forgot to go before we left, so... Yeah."

Winter sighed in response before waving him off and going, "Alright then, go, and... Relieve yourself, but come straight back here, understand?"

Jaune nodded, and ran off, pushing past the many officers that flooded the halls and following the signs, so that he may indeed 'Relieve' himself.

* * *

Once Jaune had finished relieving himself, and having followed the proper sanitary protocols, he made his way back out of the toilets, and proceeded to walk back down to Winter, passing by all sorts of fresh officers commingling through the corridors.

Many of those officers looked over him with distain, murmuring to each other as he past them.

"It's a Hunter..."

"Great..."

"Fucking Hunters..."

"What's he doing here?..."

"He's just gonna fuck everything up..."

Jaune tried his best to ignore the harsh whispers and the pointed stares, biting the insides of his lips as he marched along, his feet slightly picking up speed as he walked along, weaving his way through the crowds of officers that glared daggers and sniggered at him.

He failed to notice the foot that had stretched out in front of his path until he had tripped over it and fallen to the ground.

He groaned and sighed while he picked himself back up, all to the growing mocking laughter and mutters to the freshly made officers around him, whilst others of them cleared off to told the others to knock it off.

Was this what it was always like for Hunters? Did the cops always treat Hunters like this? He didn't know. Surely not. From what'd he'd heard and seen about Hunters throughout all of his life, as well as at his time at Beacon, is that they were supposed to be beloved warriors and protectors, the best of the best and respected by all and all that, and yet here, these people seemed to treat him with nothing short of contempt. Was it because he was a Hunter, or something else entirely? Again, he didn't know. He'd have to ask Winter about this.

He found himself broken out of his thoughts as he stopped in place, paused, and looked up to a worn sign atop a door.

It read 'Forensics'.

He stayed paused, and thought back to earlier in the day, how Harriet had mentioned something about murders. She had said not to worry about it, that it wasn't his problem, and to let the authorities worry about it.

Well, she had said that... But... Well, he was a Huntsman, wasn't he? He was a Hunter in training?

It was his job to help out.

His feet carried him into the forensics room, the door closing behind him as he found that, contrast to the rest of the police station, the room was surprisingly empty. It was dark, with scattered notes and tools here and there across the desks, with a few of the monitors flicked on with white and blue screens. The entire room looked like it was in poor quality, with dust staining the monitors and sticky notes fallen to the ground.

There was a single person in the room, a young man with chestnut hair and glasses, sitting by a lit monitor, going over footage from what looked like a security camera, before closing a folder on his desk, and then realising that there was someone in the room, and looking behind him to see Jaune standing near the closed door, and going, "Er, hey... Who're you?"

"Oh, I'm Jaune. Jaune Arc", he paused and put his hands to his armoured sides, "I'm a Hunter in training. I just- I just came in with an instructor. To shadow police investigations, and all that."

"Ah, I see", the officer at the monitor went, before turning back to the monitor and saying, "What'd you doing in here, then? This ain't a place for a Hunter."

"Er, well, I heard about- About murders, earlier", the officer looked to Jaune as he continued, "I heard that there'd been murders, and I just wanted to know what was going on with that", he paused, and then went, "I just wanted to see if I could help."

The officer paused, and looked back at him, "Sorry, but, this is an official police investigation, and it's pretty much case closed by now, and, well, you're a Hunter, you've got no jurisdiction in this. Sorry."

"Really, because from what I've heard, Hunters are sometimes brought into investigations as, well, investigators to help out?"

"Well, like you said, you're a Hunter in training, not an actual Huntsman. You don't have the license to do anything, anyways."

"Yeah, well... Well, yeah, you're right, I'm still learning", Jaune went, finding himself as he then added on, "I'm still learning on how to be a team leader. In fact, the other team leaders and I were selected by the council in order to judge our own judgement and analytical skills, something which I will be learning about when I am on the field and shadowing more experienced Hunters, and what not?"

"Is there a point to this?"

"Yep."

"Get to it, or get out."

"Oh, er, right then. Well, there are gonna be times where I can ask questions, isn't there? But it's also limited, isn't it? I won't be able to ask any questions or learn anything about police investigations because I'll only be able to observe them, and not take part in them and massage my analytical skills, and I won't be able to do anything about it because the Hunter that I am with and I aren't part of that police operation, so how will I be able to be properly judged on my abilities as a leader by the big men upstairs if I'm never given the chance to do so?"

The officer with the glasses looked at him with a questioning gaze, and then asked, "What're you getting at, kid?"

"I'm just asking, give me a chance", Jaune went as he took off his helmet, the glowing blue in the visor fading away as he slung it under his arm, looked at the officer and went, "One chance, please. I want to help out. Really, I do. I don't like it when there are people dying and suffering and whatnot and I'm not able to do anything about it. Just, one chance. One chance, then if I'm not good enough. I'll leave. You can kick me out, and write me up, or whatever", he held up a single finger, "One chance, please."

The officer looked at him with an amused look on his face, and then went, "Alright then kid, you want one chance? Here it is", he pointed to the monitor, "See this?"

Jaune walked up to the monitor and squinted his eyes, "The monitor?"

"Yeah, the monitor", the officer went as he tapped a series of keys onto the computer terminal, and brought the video back to its start, "Here's the video of the murder. I'll show it, you take from it what you will, understood?" Jaune nodded, "Alright then, here you are."

He played the video for Jaune, the Hunter in training placing his helmet on the desk near him, facing it away from the monitor, and then letting his eyes scan over the moving image, as the video, with no audio, showed a 45 degree angle of 3 people- 2 Faunus, both male, and 1 insect like Techion- Gathering around an opening in a foliage of trees and bushes, with them seemingly arguing over something, and the Techion opening up a bag to them, presenting something within them that he couldn't completely make out.

Then, the barrel of a gun poked out from a bush, and with a blue muzzle flash each, 2 shots rang out from the gun barrel, both of them passing through the Techion, first shot through the head, the second through his chest, forcing him to the ground and killing him instantly. Jaune thought that he wouldn't blanched at this, but he remained still. He supposed there was a difference to seeing death on a screen than to seeing death in person.

Then, another blue muzzle flash, and the screen turned to static. Whoever had killed the Techion had shot out the camera, ending the video.

Jaune paused, and then, at the nonverbal urging of the officer, asked, "Where the other 2 killed in the same way?"

"The Faunus? Yeah, they were."

"Hm", he went, rubbing his chin, "Well, I couldn't tell what was in the bag that the Techion one was holding, but it looked like there were 3 things in them, and it seemed to be important to them, since they were arguing over it. This was on the other side of the wall, wasn't it?" the officer nodded, "Well, Atlesian military forces are currently in Vale right now, peacekeeping guard while Vale rebuilds, but we all know of Atlas'... Less than favourable reputation when it comes to treatment of Faunus, as well as the currently unstable political, military, and social climate of Vale due to the Grimm attack, so I'm going to wager a bet and say that these guys were carrying something to help them leave Vale. Perhaps they couldn't do it legally, and there wasn't a good place in Vale for them to gather in, hence why they were meeting outside of the walls. So, they were either meeting out there to begin a hike through Vale- Which isn't very likely considering the recently reporting dangers in the Valerian wilderness and the still lingering threat of any more Grimm attacks- Or they were meeting outside the walls, before heading back in so that they could find a car or a ship or a tunnel out of Vale and to wherever there was they could reach, perhaps Vacuo, or somewhere else", Jaune paused, putting his hand down from his chin and leaning against the desk, "Or, they could be making new identities for themselves with whatever was in that bag, and not leaving Vale at all, but I'm not entirely sure about that one. I could be wrong."

The officer looked at him, bemused by his words. Had he been right? Had he been so far off from what had been confirmed as the truth that he might as well have been aiming for the moon? And missed? Horrifically? He didn't know, but he continued on regardless.

"Additionally, the gun that was used to kill the Techion: The muzzle flash was blue. I wouldn't say that that's unusual, seeing as how my guns have blue muzzle flashes when they shoot, but it is fairly common in Atlesian weaponry and firearms, though some of their airships have been known to fire red blasts instead of blue. And also, the way that the bullets passed through that Techion? They had to be armour piercing rounds. Normal rounds would just embed themselves within his armour, or just bounce right off then. Even if the armour was weak, it still would've had some stopping power, and the bullet still shouldn't have done as much damage as it did to him, so it must've been armour piercing. It's the only way that they could've passed through the armour that cleanly, and done that much damage."

The officer nodded, listening in to him as he continued.

"And not only that, but there was the execution style as well. Whoever it was that killed the Techion went for the double tap, one in the head, the other to the left of his chest, where his heart was. The other 2 died the same way, didn't they?"

"Er, well, almost. The snake Faunus had a round that went through his chest that missed his heart. He was angled in a twisted position, though. Forensic boys think that he must've twisted himself around to try and avoid the gunman, but was too slow."

"Ah, well, even so, whoever killed the Techion, and subsequently the 2 Faunus, knew what they were doing. They used one bullet for each shot, neither missed. He was conserving ammo. Same way for the others? One bullet, no more?" the officer nodded once more, "Well then, whoever it was has some sort of professional training, seeing as they were saving their ammo, and then going for the double tap. And then there's the reaction time. If you could please move back to when the Techion was shot, and also slow down the footage?"

The officer nodded, and did just that, rewinding the footage and slowing it down as the blue flash from the muzzle slowed down to a few frames per second, slowly flashing on and off, twice in a row, as the bullets passed through the Techion and slowly sprayed black and red ambrosia across the ground.

Jaune pointed to the screen as the second muzzle flash erupted from the gun barrel shortly after the first, and went, "See that? The quick changing time between targets as they fired? The amount of time between them changing targets from the head to the heart was barely a second. Now, for any other person, that wouldn't be possible, but that right there. That quick precision and timing, and quick fire rounds? Whoever was shooting those rounds off was fast. Hella fast, and that kinda timing can only come from professional training and experience. Not only that, but the precision. That first shot went right in the visor, right between the eyes, and then the next round went right through the heart, right in the middle of where the heart usually is. On point, exactly. And then there's the recoil, or rather, lack of it. Notice how the gun hardly moves at all when they're shooting. For this person to be able to switch from targets so quickly, and to be able to be so precise with their shots, they must have excellent control over the recoil. Either that, or the gun that they're using has hardly any recoil at all."

Jaune moved back, looking back to the officer, still sitting down and looking at the younger boy.

"Whoever killed these 3 must have some sort of professional training, and as such, must have a background in some armed force to have that kind of precision and control over their gun, and how they killed him. Not sure about a police officer, though, but possibly a member of the military, or even a Hunter, or at least something along those lines, and the blue muzzle flash and the usage of armour piercing rounds, that might narrow it down a bit, but probably not. However, like I said, whoever we're looking for is well trained, so not just some random thug or psycho with a 9mm."

Jaune then finally noticed the surprised look on the officer's face, and he then looked the other way, and rubbed the back of his head.

"Er, I mean, I think. Was... Was that good? Was that accurate? It was... Well, I mean, it was all that I could get from that footage, so, er… Yeah."

"...You got all of that..."

"Yeah..."

"From under a minute of footage..."

"...Was it accurate, at least?"

"Er, yeah. Yes, actually. That was... That was pretty spot on. A little more than that, actually."

"Oh, well, that... That's good."

"But anyways, that doesn't matter", the officer said as he looked to his watch, "Meeting time", he muttered, before he turned off the monitor and picked up the folder, getting up from his seat and taking the folder with him as he moved to the door, "Case is closed, now."

"What- Is it?" Jaune went, "You serious?"

"Yeah, I'm serious."

"Oh, well, I know forensics would've gotten more answers than I would've, but... It could've have been solved that quickly. When did these murders actually take place?"

"This morning, and we've placed the murders on the Grimm. The new ones."

"The ones in the Emerald Forest?"

"Were you there?" Jaune nodded, "I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's fine", Jaune waved it off, and repeated, "It's fine."

"Well, anyways, since you were down there, you should know that these new Grimm soldier types have been acting like scavengers, picking up any weapons and armour that they can find. We've had reports from all over Vale that the Grimm have been picking and pulling apart as much as they can across the kingdom and the Grimmlands. So, working, and accepted theory is that a Grimm with a scavenged gun wandered upon them and shot them."

"Huh?" Jaune stopped, and shook his head, "But that's- That's too convenient. That's too convenient of an answer. If it was a Grimm, then why did it shoot out the camera?"

"To hide it's presence, or it's allies, and move them into the tunnels under Vale, like during the fights at the city prison. Something like that, I assume", the officer went as he opened the door out of the forensics room, "And anyways, it doesn't matter."

"Wha- 3 people were murdered!"

"Yeah, and they were terrorists", at Jaune's sudden look of confusion, the officer continued, "All 3 of them were confirmed to be members of the White Wolves. That Faunus terrorist group. No one wants to waste precious resources looking into the deaths of people that deserved it, and even if it wasn't a Grimm that killed them, and was some trigger happy cop or soldier with a grudge, so what? They're terrorists, they got what was coming to them. I say we give that fucker a medal", the officer waved Jaune off, and left, "Later."

The officer closed the door behind him as he left, leaving Jaune alone in the dark room, surrounded by desks, stray paper, and blank monitors. With a hand on his chin, he began to think once more.

It couldn't just end like that. They couldn't just end an official police investigation like that. Not without any proper evidence to justify their ending conclusion?

Did they have that evidence? Had he just not seen the same conclusion or come to the same understanding as the official investigators had? This was an obvious conclusion, as he hadn't been part of the official investigation. He hadn't seen the same evidence as he had, so perhaps whatever they had found at the original crime scene was enough for them to reach their conclusion.

However, the way that the officer had dismissed him, and the case, and the murdered persons, and, well, anything at all, it seemed... It was very careless. Very lacklustre. Very much in wanting. He had just easily dismissed the deaths, and thereby dismissed the possibility of a murderer, well trained or not, running about, and had even, in a way, celebrated their deaths. Sure, if what he said was true, the 3 people who had been killed were White Wolves, terrorists, but still, if there was even a slim chance of a murderer roaming around Vale, then they had a responsibility, and a duty, to investigate and follow that lead until they had reached it's conclusion.

…

If the weapon was Atlesian, then... Well, it was a possibility, but perhaps there was a way to track Atlesian weapons when they were out on the field. Like back at Beacon, when one would take weapons out, they had to sign a report that said that they had rented one of them, and would mark them down when they returned them. Perhaps there was something like that for Atlas' weapons.

Winter was a member of the Atlesian military. She would know. Perhaps if he asked her, she could guide him to the armouries and look over the weapon lockers and look for any bullets and rifles or whatnot that were missing or had been taken out, and cross reference that with the guns that were currently out on the field, and try to find something that stood out amongst them, or something that didn't add up, like the armour piercing bullets, for instance.

"Arc!"

And speaking of which...

"Ah, Winter", Jaune went as he grabbed his helmet from the table near him and looked to the elder Schnee as she walked through the door to the forensic labs, putting his helmet back on as he then said, "Hey, I just had a thought. I was speaking to an officer earlier about a couple of murders that happened earlier today, and I have a feeling that whoever this murderer was had used Atlesian weaponry to kill those people, so I was just thinking-"

"Mr Arc, I distinctly remember telling you to come back to me immediately once you were done earlier, did I not?"

"Er, well, yeah, but I-"

"And yet, you disobeyed my orders, and decided to interfere into an official police investigation, which, might I add, is an immoral, and illegal act."

"W-Wait, I-"

"Mr Arc, please, give me one good reason why I shouldn't report to Headmaster Ozpin, or Miss Goodwitch, or any other one of my and our higherups about your inability to follow orders, and your willingness to butt into business that is not your own, illegally as well."

"Wait, no!" Jaune began to wave his hands around and began to panic, "No I didn't- I didn't butt in, I just- I asked! I asked about what was going on and the guy who was working on it gave me a chance to help out, and then I did! He showed me a camera recording and then just told me to point out what I could see and I did! But he just- He just told me that his investigation was over, but..."

"But what?"

"But I think he ended it too early", Jaune went on to explain, "These murders happened on, what? This morning? He just immediately dismissed it, and blamed it on the Grimm. I don't think he even put that much thought into it. He just- He didn't care. Not at all from what I could see."

"Why did you even want to join in this investigation in the first place?"

"Well, I just- I just wanted to help out", Jaune went, his arms sagging to the side as he then went, "There were people being killed, and the possibility of a murderer running about. I couldn't just- I can't just stand by and do nothing."

Winter just looked at him, and said, "Mr Arc, as much as we might like to, we cannot just interfere with a police investigation, even if we believe that it is flawed to begin with. We need official jurisdiction from the police force to be able to join in on an investigation, and even then, if the investigation is closed and solved, there's no point in trying to gain any jurisdiction to look into it. It's not a job that Hunters are trained or assigned to look into."

"But-"

"Arc, there's nothing that we can do about it. The investigation is closed, and it's not our place to try and intervene."

"Winter, we can't just-"

Another officer barged into the room, a panicked look on her face.

"Um, we need all hands on deck. The crowd outside are rioting."

* * *

_Yeah, suffice to say, me and Winter didn't exactly get along that well. Differing viewpoints, and all that. I mean, I'm sure that she's got tons of experience on her belt, and she's got all of her military protocols and drills and stuff, but we just didn't synch. We were too different, too mismatching._

_But we couldn't let that get in the way of our jobs. Or, well, her job, and my... Internship._

_Is an internship a job? Dunno, I'll look it up._

_Okay, so apparently it is. Good to know._

**Editing note: _Just... Get rid of all of this. It's needless information._**

_Anyways, we got outside, and found that, indeed, the crowd had gotten... Rowdy._

_And that's when the real fun began..._

* * *

"DOWN WITH THE DRAFT!"

"FUCK ATLAS!"

"WE'RE PEOPLE! NOT ANIMALS!"

"NO BETTER THAN THE GRIMM!"

"Get back!" one of the police officers, armed with an electric baton and a riot shield yelled as he pushed back one of the angry protesters back, screaming at them once more through the loud cacophony of screams and cries from the massive crowd of protesters that had gathered outside of the police station, holding picket signs and bats against the police officers holding batons and shields and tasers.

At the front of the entrance, Winter and Jaune, with Joanna, Elm, and May, stood by the entrance to the station, their weapons in hand as a show of... Force? Intimidation? Jaune didn't know, and this time, he asked, "Why are we here?"

"To make sure that this crowd doesn't get anymore riotous", Winter went, her sabre and hands at her sides, and not sparing a glance at him, looking down on the crowd with a still look upon her.

"Well, okay then, but isn't this a bit excessive?" Jaune asked again, "We're armed with guns, hammers, swords, and...", he looked to May and Joanna's weapons, "Weird mace spear things. Meanwhile the crowd's armed with picket signs and broken bottles. And even then, most Hunters have superpowers-"

"Semblances."

"-That, most of the time, break the fabric of reality and bend the laws of reality to their will. I'm just saying, aren't we packing a bit too much heat for this?"

"Perhaps, but as I said earlier, it isn't uncommon for Hunters to work with police in their operations, mostly to provide security for them. Helping to diffuse urban disturbances is among those instances. So, while bringing in Hunters to deal with a crowd of civilians is, to some, extreme and disproportionate, sometimes it is necessary in dealing with riots, and even then, the sight of fully armed Hunters looking over them, tends to lend a helping hand towards deescalating scenarios like these."

"So, intimidation, then?" Jaune said in a deadpan tone.

"Essentially, yes."

"That's stupid", Jaune went, holstering his ML-15A back onto his chest and crossing his arms together, "These guys aren't rioting, they're protesting. There's a sharp difference between a riot and a protest, and yet here we are, showing off our pew pews and blunt objects so that the one guy in the crowd who wants to start a fight doesn't throw a beer bottle or something."

"It's part of the job, kiddo", Elm spoke up, hefting her hammer over her shoulder, "Being a Huntsman or Huntress doesn't just mean fighting the Grimm, it also means protecting the innocent, and it's when people start to panic that they become a danger to themselves and others. Crowds like these are volatile, and all it takes is one idiot with a Molotov to start a panic. Then, before you know it, they're all scared and confused, and are trampling over and kicking the crap out of each other in the meantime. As much as I hate to say it, sometimes a little show of force goes a long way."

"Kid's got a point, though", Joanna then pointed out, "We can't just use force for every crowd that we come across. If we go into every situation with a loaded gun, then it's not exactly going to deescalate anything, is it? It would only make things worse. People get scared when you point a gun to their heads."

"People get scared either way", Elm said, "That's just the way that people work."

"So what, we just approach every problem with a weapon? Is that it?"

Elm looked at her, a slightly annoyed look on her face as she then spoke, "That's not what I meant and you know it."

"Then what did you mean?"

"I mean that not every situation can be diffused peacefully. Sometimes, regrettable as can be, we have to show a bit of force in order to-"

"What, get people to clam up and sit down? That's not peacekeeping, that's fear mongering, and it never works any of the time. What you're saying isn't ethical, it's tyrannical. Imperialist, even!"

"You know, I'm not trying to sound evil intentionally, y'know?"

"Yeah, but you are, though", May scoffed, and then muttered, "Head as big as your hammer, I see. And just as empty as well..."

"What was that?" Elm went in an aggravated tone as she glared down at the girl, hands massaging her hammer as May looked up to her with a confident glare, while Joanna got behind her and backed her up with her own challenging look to Elm.

Before Jaune could interject and ask as to what was going on, Winter stopped him and addressed the other Huntresses with them, "That's enough, you 3. You're Huntresses, not children, so act like it. The last thing we need is to act like immature brats in front of-"

"FUCK YOU, SCHNEE!"

A protester in the crowd threw an empty drink can over the police shields and at Winter. However, she, without even looking, just extended her hand out and caught it, then crushing it, "In front of a crowd of civilians who look up to us...", she finished off.

A few seconds later, the cries of the crowd grew louder, as the protesters began to shout and scream out expletives and profanity at Winter, or rather, about her.

"FUCK THE SCHNEES!"

"GET THEM OUT OF OUR KINGDOM!"

"I LOST MY JOB BECAUSE OF THEM!"

Jaune paused at all of this, unsure as to why Winter was receiving sure bile against her. He had only recently heard of the Schnee Dust Company, since Jewel had it's own dust mine supplying them, so he didn't know what it was about this company that got them such hatred, or what Winter had done to received part of that, since he'd only met her today. He'd have to look it up later on.

Then, something amongst the cries of the protesters made his eyes widened.

"MY MOTHER DIED IN THEIR MINES!"

…

Died?

Jaune looked up to Winter, a worried look on his face underneath his helmet, "Winter... That woman... She said that her mother... Died, in... In your mines?"

Winter's own eyes widened, and she looked away, and it was Joanna who spoke up this time, "Let's just say kid, that her dad isn't exactly the most ethical businessman out there."

Elm rounded back on her, and a fresh wave of arguing amongst them, but still, Jaune had his eyes trained on the older Schnee next to him, herself still looking away.

Winter... What the hell did you do?

Then, as he turned his head and looked out around the crowd, something caught his eyes. The same police officer from the forensics room earlier, with the chestnut hair and glasses, the document in his hand, taking advantage of the distraction from the rest of the Hunters and the crowd, and going around the corner of the police station, and then down an alleyway.

"You see that?" Jaune asked Winter, who now turned to him with a questioning look.

"Did I see what?"

"That officer from before... The one I spoke too... He just... He went down that alleyway..."

Jaune, not sparing a glance towards Winter, moved past the 3 still arguing Huntresses, and began to march towards the alleyway next to the police station. Winter, marching past the other Huntresses as well, firmly placed her hand on his shoulder and stopped him, "What are you doing?"

"That guy had a folder in his hand. I think it was the same document about the murders that he had earlier, and I don't think he's going to be putting it in a safe place anytime soon", Jaune replied, "I know it's off mission, or whatever, but... I just got a feeling, that's all."

Winter looked away for a second, before looking back at him, "Fine, but stick by me, okay?" Jaune nodded, and they both quickly and quietly walked to the side of the police station, slowly looking over the stone corner, and down the dark alleyway.

In the alleyway, 2 figures were seen. One of them was the police officer, handing off the folder, with a wad of lien in his other hand.

The second figure was a bat Faunus in a black, grey and gold uniform, with grey eyes and brown spiked hair and a goatee, taking the folder into his hand with a satisfied smile on his face. His chest was undone to reveal a blood red tattoo of a wolf's head over 3 claw marks.

"Wolf...", Winter quietly snarled.

"Got it", Jaune nodded as he pulled out one of his pistols and jumped out into the opening, "Hands on your heads!" he yelled as he drew a second pistol, aiming it at both of them.

The police officer and the White Wolf then spun around and saw him, "Ah shit", went the bat Faunus, before shoving the police officer down in front of him and then using the downed man as a springboard to-

"AUGH!" the now confirmed to be corrupt police officer painfully cried out.

-Jump up into the air and spread his wings, the animalistic appendages flapping in the air as he then began to fly upwards, chuckling to himself as he looked back down at them, as if mocking them. Probably mocking them indeed.

And then, a black glyph in the shape of a snowflake appeared over him. He didn't see it until he had slammed into it, comically crumpling up and beginning his descent back down.

He wasn't so mocking anymore.

Jaune looked back to Winter, to see her pointing her sabre up at the Faunus, a small black glyph appearing around it before fading away. The Hunter in training then turned his attention back to the White Wolf up in the air, as he regained control of himself and snarled, before diving down and flying right through the alleyway, right towards the 2, with a razor bladed dagger now in his free hand.

Winter was able to quickly summersault over the flying Faunus, slicing her sabre at one of his wings and cutting at the thin skin, but Jaune hadn't moved out of the way, electing to stand in the middle of the alleyway, holster his pistols, and catch the White Wolf with his bare hands, his fingers catching and wrapping around the White Wolf's arms as he flew forward and drove his daggers down, halting him and forcing him to skid backwards from the momentum, but otherwise still standing.

"So", Jaune went through a strained voice, "I'm gonna go ahead and assume that you're a bag guy, right?"

"Matter of perspective", the White Wolf grunted out, "Shame you won't get to think about it", before twisting himself around in the air and smashing Jaune into the wall, his aura and armour taking the brunt of the blow, but said aura weakening enough for the White Wolf to embed his dagger in his chest.

Where his heart was located.

Thankfully, the extra padding of black metal that he had attached to the left of his chest helped to stop the dagger from piercing through him and killing him, and he used this to grab the White Wolf's arm and pull him forward, sending a haymaker into his face and staggering him back, the Faunus ripping his knife out of his armour and allowing Jaune to quickly recover and pull out his Crocea Mors, parrying a blow from the White Wolf's knife, and allowing Winter to get back at him and slash him across his back.

Or at least, she tried to, but was stopped by the corrupt officer on the ground unloading 3 rounds into her back, her aura taking the blow but waning down, herself then turning around and deflecting another bullet with her sabre, and then casting another glyph that forced the officer back and pinned him to the wall.

The White Wolf noticed this, and moved to take a stab at her, but Jaune stopped this by slamming the hilt of his blade into his throat, and then taking another swing at him, the White Wolf recovering almost immediately and jumping back, before spreading his wings once more, "Fuck this!" and then flying down the alleyway, towards the entrance to the streets.

At the end of the alleyway, Elm poked her head around the corner, "Winter, we heard gunshots, what's-" the White Wolf didn't let her finish as he slammed into her, knocking her down in surprise and beginning his ascent into the air.

"I'm on him!" Jaune yelled out as he sheathed his blade and pulled his ML-15LE Wire Rifle from his back, pulling the safety off as he ran to the entrance out of the alleyway, into the street. Winter had yelled at him to wait, but Jaune hadn't heard, running out across the street, and switching his long rifle to its stun setting, before aiming it up and firing several blue bolts of electricity at the Faunus, himself weaving around these bolts as he flew away through the air, "Dammit!" he cursed out, flipping a switch on his rifle and letting it quickly cool off, recharging the batteries and allowing him to aim up once more.

Then, a hand grabbed at his arm.

And then another.

Then another.

Then a dozen more.

The mob from before had jumped him, trying to pin him to the ground, though Jaune was able to keep himself up, surprisingly, having to crouch down a little to crouch down, and commanding his aura to support and strengthen his limbs.

"There he is!" one of the protesters, a woman with brownish orange hair and deer antlers called out as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a chokehold, "Here's the motherfucker that was trying to shoot that guy!"

"ACK!" Jaune choked out as he dropped his Wire Rifle and clawed at her arms, "Let- Let go of me!"

One of her arms left his neck. At first, he hoped that she was complying, but then she whipped off his helmet, "He's a fucking human!" and slammed him in the head with it, tossing it to the side and smashing his head into the ground, chipping one of his teeth and drawing blood from his nose and mouth.

The woman lifted him back up, but before he could get a word out, he saw another one of the protesters, a Faunus man with glasses and floppy dog ears on the sides of his head, pick up his Wire Rifle like a bat, and slammed it into his face, "Racist motherfucker!" the man yelled out as he felt more hands claw at him, pulling at his armour and stealing his guns away.

"Wait, I'm not-" another swing from his own rifle impacted with the side of his head, cracking against his jaw and drawing a line of blood. Nearby, he could hear the crowds clawing at the other Huntresses that had been with him, the Hunters themselves unable to do anything in fear of injuring them.

"You see this?" the White Wolf up above called out, a wry smile on his face as his wings floated him above the crowd, and his words encouraged them along, "This is what humans do: They shoot us with impunity, and arrest us for crimes that we have no part in. They treat our kind like dirt, but we're better than them. We're better than all of them."

"Hate to burst your bubble, dude", Jaune loudly grunted out from his chokehold, "But you're the one buying police documents from a corrupt officer!" a punch to the face from the woman holding him shut him up, however.

"Eh, all in the past, kid", the White Wolf went as he waved the folder still in his hand, and then floated down a smudge, "See you around", and then soared down another alleyway.

The man above him, the one with the floppy ears on his sides, lowered the Wire Rifle in his hands, however, having been looking up at the flying member of the White Wolves, and presumably having seen the document in his hand, looked to his compatriot that was still holding Jaune in a chokehold, and went, "Deery, did he- Did he just say that he-"

"Who gives a shit, Perry?!" 'Deery' called out, "Just help me hold down this asshole until-"

"Sorry about this."

Deery looked down to Jaune, "Sorry about wha- AUGH!" she called out as he flipped himself around onto his back, prying himself free of the hands that'd been holding him down, and allowing his momentum to shove the deer antlered girl to the ground and-

"Yoink!"

-Grab his Crocea Mors off of the person who had taken it, slipping out of any of his armour that was still being held by people, grabbing his collapsed electrostaff off of the ground, and quickly pulling his Wire Rifle out of 'Perry's' loose grip.

"I'm sorry!" Jaune called back to the crowd (Realising how much he had been picking up from Pyrrha), and then shot off down the alleyway, clicking the stun back onto his Wire Rifle, before-

2 shots from his own gun that Deery had stolen from him, one of his ML-17 heavy pistols, handed on the back of his legs, forcing him down. Luckily, he'd already set most of his guns to their stun settings, and he was already pushing his aura around his body to cope with the lack of muscle mass and the weight and strength that he had lost from the Emerald Forest and being in a coma for a week, so it wasn't really a hindrance as much as it was an annoyance.

"I got him, I got him!" he heard Deery cheer as he forced himself back up, running back down the street and towards the alleyway, Wire Rifle in hand, "What're you waiting for, let's get after him!" he heard her yell out.

"Deery, calm down!" Perry called out, "We need to-"

"Shut the fuck up, Perry, you fucking hypocrite! I saw how much you liked beating the crap out of that human, so don't start preaching to me about-"

A loud, guttural scream cut them off, emanating from within the alleyway that that White Wolf had flown down. Jaune's feet picked up the pace, and behind him, he could hear the crowd behind him begin to speed up as well.

 _Dammit_ , he thought to himself, _Did I just let him hurt a person?_

He wheeled around the alleyway and pointed his rifle down the side.

_Did my stupidity allow him to take an innocent's..._

_..._

_Life..._

The White Wolf was standing over a person, his face frozen, not panicked, but shocked.

This person was leaning back against a red sprayed dumpster. A short, young woman with pale blue eyes and hair, with grey veins covering parts of her body that'd been exposed. She wore the same zipper as the White Wolf above her, with the zipper opened up as well, revealing the blood red symbol of the White Wolves to the world.

This woman was dead.

Her chest had been opened up, a wide puncture wound where her heart should be. Her head had been cracked open as well, right in the bridge of her nose, reducing her eyes to mush and caving in her skull. Blood and bits were spread across the dumpster and ground, and her mouth was wide open, as if she had been screaming. Or at least, trying to scream.

The same M.O. as the one who had killed the other 3 Wolves this morning.

Jaune quivered and almost dropped his rifle, resisting the urge to vomit. He hadn't noticed the crowd behind him that'd gathered until he had stepped back and bumped into them.

_Did... Did this guy kill her... Couldn't have, he doesn't have a gun on him... The same guy from before must've... Oh, god, do they think I killed her?_

The White Wolf then noticed them, "Fuck this!" and jumped up once more, spreading his wings and flying straight up, dropping the folder in his hands and letting it fall to the floor.

"Hey, wait!" Jaune called out, but was stopped by the crowd grabbing and holding him back once more, _Oh, so they do think I killed her_ , "I didn't-"

He was stopped by the blue flash of a tracer round flying through the air.

Right through the White Wolf's chest, where his heart should be.

Blood and gore violently sprayed out of the man's chest, impacting and coating the wall next to him, and raining down on the ground below. The man began to fall to the ground, and Jaune was able to free himself from the grip of the protesters that'd been holding him, in order to run up and extend his arms out.

The man fell into his arms, and Jaune was forced to kneel down and try to sit him upright, not sure of what to do, except call out, "Somebody call for an ambulance!"

"Hey, get away from him!" Deery called out and rushed forward.

"Deery, don't do anything stupid!" Perry yelled and followed her forward to Jaune and the man in his arms.

"Hey", Jaune said to the man, the life fading from his eyes as he kept both hands on either side of the hole in his chest, trying in vain to keep the blood in, "Don't you worry, buddy, we're gonna get you all patched up and-"

Another blue tracer round spun through the air.

It impacted with the centre of the man's head, splitting it open, caving the bone and gore into it, and spraying blood all over Jaune and the 2 people behind him.

Jaune screamed, Perry and Deery screamed, the crowd behind them screamed, and the White Wolf's body crumpled and folded back onto the floor.

* * *

_The crowd had dispersed shortly afterwards, out of panic, or just not wanting to be arrested, though a few people had been kept behind for interrogation and pending assault and vandalism charges. Luckily they had dropped my helmet and armour, since they probably couldn't find any use for them, and later on, I would be able to replace my stolen guns, so thanks to that, I wasn't really inhibited that much._

_Save for the fact that I had just seen a man murdered right in front of me, and I couldn't do anything about it._

_The tags on the 2 people's bodies revealed the man to be one Yuma Landis, and his supposed accomplice to be Trifa Fajardo. Low ranking members of the House of the White Wolves, and especially the inner faction, the Acolytes of the Ascended (The name is more ominous now than ever, it would seem)._

_And now, another pair of body bags to ship to the morgue._

* * *

Leaning over an empty rubbish bin, Jaune finished vomiting up the last of his stomach contents, and thanked the officer next to him for giving him a bottle of water and a wet cloth, squirting the water into his mouth and swashing it around, before spitting it out into the bin and wiping his mouth and face dry of bile and blood, "Thanks", he said again, as the officer nodded and walked off.

After finishing up with the cloth, he threw it into the bin and put the lid on it once more, before leaning himself against the wall and putting the last part of his arm's armour back on, clamping the shoulder guard back into place, and then looking down at the 2 people sitting down, another officer leaning over them.

"Hey...", he waved to Perry and Deery, the 2 of them looking up to him with vacant eyes, both of them still covered in the splatters of the man's- Yuma Landis'- Blood.

They were silent when they looked at him, mouths open slightly, still sucking in air as they shivered, and then looked back down at the floor. Deery held Jaune's helmet in her hands, clutching onto it for dear life. Perry had just balled up.

"...", Jaune didn't say anything either for a while, trying to find his words, before getting off of the wall, letting his arms swing limply to his sides, and going, "...I know you think that I killed them...", it wasn't an accusation, nor was it the beginning of a threat, "And, yeah, I- You've got a right to think that I do."

This got the 2 of them to look up at him again, questioning gazes on them.

"I mean, well... I didn't kill them. I know that you think I do, but I didn't...", he paused again, looking to the side and trying to find his words again, but coming up short, "I was trying to arrest him, not shoot him. I mean, well, he was buying police documents. I said that to him, and he didn't deny it. For god's sake, we arrest people for that, not kill them...", he tweezed the bridge of his nose and rubbed his eyes, "I... Yeah, that's... That's all that I've got in the tank... I'm sorry..."

Deery and Perry looked at him a little while longer, and then looked down once more, "...What about your friends?" Deery finally said, a hint of distain in her voice, "Did they kill him?"

Perry looked like he was going to say something, as well as the officer above him, but Jaune waved the officer off, "I don't know. I don't know who it was."

"He was a Wolf", Deery said, "Wolves've got a lot of enemies", she then, slowly and with a shaking hand, pointed a finger to the congregation of Hunters near them, "And you've got a hell of a lot of suspects."

Jaune didn't say anything for a few moments, looking around to the Hunters, some of whom were arguing about something, then to Winter and Ironwood talking to the new police chief Nathen Raymond next to the newly placed bodies of Trifa and Yuma, and then to the officers looking over the few protestors that they had arrested, and then to the few congregations of officers and Atlesian military personal walking about, a few of them giving each other glares while random civilians stood by the sides, some of them recording the event on their scrolls, the others just looking and talking to each other.

"...Unfortunately, you may be right."

"You wanna press charges on them?" the officer standing behind and above Deery and Perry asked, which got the 2 of them to freeze up once more, "They did punch you, didn't they?"

Jaune paused, and then said, "No, let them go, they didn't do anything wrong."

"You serious?" it took him a second to realise that it was Perry who had said that.

A shrug was his response, "Bygones be bygones, and all that", Perry and Deery looked to each other, with Deery giving a shrug in response, and they then got up, before Jaune asked, "Er, hey... Could I have my helmet back, by the way?"

"Huh?" Deery went, before looking down, and remembering that she still had his helmet in his hands, "Oh, right!" and then handed it back to him, "Here you, er, here you go."

"Ah, thanks", Jaune went as he carefully took his helmet from her hands, and looked over the white and gold paint over the metal, before looking up to the retreating forms of Perry and Deery and calling out, "Hey, and er… Just be safe, okay?" the 2 of them looked at him again, "Just... Just stay safe. Hunter's orders."

Perry and Deery exchanged glances, before nodding to him, and without another word said, they walked off, still shaking and nervous as they weaved in between the small gatherings of people around and across the street, and then disappearing around the corner to parts unknown.

Well, to Jaune, at least.

"You let them go."

Jaune turned to the officer, "Yeah?"

"Why? If it was me that they'd punched, I'd be taking them straight to court. Be going after bank details and everything."

Jaune shrugged again, "I just think it's a silly thing to hold a grudge over."

The officer just looked at him, and then walked off, "You are too nice for your own good."

Jaune paused, looking at the retreating back of the officer, and muttered to himself, "I'm gonna take that as a compliment", before looking forwards to Winter and Ironwood and Raymond, and walking towards them, a stride in his step as he unconsciously kept a hold of his Crocea Mors.

"You okay there, kid?" Jaune flipped around, hands grasping at his sheathed sword's handle, before calming down and seeing that it was only Harriet Bree, who jokingly raised her hands to surrender and said, "Relax, I'm friendly", before lowering them, and going, "But seriously though, you okay? I heard from one of the officers that you were there when those 2 Wolves over there were killed."

"Er, y-yeah", Jaune went, looking down to the side and letting his hand let go of his sword, "Sorry, I just- I'm fine. Just a bit jittery, is all", he paused, before going, "Thanks."

Harriet raised an eyebrow, "For what?"

"For, er, for asking", Jaune rubbed the back of his neck, "And for helping out earlier."

"Earli- Oh, you mean at the airfield. The barracks, I mean", Jaune nodded in response, "Ah, s'no problem, least that I could do."

"Right", Jaune went, before gesturing to the gathering that he was going to, and saying, "Yeah, I'm... I gotta go-"

"I take it you wished to speak to us, Mister Arc", the 2 of them looked forward to see that General Ironwood looking at them, as well as Winter and Raymond, the former giving Jaune a cautious look.

"Oh, sir!" Harriet said with a salute.

"Oh, er, hi- I mean, hello sir", Jaune went, giving an awkward salute in response, before sparing a quick glance to the 2 bodies that'd been laid out on stretchers nearby, and going, "I, er, I wanted to talk to you, about the, er, the case", Ironwood gave him a look to continue, "Er, the murder cases, sir. It's obvious now that whoever's killed these guys and the people earlier are the same people, so-"

"How do you know?" Jaune looked at Ironwood in confusion, "How do you know about the murders earlier?"

"Oh, er, I just- I asked", Ironwood raised an eyebrow at this, "When I was passing the forensics, I just- I popped in, and I asked for a chance to help out, and the guy there gave me a chance-"

"I take it that you are referring to the same man who tired to sell the report of that case for money?" Ironwood asked, gesturing his head to that same corrupt officer who was being carted away by 2 Atlesians, ranting on about needing to put bread on the table and paying for his wife's healthcare.

Jaune felt sorry for him on the mention of that, but pushed it to the back of his mind as he then nodded to Ironwood.

"Mister Arc", Ironwood began, "You cannot just impede and interrupt a police investigation, no matter what your intentions."

"I-I know, but he just- He let me in."

"And it's clear now that he allowed you to join in the short time that he did because he was corrupt, and had no proper respect for the law."

"I've already informed him of why he shouldn't interfere with these investigations, sir", Winter told him, before saying to Jaune, "I do hope you are not trying to suggest what I think you are."

"Hey, cut the kid some slack", Raymond went, "Just want's to help, and all", Jaune nervously rubbed his armoured arm, and Raymond continued with, "Anyways, I'm gonna need to have that entire investigation redone, since it's clear now that there's good enough evidence to prove that there was too much wrong with it to-"

"I wanna help", the 3 of them, as well as Harriet looked to Jaune, who then repeated himself, "I want to help with the second investigation."

"Not happening", Winter said, "We haven't got jurisdiction."

"Unless we seek permission to intervene, yes", Jaune went, before gesturing to Raymond and going, "But we have the police chief right here, so we can just-"

"Can't happen, kid", Raymond waved his hand, "You're not an official Hunter yet, and your handler is an Atlesian official, and that's a whole 'nother can of political worms. If the council finds out that an Atlesian military person is taking part in a Valerian investigation, then they'll view that as a breach of sovereignty."

"Yeah, but I'm a student of Beacon", Jaune argued, "Which makes me a Valerian citizen by default, meaning that it won't be a breach of Valerian privacy or whatever if I'm in the investigation, and before you say it, the council gave the rest of the first year team leaders and I these internships that we're in in order for us to learn from professional Hunters and assess us based on our skills in analytics and judgement, and as such, if Winter- My current handler- And I are placed in the murder investigation, then it won't be a breach of sovereignty, as much as it will be simply Winter doing her job and showing me how to be a good team leader, and to help me exercise my skills."

Raymond paused, musing over his words, and it was Winter who asked this time, "Why do you wish to take part in this murder investigation, Arc?"

"Because a man has died because I couldn't do anything about it", Jaune pointed down to the body of Yuma, noticing a sliver of light coming from the zipper, but continuing on, "A man was murdered, and so was his friend. I was holding him in my arms, and I couldn't do anything but watch as he was shot in the goddamn head. If the guy who murdered them both, as well as the 3 people over the walls earlier, then I want to find him, and put him behind bars. Not because it would be satisfying, but because I, as a Hunter, regardless of training, have a basic duty to do so, and a debt to pay for the death", he paused, and folded his arms together, "That's all."

Raymond paused, as did Winter, as did Ironwood. Next to them, Harriet looked to the left, and rubbed her sides.

"...Okay."

"Okay, why are you so... I'm sorry?"

"Okay, I'll let you into the investigation", Raymond went, "We need all hands on deck anyways."

Winter gave him a look, "You can't be-"

"Miss Schnee, from what I've seen so far since former Chief Warren's death, it is that the police force, in it's current state, is unreliable", Raymond interjected, "And is in need of a serious reform. The conscription law by now has been good at filling gaps, but the cement used to do so is poor. If this kid has got the spunk in him that we need, then by all means. Plus, it'll be a good way to foster cooperation between the police force and Hunters, if we can both see how we can compliment the other."

"As well as between Valerians and Atlesians", Ironwood finally added in, "I can see your logic", he then turned to Winter, and went, "Specialist Schnee, Mister Arc, go with Chief Raymond, he'll provide you with temporary police identifications. I'll inform Ozpin of the change in plans."

Winter looked up at him, "But-"

"Is there a problem, Specialist Schnee?"

Winter looked down, and went, "With all due respect, sir, this is going against protocol. The last time this happened...", she stopped, going quiet.

"I know, Winter", Jaune raised an eyebrow at this as Ironwood placed a hand on her shoulder, "But sometimes, desperate times calls for desperate measures, and Chief Raymond's points stand", Ironwood stepped to the side, and then looked to Jaune, "I hope that you catch the man who has killed these people, Mister Arc."

"Heh", Jaune went, giving a quick salute to the General, "So do I, sir", he dropped his salute, and nodded to Ironwood, "Thanks."

Ironwood nodded to him as well, and began to depart, "If you need me, Winter, let me know. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of paperwork to get through, and other criminals to catch", and then walked off towards a pair of Atlesian soldiers in full body armour.

"Well then", Jaune went, muttering to himself that that went well, before he looked down at the body of Yuma, queasily looking over the cold body of the White Wolf, and then noticing once more the shining glimmer in Yuma's zipper, "Let's get to work then."

"Indeed", Winter said with a... Not an angry look, but a concerned one, crossing her arms together and going, "Alright then, you wanted to be in this investigation, you've got it. So, let's test your 'Analytical and judgement skills', then. Do you have a theory on where to start?"

Jaune felt his eye twitch at the judging tone within Winter's voice, but thankfully his helmet hid it, before he then said, "As a matter of fact, I've got a theory in my head", he knelt down to Yuma's body, "But first", he gestured to Harriet, "Er, Harriet, could you get me a pair of tweezers and an evidence bag for me, please?"

"I got some", Chief Raymond went as he opened up a pocket on his vest, and pulled them out, "It's a requirement for the job. I think I finally see why, now."

"Thanks, Chief", Jaune went as he took the bag an tweezers, and then, with the tweezers, picked the glimmering object out of the zipper on Yuma's vest, and carefully placed it within the evidence bag, revealing it to be a glistening shard of... Something, "Now, what'd you reckon this is?"

"Glass", Harriet said, "It's glass, or plastic, or something."

"It's definitely glass", Winter said, "You can tell by the reflection of the light and the angles of the cuts", she paused, leaning over to look at it, "Coloured red, it would seem", she paused, and tapped her chin, "No, maroon coloured, I apologise."

"Not a problem", Jaune went, giving the bag and the maroon coloured glass shard within a look over, and then went, "Chief, do you know anywhere which would have this specific shade of glass?"

"Well, there are a few places, if my memory serves correctly", was his response, before he smiled, and clicked his fingers, "But, I do recall seeing a break-in report 2 days ago, from Navi Heights", Jaune raised an eyebrow, "It's a rich people's home. An apartment complex for the wealthy and the mega-wealthy of Vale, all the way up in the upper class district, and, one of the few buildings in Vale to have rainbow coloured glass windows, including maroon."

Jaune raised an eyebrow at this, and tapped his helmet under his chin, "So one of the apartments was broken into, one which had maroon coloured glass. Who was the person who's apartment was broken into?"

"One Oliver Maxwell, a minor politician within the Valerian Council. This guy is Atlesian supporter through and through. Kept fighting Ironwood, of all people, and Ozpin on allowing his buddy Jacques Schnee-", he turned to Winter, "No offense- To begin allowing for SchneeFall security operatives to protect SDC owned and proxy owned dust stores in Vale, and to jack up the dust trade as well", he paused, and then mused, "I don't think Jacques has the same ideas as the man, but I'm pretty sure that Maxwell was thinking of running the proposed SchneeFall presence in Vale as his own protection racket or something, extorting dust stores that aren't SDC owned or partners and strong arming them into joining up with the SDC. I never had any proof on the matter, but it was always a theory."

"'Was'?"

"Well, 'Is', too, I suppose. He's not dead yet."

"So where is he?"

"In a private hospital in the upper district known as Sanctuary Spa. Pretty much a 5 star hotel, up there."

Winter seemed to be catching onto Jaune's theory, as her own question was, "And was he discriminatory to Faunus?"

"Oh yeah, through and through. He doesn't say it publicly, but I've heard rumours of the man going on tirades against them. All of the usual old Rights Revolution survivor."

"He fought in the Faunus Rights Revolution?" Jaune asked, getting a nod in return, "Well, I suppose that only cements my theory."

"What theory?" Harriet asked.

"It's only a theory for now, but if this guy really did fight in the Rights Revolution, and is going on these tirades against the Faunus, then it's safe to say that he was on the losing side of the Revolution, then he's feeling particularly resentful, and if he really is going off of the Faunus for losing, then that gives the House of the White Wolves enough excuse to stage an 'Intervention'."

He made the air quotes with his fingers for emphasis.

"So, the Wolves send a thug to break into Maxwell's apartment in Navi Heights to make a point. Bust him up, and land him in the hospital. But it doesn't make him afraid of the Faunus, rather it makes him angry, and gives him that push over the edge, giving all of his anger and hatred towards the Faunus a valid target. So, he hires someone- Could be a police officer, could be an Atlesian, could be a Hunter, could be anyone else- To begin knocking heads and executing White Wolves in retaliation. Now, if he just wanted to kill regular Faunus, then that would raise suspicion and concerns, because wherever the people like it or not, these Faunus are still regular citizens of Vale, but if the people being murdered are White Wolves, a very known terrorist cell, then who would lift a finger to stop him? Nobody, because the people being killed are terrorists, not your average Joe. Who knows, maybe soon, he'll own up to the murders, and if he plays it right, he'll be treated as a hero for it, wiping the scum from the city, and furthering his own political power, giving him more leverage in his own negotiations and deals on the council. After all, who would dare want to fight against the guy who helped wipe out the scum of Remnant and kept Vale safe in these troubling times?"

He then looked around, to the wide eyed stares of the 3 people surrounding him, and coughed into his hand (Well, into his helmet, but the point was still there).

"Well, it's just a possibility, at least."

"Well, it's better than nothing", Raymond said in response.

"Agreed", Winter interjected, "Your theory had solid ground, Arc", she then turned to Raymond, and went, "Chief Raymond, if you could please give Specialist Bree a search warrant, that would be most kind", and then turned to Harriet and said, "Specialist Bree, I will need you to go to Sanctuary Spa and question Councilman Maxwell on the break in at Navi Heights. Question him about and from every angle that you can think of, and try to get everything that you can out of him. Not 'As much', everything, understood?"

"Yes ma'am", Harriet saluted.

Winter then turned to Jaune, and went, "Arc, you're with me. Once we get our temporary badges, we'll retrieve a search warrant for ourselves and investigate Councilman Maxwell's apartment in Navi Heights."

"Roger that", Jaune saluted, "Time to go see what skeletons we can dig out of the old man's closet."

* * *

"What'd you suppose they wanted the documents for?"

Winter turned to Jaune as they parked their police cruiser in the car park to Navi Heights, and made their way to the entrance of the grand building that stood before them, coloured in gold and green and white and with a different coloured set of windows for each apartment, "Hm?"

"The White Wolves, I mean", Jaune elaborated, "What'd you think they wanted those police documents and reports for?"

"Well, one of the most logical assumptions would be that they were going to release them to the public", Winter replied, "Like the whistle blower reports from 2 weeks ago."

"Well, I guess that's a good point, but something like that isn't exactly going to drum up any support, is it?" Jaune questioned, "I mean, as much as they were people, they were also terrorists, working for a terrorist group. People aren't exactly going to feel sympathy when it's the bad guys being offed?"

"That is true, but it isn't illogical to think that they wouldn't change the reports before they released them", Winter answered with, "Editing software exists, Arc. It would make sense that they would change the report around to, let's say, remove the part about the murder victims being Wolves, or giving the murderer a face, and an identity."

"Ah, I see", Jaune went as they then found themselves at the door to Navi Heights, and then looked at the buzzer, "Well, might as well give them a buzz."

"Was that a pun?"

"Huh? Oh, er, not intentional-"

"Never do puns again", Winter said as she pressed on the buzzer, "I hate puns. I despise puns. I am actively in hate with puns."

"Er… Sorry?"

"Hmph, I should hope so."

She removed her finger from the buzzer, and on a holographic panel above it, the face of a red and blue Techion with a white helmet and blue faceplate, appeared on screen, the name 'Warden' scribbled onto his chest, _"This is Warden. Who is this?"_

"Huntress Winter Schnee and Hunter in training Jaune Arc", Winter spoke up as she flashed their search warrant at the holographic projection, "We have a search warrant for Councilman Maxwell's apartment, as part of an ongoing police investigation."

 _"Hunters?"_ Warden went, before sighing and going, _"Alright, c'mon in. Not sure what you're gonna find, though. Councilman Maxwell's apartment's been scrubbed clean."_

"What?" Jaune interjected, "Since when?"

 _"Since this morning"_ , Warden shrugged, _"Councilman Maxwell's orders. He called up earlier this morning and told the cleaning crew to clean every inch of his apartment. Replace the windows and everything. He's coming back tomorrow morning from Sanctuary Spa, and he wanted the place spotless for when he gets back."_

Jaune sighed in response as the doors in front of them opened up, and he turned to Winter and went, "Well, that makes our job a lot harder."

"Indeed it does."

And indeed it did, for when they got up to Maxwell's apartment, the entire place had been refurbished from top to bottom. The carpets had been freshly hoovered, the bed sheets had been changed, the walls had been repainted, the maroon windows had been replaced. The room smelt of new and freshly cleaned and Jaune and Winter, in this context, hated it.

"Great", Jaune went as he kicked nothing in particular, "There's nothing here. No smudges, no fingerprints, no stray pieces of glass, no nothing."

"Where to the rubbish bins go?" Winter asked Warden, who had accompanied them up to the apartment block, "I assume that there is some sort of rubbish collection point somewhere in this building?"

"You wanna fish something out of there?" Warden went, "Good luck, I guess, but we've got an automatic processing machine down in the basement which sorts out the complex's rubbish. It filters them from recyclable to unrecyclable, and then into a million different categories, where they're then shipped off to the rubbish and recycling plants. It'll take time to sort through all of that."

Winter sighed, and tweezed her nose, "Time is something that I do not believe we have."

Jaune, meanwhile, was looking around the room, trying to look for anything that was out of place in the slightest, before noticing that one of the draws in the small cupboard next to the bed was slightly open, and he pulled it fully open to see a worn pocket book in the middle of the draw.

Picking up the book, he then flipped it around in his hand, before looking over the title.

"'The Utopia Manifest'", he muttered, before looking at the details in the 3rd page of the book, and looking over them, "Written about... 60 years ago, so 10 years before the Rights Revolution... Well, isn't that flipping ominous..."

Then, Winter's scroll began to vibrate, and, beckoning Jaune's attention, she pulled it out and turned it on, "Specialist Bree."

 _"Ma'am"_ , Harriet saluted over the phone, _"You need to get over here."_

"What's up?" Jaune asked, "is there a problem?"

* * *

"Yeah..."

Harriet looked away from the scroll, to look at the bed next to her.

In the bed was Councilman Oliver Maxwell, lying dead in his own blood, a bullet having gone through his chest where the heart would be, another going through his head, covered by a blood stained, once white now red pillow.

"A real big problem..."

* * *

_6 people were dead. 5 of them were members of the House of the White Wolves, the other a politician who hated the White Wolves, and the Faunus. All of them killed in the same way, presumably by the same person. Those were the only links between the Wolves and the Maxwell, no other._

_Maxwell's apartment was a dead end, we got precisely nothing from that trip, and to top it all off..._

_Those wouldn't be the only bodies that we found that night._

_All we could do, at the time, was follow up on any lead that we could, and pray that we would, eventually, catch this psycho..._

**Editing note: _Yeah, wait a go, idiot, as if the murderer wasn't staring you in the face the entire time._**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we are, the beginning of the next arc of Ascendancy, CSI: Vale!
> 
> That's right, you wanted war time drama? Well get ready for the exact opposite: Political drama and murder mystery!
> 
> As stated above, the main inspiration for this arc was Transformers Punishment, one of my favourite oneshot comics from the Transformers 2005 IDW run. Another inspiration can be found in the Shadowplay arc of James Robert's MTMTE run, so go check them out. There are a lot of ideas there that are similar to the ones that I am doing here, so I will try and do those comics justice.
> 
> In case you couldn't tell, Pat Lie, the snake Faunus up above, is based off of Pat Lee, who is pretty infamous within the Transformers fandom. In case you were wondering why he was transplanted into a snake Faunus, have a read of his TFWiki page. That'll tell you all that you need to know.
> 
> Meanwhile, the design of the Techion by the name of Warden was based off of a generic Security Operations Autobot from issue 18 of the Transformers 2019 run of comics from IDW.
> 
> Anyways, that's where I will leave this off, so please, feel free to stick around and watch me try to juggle a cohesive story with issues of racism, discrimination, politics, police drama, murder, crimes, and the like for the rest of this arc.
> 
> And with all of that said and done, stay safe, good night, sleep tight, don't let the coronavirus bite (Remember to always wash your hands!), And I'll see you all next time.
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	17. CSI: Vale part 2: Filling In The Blanks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the killer strikes again, Jaune and Winter race to piece together everything that they can in order to stop them. But as suspicions and issues of trust arise, everything points to one place in Vale.
> 
> The place where his best friend is.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Arc Theme:** _[No Time To Die by Billie Eilish](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BboMpayJomw)  
_ **Theme:**[ _Skyfall by Adele_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeumyOzKqgI)

* * *

It is in the best interests of achieving a perfect utopia that the obstacles in the way of such a dream are, for obvious reasons, removed. These obstacles can vary, and can be attributed to any number of problems and situations, such as the Grimm, rebellious slaves, or the occasional Hunter or rogue army upstart.

However, the greatest obstacle that we may find on that path to Utopia, is the... Annoying penchant for Faunus, enslaved or not, to demand for emancipation. Freedom. These annoying displays of independence are what brought our society of old crashing down around us, and what lead us into a 50 year long war that almost destroyed the entirety of our world. It is these uncalled for showings of rebellion that brings about the instability of society, and is still destabilising our fragile way of life.

The usage of Brute Force Programming has helped to curb these thoughts of resistance amongst the more rebellious of the slave population of Remnant, but we must strive to do better, and to enforce harsher regulations onto our slaves.

Thankfully, the noble families and councils across Remnant have agreed to fund the Menagerie Project, where the Faunus and slave populations of Remnant will be taking away to undergo further Brute Force Programming by our allies and like minded officials, so that they may remove the very thought of rebellion from these rabid curs.

It is times like these where we are fearful of the prospect of the emancipation of our slaves, and the end of the slave trade itself, the greatest material trade in the world, but we must remember to keep our minds calm, and our emotions levelled, so that when we finally do begin the journey to Utopia, we will do so unimpeded by challenges, and possible challengers, that may try to impede our righteous path.

_**Extract from the Utopia Manifest, now written off as proslavery propaganda, and banned under the Rights Decree at the end of the Rights Revolution.** _

* * *

_"-In other news, a dust store, the Arm The Many, has reported a break and entry, carried out by the infamous Roman Torchwick, and the criminal group known as the Jack-O-Lanterns, numbering as the 9th dust robbery in the last 2 months that has been pinned on Torchwick and his associates, and the 15th dust store robbery in the last 2 months as well, where both money and dust have been extorted and stolen in vast quantities. While police and Atlesian officials are able to pin much of the robberies themselves on monetary gains, many of them are stumped as to the need for such vast quantities of dust to be taken as-"_

A flick of a finger, and the channel was changed.

_"-Is arranged to be marked as an annual time of mourning for the people of not only Vale, but all of Remnant. Remembrance Day, in memory of the Initiation Massacre and the beginning of the Second Great War, shall be-"_

Flick.

_"-Kingdom's Council's population augmentation and boosting programs led to an increase in inbreeding and institutionalised incest all across Remnant! The population of Remnant was severely depleted, yes, but that does not mean that we must sacrifice our morals for a completely unethical eugenics program where-"_

Flick.

_"-If the councils actually cared, then they should've granted the House of the White Wolves political party status years ago, and stopped them from becoming a terrorist organisation years ago! They had every single chance to end the threat of the White Wolves when they had the chance, and yet-"_

Flick.

_"-Why should you be judged based on the use of your semblance, or if you have aura? Why should you be defined because you can sense the weather, and not teleport?"_

_"That was Huntsman and Scholar Jackson Ingate, giving a lecture to a class of university students at the Ozmanian University in Vale, attacking semblism and aura-elitism, prior to his death above the Valerian plains 2 weeks ago-"_

Flick.

_"-Brotherhood of Two have condemned footage of what appears to be a group of first year Hunters in training at Beacon rescinding their faith in the Brother Gods-"_

"Hey, kid."

Ruby looked up from her scroll, to see Carmine Esclados looking down at her. Or looking down on her. Whichever one was more appropriate.

"Oh, er, s-sorry", Ruby went as she turned off her scroll, and pushed it back into her pocket, "It's just, with Mr Celadon in there, it-"

"Yeah, it gets boring", Carmine said as she leaned against the wall, tapping her feet against a small, shallow puddle and looked down both ends of the dark alleyway, before then saying, "But, we have to remain vigilant, and all that. A huntress, like you and me, has to always been on the clock, looking out for possible threats, regardless of where they are. So keep an eye out, this doesn't exactly look like a nice place to be."

Ruby looked around, leaning off of the wall and looking around the dark alleyway. Above them, the sun was almost set, and the sky was coloured a gradient from dark purplish black to dark blue, punctuated by stars, the little dots of light that were spread out like freckles on a face. She looked down both ends of the poorly lit alleyway, looking past the flickering lights and spotting the oddly coloured doors, the dirty and wet streets, the streaked walls, and the rusting dumpsters, both ways completely devoid of life, save for the birds overhead.

"Um, why did...", Ruby paused, tapping her fingers together as she then continued, ""Why did Mr Celadon-"

"Just call him Bertilak, sweetie, he really doesn't deserve the respect. Or the formality."

"Oh, er…", Ruby was unsure of how to respond to that, other than to continue with her previous question, "Well, why did, er, Bertilak, want to go to this place in the first place?"

Carmine shrugged, "Personal business, I think. I don't know-"

Ruby's instincts flared up-

_She's lying._

-But she didn't let it show.

"-But I'd rather not ask. He tends to get arsy about these kind of things."

As if on cue, the faded red door that stood next to them swung open, almost breaking in half as the angry Huntsman waded out, chain mace in hand as he heated up the air around him, angrily muttering to himself about something that Ruby couldn't make up, before he wheeled around and spotted her looking at him, "What?" he snarled out.

"Oh, er, n-nothing...", Ruby quiet stuttered, quailing under the elder Hunter's venomous gaze as she shuffled in place, "I just, erm… I was just wondering... Um..."

Bertilak just looked down at her, a scowl on his face.

"Bertilak", Carmine began, getting next to him and putting a hand on his green chest armour, "That's enough. You're scaring the poor girl."

The Huntsman just scoffed in return, and unsubtly asked, "Why the fuck do we have to get stuck with the damaged goods?"

Ruby looked up at him, eyes wide. The hair that covered her left eye fluttered in the sudden breeze, and the mass webbing of scars and red skin on the left side of her body began to itch, "W... What?"

"Bertilak!" Carmine shoved the Huntsman back, "Cool it, and shove off!"

"Why should I?"

"Because I said so, now go home and cool off", Carmine went with a spiteful tone, "I remember you saying that you had a meeting to prepare for, or something."

Bertilak's eyes widened for a second, seemingly having only just remembered whatever this meeting was, before spitting out, "Fine", and marching off, the air around him heating up and causing the puddles to steam, and the glass windows and bottles strewn around the place to glisten and curdle.

Carmine glared down the alleyway as Bertilak retreated around a corner. With a sigh, she rubbed her forehead and groaned in frustration, before looking to Ruby, who was standing still, looking down the alleyway with a surprised, almost scared look on her face, "Sorry about that, kid. Bertilak's the worse kind of idiot: The jerky kind. He's a bully, through and through", she removed her hand from her forehead as she then muttered, "Can't even remember why I hang out with that guy... Oh yeah, it's because he pays my bills..."

"...Damaged... Good..."

Carmine cocked her head as Ruby's eyes began to water.

"Am I... Really... Just..."

Carmine just put a hand on her shoulder, and said, in a pitying tone, "Let's just get back to our place, kid. You can sleep there for the night", she patted her shoulder, and took her hand, "It's getting late, and this ain't exactly a good part of town."

Carmine was right. The industrial district of Vale was never a good place to hang out at night, especially in these troubling times more than ever. Thanks to the growing ineptitude of the police force, gangs of thugs and looters tended to loiter around these areas, waiting for some unfortunate soul to pickpocket or steal away. Criminal groups flocked to these areas like moths to a flame, trading guns and drugs and-

Why was Bertilak here?

Yet, all Ruby could focus on was Carmine's words as the elder Huntress lead her out of the alleyway, and onto the darkening streets, the streetlights flickering on as they walked down the emptying pathways.

_No... That's not... That's not what you were suppose to say..._

They were just the exceptions.

Right?

Not every Hunter was like that.

…

_Right?_

* * *

_As said previously, Maxwell's apartment had lead to a dead end, and now Maxwell himself was dead in his hospital bed. The staff were interviewed, but nothing came out of them, no slip ups, no conflicting accounts. All of them had accurate alibis, so they were all crossed out of the investigation._

_As it turned out, Maxwell really liked his alone time, even when he was healthy. The only times that Maxwell would ever leave his apartment was at breakfast and dinner times, and even at the spa, he had dismissed many of the staff whom wished to tend to him, and took to doing it himself. Ample time for someone to sneak in walk in and kill him._

_Harriet had reported that Maxwell had to have been killed hours before she arrived, and she was correct. We looked over the body, and the blood had indeed dried up and stained his bed and sheets, so he must've been laying there dead since the early morning._

_One thing was for sure, Maxwell's death threw away the possibility of him hiring our serial killer to off White Wolves, and opened up an entirely different can of possibilities, none of them good._

_And to top it all off..._

_We found 3 more bodies shortly after._

* * *

"We met her."

"I know."

"Only a couple of hours ago."

"I know", Winter repeated, as she and Jaune looked down the bloodstained alleyway in the commercial district, red and black trickling across the walls, leaving trails down the wall. Behind them, officers closed down the street, and placed torches and lamps lit up the dark alleyway as the stars twinkled and flickered above them.

Flash, Connie Jessabelle, and Tyler Guerra laid dead in the alleyway, the Techion leaning against one of the walls, the other 2 sprawled out on the dirty floor, still leaking blood. They couldn't have died that long ago.

All of them had died the same way, a shot to the chest where the heart was, and then another to the head. Armour piercing rounds again, it seemed, judging by the damage done to the entrance and exit wounds, the violence of the blood splatters, and the holes that the bullets left in the walls.

Jaune blanched at the bodies, feeling queasy once more, before Winter noticed this and sternly went, "Eyes up, Arc", before approaching the bodies and going, "As a Hunter, seeing a dead body will not be that uncommon", she paused as she leant down to the bodies, and then continued, "And before you say anything, no, that wasn't meant to make you feel any better."

"...Right", Jaune went, a note of suspicion in his voice as he then knelt down to the bodies next to Winter, and went, "Have we got any idea as to why these guys were down here?"

"Not yet", Winter said as she put on a pair of thin gloves that she had been given from the station, and started to ruffle through the pockets and vest of Tyler, looking for anything that would give them a hint.

"Maybe they saw someone down here", Jaune theorised, slipping on a pair of the same gloves over his already gloved hand and tapping the chin of his helmet, "Stands to reason, I guess. They saw a suspicious character- Perhaps our killer- They move to investigate, and then bam", he slapped his hands together for emphasis, "Our killer strikes."

Winter nodded, "That is the most likely theory", before her eyebrows furrowed and she went, "But what we need now is a connection between our victims. More than just the way that they were killed."

"Mm hm", Jaune hummed, as he began to look over the body of Connie, "I feel stupid for pointing out the obvious, but it's clear that these 3 were killed by the same person that killed Maxwell and the 5 Wolves earlier", he paused, opening up Connie's vest and looking over the pockets within, "The question is, though, why? Our theory about Maxwell-"

"Your theory about Maxwell", Winter pointed out.

"-Whatever, that theory went out the window when we found his body and realised that he had died before Yuma and Trifa. Possibly before the 3 this morning as well."

"Yes, but why?" Winter asked, not as a test of Jaune's skills, but he suspected as a genuine question, "Maxwell was a politician who hated Faunus, and the 5 Faunus in total were terrorists for a Faunus extremist group, so there was a possible link there", Winter paused, letting the information sink in once more.

"Yeah, but 3 police officers?" Jaune began, ruffling through the pockets of Connie and coming up with nothing, "There's no connection. Hell, one of them was a Faunus- Is a Faunus, even, so that eliminates the Wolves. They wouldn't attack their own, would they, especially when they're working with humans and fostering cooperation between the 2 species?"

"No, they would", Winter said. Jaune looked at her, and she continued, "Before the House of the White Wolves turned to extremism, they would never even think of attacking their own for getting along with humans and, well, doing what it was that they wanted to do in the first place. But as soon as Sienna Khan", she paused, noticing his confused look, "The current leader of the Wolves", Jaune nodded in understand, and Winter continued, "Well, as soon as she gave the order to Faunus to fight, the Wolves were flooded by dissidents."

"Dissidents?"

"Terrorists and thugs. Low lives and criminals. Men and women who were fuelled by hatred, by anger, the kind that can only be born out of young men, who can be easily manipulated, influenced, and controlled. Hatred born out of a noble cause, or a noble cause used to justify their hatred. Didn't matter, and it still doesn't. These people flocked to and flooded the Wolves, drowning the Faunus House's once noble cause in a river of blood. Molotovs were thrown, shops were broken into, trains were raided, all of them with the Wolves taking the credit. Peaceful protests became riots. Interventions became home invasions. Talks became arguments, arguments became standoffs, standoffs became shootouts."

"That... Wow."

"Apologies for being dramatic", Winter said, a forlorn look on her face, as she then continued, "And then, they declared war on the SDC."

Jaune paused, looking at her with a confused look under his helmet, "They're already at war with someone?"

"The SDC, yes."

"Your company?"

"No, not mine, my father's", she seemed to growl at the last part of her sentence, before continuing on, "The Wolves began to raid SDC shipments, stealing away dust, and sometimes even people. Bodies of both SchneeFall soldiers and Wolves would be left behind, and more violence from the Wolves would lead to less profits for my father, would lead to him becoming more and more aggressive and angry, would lead to harsher treatment of the Faunus in his workforce, would lead to harsher reprisals from the White Wolves, and so on, so forth."

"...I'm sorry."

"Don't be", Winter sighed out, "There's nothing that you can do about it."

Jaune was starting to beg to differ. He didn't let it say.

"...And then the shootings happened..."

"Hm?"

"Nothing", she waved it off, "It's fine."

Jaune paused, trying to find his words once more, before deciding to drop the subject, and focus on looking over Connie's body, eventually finding nothing, and, groaning in frustration, moved himself to the side and shuffled towards Flash's body against the wall.

And then, he noticed something.

Cocking his head to the side, he leaned forward, next to Flash's body, and took his helmet off, narrowing his eyes in concentration as he examined the dead Techion.

From the looks of it, much of Flash's body was covered in... "Dust?"

Winter looked at him with a sudden, questioning gaze.

"Not the fuel", Jaune said to her as he looked over the thin sheet of grey that covered Flash's body, "Just... Dust. Like dirt."

"Ah, dust", Winter added, before asking, "You believe that to be unusual?"

"Mm hm", Jaune said as he took a police swab that he had been given at the station out of one of his pockets and took a swipe on Flash's body, placing the swab in an evidence bag, and then looking over Flash's body once again, "I mean, I don't think there are that many places in Vale where you could get that dusty, like a loft, or a disused basement, or..."

Actually, no, it didn't look like dust. Not that much.

In fact, it looked more like...

"Hey, Winter, do you know if there are any open fires or anything around here?"

The woman in question raised an eyebrow as she moved next to him, looking over Flash's body as well, "No, why?"

"Because it doesn't look like Flash is covered in dust. It actually looks more like..."

"...Ash?" Winter asked, using her own swab as well, and placing it within another evidence bag.

"Yeah", Jaune nodded, biting the bottom of his lip as he then went, "Why the hell would he be covered in ash? Did he head down to the Emerald Forest, or down to the plains?"

"Possibly, but all of the fires had died out, and if he did walk through the Emerald Forest, he would've had much larger traces of ash on his soles", Winter went, leaning down to look at Flash's metal feet, "And they're clean. Shining, even."

Jaune paused, and then looked over to Connie, and then to Tyler, realising that they too had the same sheet of dust over them, "It's the same for these guys", he pointed out, "And their soles are clean as well. Could they have all stepped in puddles and cleaned their feet?"

"Maybe, but if they did, then their soles should at least be a little bit damp, but they're perfectly dry", Winter threw in, "And even then, we met Connie only a few hours ago. There's not enough time for her in between the station and now to have gone out to the Emerald Forest and back."

Jaune looked down, trying to think, before he noticed that the same colour of dust on the floor as well, "The ground's covered in ash as well", he said as he looked down, "But the only footprints in them are yours and mine, not these guys."

"Which means that all of this ash must've rained down from above them as they were standing in this alleyway", Winter pointed out, "Meaning that our killer must've either jumped down or flew over them as they killed them."

Jaune stood and looked up, into the night sky between the walls of the dark alleyway, and asked, "Do you think they had a fire semblance, or a weapon that used fire?"

"Like fire dust?" Jaune nodded, and Winter looked over the bodies once more, "I do not believe so. There are no signs of burns on them, or singeing, or anything to indicate any form of fire, and the wounds are not cauterised in any way."

"And yet there's still ash here", Jaune quietly mused, "Then it must've been someone with a semblance that was hot enough to give off ash, or supercharged the air, or... Something..."

Something indeed was visible in the side of Flash's metal leg, in some sort of side compartment. Jaune carefully pushed it open, and revealed the contents within.

A white piece of paper, folded up. Upon pulling it out, it was revealed to be-

"A phone number?" Jaune mumbled out loud. Winter paused from what she was doing and looked at the sliver of paper as well.

"It looks like a local number", she pointed out, "Valerian, not Atlesian."

"If we get this into the station, then we can compare it to any other phone numbers that are registered, and track down who this belongs to."

"Indeed", Winter looked up to him, "Anything else, Arc?"

"I'm thinking that we need to head back to the original crime scene", Jaune answered.

Winter tilted her head, "Interesting decision. Do you believe we can find anything else out there?"

"I think that the first guys who went there didn't exactly to their best. Our guy who was selling those police documents earlier is proof of that."

A nod was her response, "Indeed", before looking down the alleyway, and calling out to their escort that'd followed them here, "Elm, once we've transported everything that we can from here, arrange for a Dropship to take us to the first crime scene. Let's see if we can't get some more answers there."

* * *

The room was dimly lit by blue and white overhead lights, and few of the monitors that were organised into rows had been left on, showing white screens and blind tabs, but Jaune didn't mind as he sat in front of his computer, turning on the monitor and logging in, before opening up the internet and tapping into a search engine:

_House of the White Wolves._

Know your enemy, and all that.

The first hit to pop up on the search page was an in-depth profile of the organisation as a whole, one which Jaune immediately sunk his teeth into, reading it from top to bottom, from it's roots in the Faunus Houses, to the Great War and the Colour and Rights Revolution, to it's founding at the hands of 2 people whom Jaune had never heard of before, to the inspirations that it took from the religion of Azul Primus and his White Fang, to the peaceful protests that helped to push the laws for fairer workspace treatment, less banning of Faunus from shops, and better ability to move around Remnant, all the way to the debate on wherever to make it an official Atlesian political party.

 _These were the guys who got the Free Movement Act passed?_ Jaune thought to himself as he read every line on the Wolves' profile, _I remember Apollo saying that he wouldn't have been able to save us without this law... In fact, from the looks of it, these guys were actually able to do a lot... Well, enough for Atlas to consider making them a political party._

He remembered talking to Blake, Neon, and Leadpipe a few days ago- Well, no actually, it was more like trying to keep up with Neon, trying to talk to Leadpipe, who stumbled on his words a lot, whilst Blake sat to the side reading a book- And after a while, the topic of the White Wolves had casually come up, and it was then that Blake had suddenly spoke up:

"The Wolves turned to violence because peaceful protests weren't working out, because no one was listening."

He had tried to press her on what she meant by that, but Blake had started to get a bit more emotional about it and walked off, Leadpipe following behind shortly afterwards, thereby ending that conversation.

 _Well, she says that, but from the looks of it, she's completely gotten her facts wrong_ , Jaune said as he stared at the list of changes and laws that had been placed in by the Wolves during their peaceful years, _This list is huge! It's got tons of laws on them, and now that I look at them, a lot of them actually benefit everyone more than just Faunus. Not a majority, but still a lot._

He paused once more, confused. From the looks of it, peaceful protests were indeed working out, and people were indeed listening. And from this, came the confusion. Why would the Wolves turn to violence if they were getting so much done? Was it because of the laws that benefitted everyone, and not just the Faunus?

He remembered Winter saying that when Sienna Khan had taken over, she had opened up the floodgates for all sorts of criminals and murderers to come rushing into the Wolves when she gave the order to fight. Wherever that was intended or not, he didn't yet know.

Yet, being the keyword as he scrolled down the profile page and found more of the Wolves' history.

Soon, came the changing of the guard. From the outset, Sienna Khan had been the spokesperson of a more militant and radical faction of the Wolves, and she had helped to pass a few laws, and push even more onto the table. Her group, before she took power, never did anything overtly violent, but did push for more radical forms of protest, such as self-starvation, interruptions of opposing rallies and conventions, and a social media campaign to push more people to their cause. The profile had nothing on Sienna Khan herself, but it did make mention that she had always stood out as fiery and stubborn, angry and spiteful to the humans, but never enough to force for more violent action to be taken.

And then, she took over, and then did indeed call for more force to be taken, calling out to the Faunus across the world to defend themselves.

There were several viewpoints that were attached to the profile about the White Wolves' subsequent radicalisation, the author seemingly not wanting to give a biased opinion.

A few of them were as followed:

1\. Sienna Khan had her radical faction in the Wolves begin to arm themselves and their fellow Faunus, conscripting them into their ranks.

2\. Sienna hadn't known that the Wolves would become so radicalised and so out of control, and had simply been doing her best to protect her people.

3\. Sienna had known, and simply didn't care.

4\. Sienna had simply been trying to grab power, and was utterly unprepared for the responsibility of leadership.

5\. There had already been radicals within the White Wolves, and they were just waiting to reveal themselves.

6\. Similarly, the entire group had been radicals, and were just holding back.

7\. Sienna had been planning a hostile takeover for a long time, and had seeded the radicals in herself.

8\. Nobody had known how many terrorists and criminals would flock to Sienna's banner, not even Sienna herself, and the organisation was just swept under a tide of reformations and violence that it just could control.

And so on, so forth.

Whatever the reason, the House of the White Wolves radicalised, and began to push for violence on all fronts, and soon, it was firebombing cars and shops and assaulting people on the street. Protests became riots, and gatherings began recruitment centres. It was like Winter said, the entirety of the Wolves was overtaken by a flood of the worst kind of people. It was like Winter said, the group's original cause of achieving equality for the Faunus was overtaken by those who sought that goal through bloodshed and violence, or those who disregarded that goal for their own reasons, merely using it as a cover or an excuse to cause pain.

 _Gods_ , Jaune thought, _How can a group like that fall apart so quickly?_

And then, the White Wolves declared war against the SDC. Not Atlas, the SDC.

SDC= Schnee Dust Company. Jaune didn't know why the Wolves decided to declare war against Weiss' business, but soon, the Wolves were being attributed to raids and bombings on SDC property, and killing off their SchneeFall guards and security contractors. Entire raiding parties swarmed into SDC trains and airships, stealing away their dust and killing everyone aboard (The most recent raid was actually in a red forest known as Forever Falls, not too far from the city of Vale, right near Beacon, in fact. The entire train had been destroyed, and the subsequent Grimm invasion afterwards had left a Grimm infestation that, just before the Initiation Massacre, had only just been quelled).

And now, from the looks of it, there seemed to be a growing divide within the once peaceful now terrorist organisation, between Sienna Khan and her faction within Menagerie, and a group slowly on the rise in popularity amongst the younger and more radicalised members of the Wolves.

The Acolytes of the Ascended.

Headed by one Adam Taurus (Who, from the looks of it, has gone underground, for some reason), and dressing themselves in cloaks of white and purple, this faction of the White Fang was made up of mostly Azul Primus worshippers, and... Well, calling them worshippers was a bit of an understatement.

From the looks of it, they were all cultists. All of them were fanatical about their worship of Azul Primus, and were extremely violent. Credited for multiple shootings across Remnant, including the recent Valerian Central Market shooting and killings, this group's connection to the White Wolves was thin to say the least. They operated almost entirely as their own entity, with Sienna Khan apparently extremely close to disavowing the entire group.

Honestly, Jaune couldn't blame her, which made him disturbed about the fact that he was siding with a terrorist leader. Not a lot was said about these guys, but it was enough for him to see that these guys were bad news. They were attributed with mass shootings, murders, kidnappings, executions of former members, the whole royal flush.

It made sense why Sienna would want to ditch these guys, because as far as her own group had sunk, there was a limit for even some people.

But what Jaune didn't get was why the Wolves would attack the SDC though? What had provoked them into attacking the company and forcing their boss, Winter's father to become... Well, as Winter had said, more aggressive?

After looking through all of the sources, and reading all of the information that they had on them, Jaune put in a link to the SDC's profile, and began to read.

The Schnee Dust Company, or SDC for short, was a vast global corporation headquartered in Atlas, with it's main product being the mining, manufacturing, and exporting of dust, whilst also having ties to the Altesian military's R&D, transportation, and other civilian markets and areas.

First created by Nicholas Schnee, a veteran of the Great War, in the years shortly after the conflict, the SDC was created as an umbrella company, with the express purpose of protecting, unionising, and centralising dust mining and trading operations and businesses within the ravaged Mantle. Dust would flow from these trade partners and businesses through the SDC, who would then judge, sift, and price the dust that they brought up, compensate those partners for any losses that they had, and then send that dust off to their other partners, letting them sell the dust and then send a portion of those profits back into the SDC, which would then go into the restoration of Mantle and the construction of Shelter Academy, with Nicholas serving as it's headmaster. The company would also serve as negotiators and mediators in disagreements between rival dust contractors and traders, and would help to settle disputes between these businesses and find a solution and benefitted everyone.

And then, Shelter Academy was changed to Atlas Academy (For some reason), And began to grow in prominence, and with it, the SDC, as they further began to develop Atlas from just an academy to a military base, and began to help in the research and development for Mantle's military. Soon, Atlas took over as the official kingdom, with Mantle being secondary, and the SDC was elevated as a central benefactor to Atlas, gaining a position on the Atlesian council, and allowing the company to further regulate and centralise dust mining operations, buying several smaller dust companies and propping them up into central trading zones in Mantle, and expanding their operations out into the rest of the kingdoms.

And then, Nicholas Schnee passed away, and Jacques Schnee took over.

 _Jacques Schnee?_ Jaune thought to himself, _Is that Winter and Weiss' dad?_ he gave the profile page a good look, and shrugged, _It doesn't say anything about any relatives. I'll ask about it later._

Once Jacques Schnee took over, he immediately began buying out multiple dust stores across Atlas and Mantle, and began to redirect funds that were going to Mantle back into the SDC's own banks. Then, he began to outbuy several other competitors, before driving them out of business and buying up their stocks and assets, including their employees.

_O... Kay? That's not exactly the wisest business model ever. Then again, I'm not a businessman, so what do I know?_

And then, following that, he began to recruit and employee vast amounts of cheap labour- Most of them Faunus from the Mantlian slums- And bought out many most of the mining companies in Atlas and Mantle, forcing them to construct brand new mines not only across Solitas, but all of Remnant, forcing these labourers to work in harsh, primitive conditions for little pay.

Thus, began the multiple allegations of Faunus abuse by SDC overseers and contracted guards, with reported harassment of Faunus workers by overzealous and resentful Atlesians, and leading a rise in anti-Faunus sentiment and racial tensions, with little oversight or care from Jacques himself.

Jacques, in allowing and conducting these operations and actions, revealed himself to be a ruthless businessman, who began to run the SDC like a cartel, pushing out any other competitors and dominating the dust trade with impunity.

_What the hell? What's with this turnabout? From what it looks like, the SDC was doing pretty well beforehand, so why the sudden change in tactics?_

Soon, many of these allegations of racism against the Faunus within the SDC's workforce would come to the public's attention. Many of these reports of racism included beatings, harassment, and-

_Branding?_

There had been several reports of Faunus labourers being branded by SDC personal. All of those whom were branded have been kept anonymous, but they are still there. First hand accounts from Faunus workers report of labourers being held down by guards, and having SDC brands pressed against them, burning their bodies with red hot brandings, and leaving them with marks forever. There were also reports of guards cutting off ears and tails off of Faunus just for the sheer hell of it.

Jacques Schnee had neither confirmed, nor denied these claims.

Some mused that he was even amused by them.

_Oh my god... How the hell is someone allowed to get away with this?_

Eventually, the House of the White Wolves, having been under the leadership of Sienna Khan, took notice of these transgressions against their own kind, and began a campaign of violence against the SDC, raiding trains and freeing captive Faunus who were being transported to the mines.

Most of these Faunus came from varying backgrounds. Some were convicts, some of which themselves got extended overtime, some had families to feed, and some threw back too many drinks one night and just woke up in SDC chains.

 _Just like the old press gangs_ , Jaune thought to himself, _Back when the 4 kingdoms started kidnapping people for military service during the Great War..._

These prisoners would be released and sent back into the wild, with most of them joining the White Wolves themselves and moving to take revenge on their old captures, sparking more violence between the SDC and the Wolves, and then escalating into dust raids, arson of SDC shops, and killings of SDC personnel, eventually becoming a war between the 2 groups, with Atlas choosing to stay out of the fight.

"Well, great help they were", Jaune muttered to himself.

It is from this bloodshed that the faction within the White Wolves, the Acolytes of the Ascended, were born, and escalated the violence even further by carrying out shootings in public places against former members of their own group, and attacking SDC employed people and places with a zealous, almost religious fervour, before it then blew up into the shooting in Onus Square. The details of the shooting weren't available, but from what he was able to see, the ramifications included the deaths of over 50 innocent people, as well as 40 Mantlian and Atlesian police and military officers, and 30 Acolytes, as well as Atlas tightening it's grip on their holdings and ramping up it's drone and robotics projects, and the Acolytes going underground.

Jaune was shocked at the massive loss of life that came from this shooting, all for a war that he still didn't have a true grasp on, or fully understand. How could a dispute between 2 groups, whatever reasons they may be, devolve into such a bloody feud?

He looked through the sources on the page. All of them held the same information.

Maybe he was just being naïve. Maybe this conflict was always going to turn into such bloody violence.

No, that was just being silly.

Of course this conflict was going to turn to such bloody violence.

The SDC, from what he could see, had started this fight, and the White Wolves certainly weren't helping. Or was it the White Wolves who started it, and the White Wolves had escalated it? Did it matter? Probably not. Whatever had started the fight, the White Wolves had turned from protest to violence, and the Schnee Dust Company had only helped to escalate them. Both sides had their fair share of the blame for this bloodshed, and-

_Winter._

Jaune darted his eyes from the monitor, and looked to the side, lost in thought.

Winter was a Schnee...

Where was she when Yuma was killed?

Where was she when Maxwell and the 3 Faunus from before were killed?

She was with him when they were told about the 3 officers that were killed... Who wasn't with them?

…

 _How rich is a Schnee?_ was the question that came to his mind.

He logged off of the computer and turned off the monitor. Getting out of his chair and pushing it into the desk, he left the room in silence.

He had to see to something firstly.

* * *

The armoury for the barracks was filled to the brim with weapons, from guns, to swords (For some reason), To grenades, to a bunch of freakish looking mecha-shift weapons that looked like they'd break apart at the slightest touch, but Jaune didn't pay them any mind as he walked into the grey room lit by white and neon blue lights, helmet held in his arm, and looked to the worker behind the counter, a man in a grey and blue 2 piece suit, with combat boots, shoulder, elbow, and kneepads, and a bullet proof vest, as he awkwardly looked to Jaune and then went, "Er, hey there. Looking to rent out a gun or 2, 'cause you've got some spare holsters that need to be filled."

"Heh, story of my life", Jaune went, unsure of where the sudden boost of confidence came from. The man behind the counter looked at him awkwardly, and Jaune then stuttered and went, "That was a... That was a joke, I was trying to-"

"Yeah, yep, I guessed. I figured. That was a- That was a poor choice of wording on my part."

"Er… Yeah, it was."

"So, moving on", the worker began, rubbing the back of his head before then going, "So, for the guns, you looking to rent any out, kid?"

Jaune shook his head, "No, no, I'm actually here to ask a few questions."

"Oh, er, okay."

Jaune nodded, and then asked, "Just between us, has anyone over the last few days taken out any guns that could hold armour piercing rounds? Or has anyone taken out any armour piercing rounds at all from here, or any other Atlesian armouries around here in the last few days?"

The worker looked at him, and then shrugged, "Er, kid, most Atlesian guns are configured to support armour piercing rounds."

"Ah, I didn't know that."

"Yeah, but no one's gotten any armour piercing rounds out recently. Not since we moved into Vale. And I don't know any place in Vale that sells armour piercing rounds legally, only the Hunter academies sell that stuff, and we don't have any jurisdiction to regulate or monitor those."

Jaune paused, and then hummed out, "Hm", and then continuing, "What about before you left Atlas and came here? Did anyone stand out in any way to you?"

"What are you, a cop?" the worker asked.

Jaune then paused, shrugged, and then showed him his temporary police badge, "Maybe."

The worker tilted his head, paused, sighed, and went, "No, no one stood out to me. No one had any weird faces or were sweating or looked like they were going to put a round in a robot, or anything. Hard to tell what people are thinking when most of the time, everyone's wearing a helmet", he then looked to the computer near him, "I can pull out receipts for you, if you want, but I doubt that it's gonna do much."

"Well, any sort of help is always good help", Jaune went.

"Yeah, I suppose", the worker went, tapping at the computer now in front of him, "Might take a while, though. Can't just pull up every gun transaction over the last few days immediately."

"Just do what you can", Jaune went, "And thanks."

"No problem", the worker went. Jaune then turned around and started to walk to the door, "You got somewhere to be?"

"Yep", was his response, "Got a crime scene to investigate."

* * *

It was hard to tell that the CSI officials had ever been at the first crime scene, having left little evidence of them being there, save for a extra pairs of footprints in the dirt and a swab in the bloody stains on the ground and bushes.

It was both a good and a bad omen. It was good, because that meant that the crime scene was still relatively untouched, and as such there was still a lot of evidence and theories that they could pull out of the area, and connect them to the crime scene itself.

The bad news was that it meant that the cops weren't doing their jobs, and they hadn't done a furrow enough investigation of the surrounding area and pulling out as much as they could. He remembered Harriet earlier acting passive aggressively when it came to the cops, especially when he first met her earlier, so that had to say a lot about the state of the crime scene investigation department in this city.

Jaune would blame the conscription law, but he would like to get some proper context on as many angles of that argument first before he started pointing fingers.

Speaking of which...

"I found something!" he called out to Winter as he knelt next to a dusty bush, "Well, a few somethings, anyway."

"What is it?" Winter asked as she came over to the bush and knelt down on the other side of it.

Around them, the leaves on the trees and the blades of grass on the ground shimmered in the growing condensation that came with the evenings, and waved left to right in the gentle nightly breeze. The sky was filled with stars and a forever crescent moon, though made murky by the light pollution from the nightlights of the city, and the walls were made a shade blacker by the night, the neon blue lights of the cannons that were perched up on top of them providing the only source of sight and comfort that travelled down the walls.

In the distance, the owls gave their evening calls, and the fireflies danced between the trees. A nest of birds slumbered away in the branches above them. In the far distance, a pair of Flattop Watchtowers let out a soft yawn and nested on the ground for the night, and a flock of birds flew overhead, shielded from harm by the animals below by the gentle, freeing breeze of the air. In the distance, life finally began to grow again in the Emerald Forest and the Valerian plains, with the remains of the Grimm Tidings having been chipped and picked away by the scavengers and the vultures, whilst nearby, what was left of the melted remains of the _Winchester_ and the _King's Sword_ , having mostly been disintegrated in the fireball that consumed them, the rest of them melted together in the heat, sat in the middle of a burnt out crater as an ugly showing of modern art, all sharp and soft corners and broken angles.

Further away, across the fields that were freed from war, and the forests that were forever charred and scarred by battle, Mount Glenn stood, an ugly reminder of the past. The broken down remains of the last settlement that had been built there no longer stood tall, it's tallest buildings having been broken down long ago. Around it, the faded remains of the old floating city of Titan decorated the area like baubles on a tree, shattered and rusting habitation pods the size of city districts sticking out against their black and brown and green surrounds and casting shadows so deep that nothing grew in their wake.

The whole place probably smelt of iron and gas and rusting metal and death.

Speaking of which, Jaune gestured to the bush, and flicked a leaf. Under the torchlight, the world around the leaf shimmered a dull, burnt grey.

"Look familiar?"

"Ash", Winter went, dabbing another swab into the grey dust and comparing it to the swab that she had taken earlier, "The same shade, and from the looks of it, the same texture and grain as from the crime scene in the commercial district."

"Which means that there's a definite link between a few of our crime scenes, now, aside from the methods of death", Jaune went, pulling out a pair of tweezers and reaching into the bush, and getting at something, "And now, we possibly have a link between all of them."

Winter seemed surprised at this. Jaune didn't point that out, "What is it?" she asked.

Jaune then stuck his tongue out in concentration, and then dramatically went, "AH HAH!" before pulling out the tweezer from the bush and revealing what was in it's grasp, "Look familiar?"

An ammo shell was grasped awkwardly between the tongs of the tweezers, coloured a dull, busted grey, "Looks like the shell of an armour piercing round", Winter pointed out, before she queered her head to the side and went, "And it looks like there is... Writing on the side."

Jaune turned the shell over, and looked to see on the maroon coloured shell, a series of black scribbles so tiny that he couldn't make out the words, something that only a microscope would be able to see.

"Hm", Jaune hummed to himself as he examined the maroon shell, and then went, "Well, we'll know more once we get this back to the police station and put it under the microscope", he then carefully placed the shell in an evidence bag, and said to Winter, "Even if the initial police investigation was sloppy, I'm surprised that they missed this."

"I'm not", Winter said, with a degree of annoyance in her voice, "Even before the conscription laws were put in place, and even before the Initiation Massacre, Vale's police force were horrendously corrupt", she looked right at him, "I did my research. Officers were paid off, investigations went cold, and leads on criminals were treated with a curious lack of haste", she scoffed at this, and got up, "Not as bad as Mistral, of course, but still, it is horribly unfortunate", Jaune nodded at this, "Do you see anything else that we can pull from here?"

"Well, apart from the blood stains and the rest of the ammo shells in this bush", Jaune went as he looked into the bush for anything else out of the ordinary, picking out the last of the maroon ammo shells and placing them into their own evidence bags, "No, nothing else out of... Wait."

He stopped, and looked to a twig deep in the bush. Reaching his tweezer into the bush, he carefully wiggled something off of the bush and presented it for all to see.

A single piece of fabric was held in the grasp of his tweezer, coloured white, though stained by tiny wood fragments and smudged by the grey ash.

"Here's something", Jaune went as he presented it to Winter, "Looks like it was ripped off of a piece of clothing", he furrowed his eyebrows, then raised one and looked to Winter, "Look familiar?"

"I do not believe so", Winter replied, "It could be from an Atlesian uniform, but then again, it could be from a lot of uniforms as well", she paused, and then looked at Jaune, "Why are you asking me?"

He shrugged, hiding his suspicion under his helmet, "I thought you'd know."

Winter kept looking at him, before moving her eyes away and going, "A good point, I suppose, but unfortunately, I do not", she then gave him another look, before getting up and dusting her knees, "Right then, we should hurry up here. We're on a time limit."

"Well, yeah", Jaune went, getting up himself and placing the white fabric in another evidence bag, "We've got a murderer to catch. Can't be wasting time before this guy decides to strike again."

"Well, yes, of course", Winter amended.

"Is there anything else?"

She nodded, "A politician was killed, which automatically makes this a political case, which means that the council will be placing further scrutiny on us to solve it, lest we suffer the consequences", Jaune's eyes widened at that, and Winter continued, "If we take too long, they'll try to force us to work with a political officer."

"Ugh."

"If we don't reach a satisfying conclusion for them, then they will most likely replace us with someone who is more... Aligned with their intentions."

"Eugh!"

"...Yes... Ugh and eugh indeed..."

Winter's scroll began to flash, and she pulled it out of her pocket to see that she was getting a call. Jaune leaned in to see that it was from Chief Raymond.

Pressing the answer button, she then turned the speaker on and answered, "Specialist Schnee here."

 _"Raymond here, we've got a lead on the phone number that you and the kid pulled from my officers"_ , there was a hint of distain in the last part of his sentence, but he continued on, _"Turns out that the number belongs to someone who's very well known to the police force."_

Jaune looked to Winter, and then leaned over the phone and asked, "Really? Who?"

_"One Hei Xiong, who goes by the street name of 'Junior'."_

Jaune winced at that, as did Winter, "His name is 'Junior'?

_"Yep."_

"Who the hell's Senior, then?"

_"Yeah, we're still trying to figure that out. We'll let you know if anything pops up."_

"...O... Kay", Jaune slowly drawled out, before going, "Well, what else do we know about this Junior guy?"

 _"He's an information broker"_ , Raymond continued, _"Information dealing with Vale's criminal underworld."_

"Oh, so he's a drug dealer, and all that."

_"Er, from what I can see over here, he doesn't go anywhere near that stuff, but he does lend out a bunch of his goons for guys like Roman Torchwick and his gang, and does sell information to criminals, but we've never been able to prove it."_

"Seriously?"

_"Never had the jurisdiction is the official report, but I reckon that it was either because he was giving information to the police force for their investigations, or he was paying them off. Or they just didn't care. Something like that."_

"Oh... Great", Jaune muttered, rolling his eyes underneath his helmet.

"Hei Xiong", Winter began, re-establishing herself in the conversation by asking, "Do we know where he is?"

_"As a matter of fact, we do. His main base of operations, and his home, is a nightclub called the Lightbright, in the upper industrial district, where he runs that place and a few other legitimate businesses as proxy and shell companies. A few weeks ago, there was some sort of fight there, and they had to close down for repairs, but from what I can see on the club's online information, it had it's grand reopening a few days ago."_

"Huh, enough time for a meeting between this Hei Xiong and Flash, Connie and Tyler", Winter commented.

"Sounds like it", Jaune went, before looking back down to the phone and going, "What about Yuma and Trifa? Do we know where they were going to go with those police records?"

_"Well, we couldn't pull much from the bodies, other than a scroll with a bullet hole in it- No need to wonder what happen to that- And that same glass that you pulled off of Yuma, but we were able to get something out of our mutual corrupt friend."_

"The guy with glasses?"

_"Yep. Turns out that he and Yuma had met earlier and hashed out their deal in a very familiar nightclub."_

"You mean the Lightbright?"

_"Second verse, same as the first, and apparently our good friend, who is currently in a holding cell in the station, overhead earlier that Yuma was going to be meeting someone in the Lightbright as well. Tonight."_

Winter and Jaune looked between each other, and then to the Bullhead that they had used to arrive at the crime scene outside the walls, and then to each other once more, before looking back down to the scroll, "Affirmative", Winter replied.

"Roger that", Jaune went, shuffling his feet and looking to Winter, "Time to pay ol' Junior a visit. See if we can't kill 2 birds with 1 stone."

* * *

_If what Raymond had said was true, then Hei Xiong- Or Junior, which was his street name, apparently- Had been holding meetings for both Yuma and Flash and his friends, as well as whoever they were meeting at his nightclub. If we were lucky, then he would spill on why he was holding meeting for the White Wolves, and tell us why Flash had decided to go there as well._

_Of course, it was possible that maybe Flash, Connie, and Tyler were going there just to dance, and stuff, but the fact that they going to a club, who's owner has ties to the criminal underworld, right on it's first day, as well as 2 members of the House of the White Wolves, was just too big of a coincidence to ignore._

_Then, there was the possibility that there wasn't a coincidence. It was likely that Flash and his friends, as well as Yuma and Trifa, were going to the Lightbright for the same reason, and were going to meet each other up there._

_It was a possibility, but it wasn't a certainty._

_Still though, we flew back to the airfield within Vale, and then took a police cruiser through Vale down to the Lightbright._

_However, on the way, we were stopped in the commercial district. Our way was blocked by a group of Faunus protesting against the council and the conscription laws._

* * *

"The council wants to make peace with us, they say! The council wants to give rights to us, they say!" a hyena Faunus with sharpened teeth and claws cried out in front of a crowd of fellow Faunus as he stood atop an elevated podium made out of spare wooden boxes, all of the protesters below holding picket signs of their own as they listened to the ranting activist, "Even though those same people had, not too long ago, lumped us all in the same category as those bastard White Wolves, who murder our own kind and say that it is for the betterment of us all, just like the bastards in the council!"

This elicited a cheer from the crowd of Faunus as nearby, in their police cruiser, Winter and Jaune looked on with a curious gaze at the Faunus who had flooded and blocked their path on the road, Winter at the wheel.

"Should we...", Jaune hesitantly began, "Should we do something about this?" he pointed to the crowd, "These guys are causing an obstruction of the road, or something. They could bring harm to someone."

"I doubt that they will cause much harm to anyone", Winter said from behind the wheel, "And from the looks of it, they're not sympathetic to the White Wolves, so unless they turn violent, then there's no reason to intervene."

"Yeah, well, crowds like this do go violent sometimes", Jaune, having taken off his helmet, nursed his still bruised cheek, "Believe me, I know."

"Yes, well, so do I, but from the looks of it, there's already a police presence nearby to make sure that this protest doesn't come to that", she pointed to the sides, where other police cruisers were sitting in silence, the officers inside looking onto the crowd with readied faces, "See? There, there, and there."

"Yeah, well, I think I'm not exactly in a position to trust our newest officers with something as possibly volatile as this."

"Hm, fair point."

"And who are they, I hear you ask!" the hyena Faunus continued on, riling up the crowd as he cried out, "Who are they that call us animals, freaks, and beasts? Who are they that cast us out of our homes, and brand us criminals, crooks, and monsters? Who are they that deny us jobs, livelihoods, and homes, all because of an extra pair of ears on our heads? They are the decrepit fat bastards that hide behind the walls of the council building, and the police department, and Navi Heights! They are the aging relics of an age long gone, who pass laws that they say are for our protection, and for our betterment, but do nothing but spread corruption and give a badge to those that would execute us with impunity!"

This got the crowd really riled up, chanting and swearing, whilst a few of the cops in their cars began to get fidgety, scowls on their faces as they moved to get out, though their partners held them back. Jaune pointed this out, and Winter replied with, "They won't do anything rash. Their partners will keep them in line, and even if any of the other officers do get out, then they'll be facing the crowds alone, and no one wants that."

Jaune hummed in response as Winter began to reverse the cruiser, and move down to a side road nearby, focusing his attention to the crowd of protesters once again, and asking, "Who on Remnant would want to hold a protest in the middle of the night?"

"Less cars out, less chance of obstructing anyone's way on the road, thereby less chance of bringing the police down on them."

"Yeah, but they didn't have to do it in a residential area."

"No, this is a commercial area, not residential. There are no shops around here, not houses. I have little doubt that the only things that they'll be waking up around here are the stray cats in the alleyways."

Jaune hummed once more, and paid his attention back to the crowd of protesters, as the hyena Faunus continued, "And they use the White Wolves as an excuse to arrest and detain us! They would use a band of murderers and thugs that use our name as a banner for their slaughter as leverage against us, so that they can throw and kick us into the dirt with a clear conscience!"

"Who do you think these guys are?" Jaune asked, "'Cause they really don't like the White Wolves from the sounds of it."

"I would say either Faunus Lives Matter, or the Exodus Troop", Winter replied, "I remember Radio Free Remnant saying that the Exodus Troop had made a presence in Vale about 2 or 3 days ago."

"Radio Free Remnant? I thought that was just Mistralian propaganda?"

"No, Voice of Mistral is all Mistralian propaganda, Radio Free Remnant is an underground news network that operates out of Menagerie, and before you ask, they hate the White Wolves just as much as we do."

"Huh", went Jaune, as he turned back to the crowd and the one that was rallying them.

"And now- And now!- These same bastards and fat gargoyles that beat us down, suddenly wish to break bread with us! I say no! I say resist! This is nothing but a ploy! A trap for them to butter us up, so that they may get us, as a people, onto their chessboards, ready to be moved and manipulated like the good little pawns that we are!"

Jaune didn't see how the rest of the rally went, as Winter finished reversing the car and turned it down the side road, leaving the image and the fading cries of the crowd behind, though his thoughts on it still lingered.

Before long, he asked, "Do you ever wonder where all of this is going?"

Winter seemed to know what he was thinking about, "Of course. I'm not one to completely trust the news, as they tend to come with their own share of biases and exaggerations, but most of the news sources now say that there is a White Wolf presence in every city on the planet, big or small."

"That... Does not bode well."

"Indeed, and they're attracting Faunus from all walks of life, from the young and the naïve, to killers and mercenaries. There have even been members of groups like Faunus Rights Matter and the Brotherhood of Two that have spoken out in support of the White Wolves", Winter paused, and then said, "Apologies if that sounds alarmist."

"No, no, it's fine", Jaune went, "I mean, all of this is heading somewhere bad, isn't it? I mean, if the council doesn't do anything to curb the corruption in the police force, and if the Wolves keep growing in numbers...", he paused, and then began, "I have this friend, by the name of Melanie, who says that all of this stuff with the Wolves isn't about reformation, it's about revolution", he paused once more, and then said, "It's about a new world order. Another war on top of the one that we've already got.

Winter took her eyes off of the road for just a second to spare him a look, and just went, "I... Suppose that her conclusion... Is not entirely inaccurate... The Wolves have been trying to rile up the Faunus population of Remnant for sometime now, though it's reason to believe that their ambitions far outweigh their realistic expectations", despite herself, she shrugged, "Not every Faunus across the planet wants to kill everyone. Same as not every human is a racist. Only the bad ones."

"Yeah, but I don't think that they care", Jaune went, before continuing, "The racists, I mean. Both sides. Push comes to shove, the Wolves are gonna riot."

"Yes, if they are not already", Winter muttered to herself, though Jaune picked it up, "The Wolves are like their namesake. Nothing more than rabid dogs clawing at whatever excuse they can get to hurt people, no matter what allegiance, kingdom, or species that they are."

She gripped the steering wheel tightly, her stoic face morphing into a scowl.

"I've lost good people to those animals. I refuse to loose anymore!"

She calmed herself, and spared a passing glance at Jaune as she took a deep breath.

"I... Apologise for that outburst", she slowly said, "That was... Unprofessional of me."

"No it's- It's fine", Jaune waved it down, "It's fine."

Winter hummed in response and nodded, and Jaune took to looking back to the dark, moving streets outside.

He kept his thoughts on her to himself.

And his growing suspicions.

* * *

"You sure you don't want a glass of water or something, kid?" Carmine asked as she watched Ruby grab a spare cushion and a blanket, laying them down onto her makeshift bed as she then said, "You haven't had anything all day."

"I'll be fine", Ruby said as she took off her pauldrons and arm armour, and then began to take off her boots, undoing the laces and putting them to the side.

"You sure?" Carmine asked again as she leaned against the doorframe to the guestroom, "You can't focus if you're on an empty stomach."

"I'll have to in the future", Ruby waved it off as she took off her ammo belt and put her Crescent Rose 2.0 to the side, as well as the other 2 weapons that she had strapped to her back, and looked into her bag at the side of her bed to see that she hadn't brought her pyjamas with her, "Ah, I knew I was forgetting something", she muttered, before turning back to Carmine and going, "In the wild, away from the cities, we'll have to contend with being hungry and away from any food sources, so I should probably get some practice in, should I?"

"That's... Not exactly the healthiest thing to do, but alright", Carmine said as she got off of the doorframe and reached for the handle, "Just make sure to get some food in you tomorrow morning. Don't wanna give you over to our fellow Hunters with an empty belly now, do we?" she then grasped the door handle, and waved, "See you crack of dawn, kid", before closing the door, and leaving the room in darkness.

Ruby didn't bother changing out of the rest of her clothes as she listened to Carmine on the other side talk to herself about Bertilak and his meetings, before she zoned herself out, and closed her eyes, trying to put to rest the concerns that she had in her head about Bertilak, and Carmine, and what they had said, and so on.

If she had been listening in, she would've heard the muffled and faded chuckle of Roman Torchwick downstairs.

* * *

_If what Winter and I had been talking about was accurate, then the Wolves being in Vale was an even bigger danger than we'd once thought, but at the moment, we had other priorities in hand. We had to leave the greater threat of the Wolves to Ozpin and Ironwood and those guys._

_Still though, it wasn't a pleasant thought to have. We're already at war with the Ascendant Court now, and we've already lost thousands of people in the first week. We don't have the time, resources, or morale to fight a war against the Grimm whilst we're fighting a war against ourselves. We need to serve as a united front against the Grimm and their masters, not unable to stand on our own 2 feet because of our own problems._

_A house divided amongst itself cannot stand._

**Editing note: _Edit this all down. No one needs to listen to this wishy washy preaching stuff when it's already been told to them a million times before._**

_Anyways, after a while, we arrived at the Lightbright._

_Suffice to say, our trip didn't go very well._

* * *

The outside of the Lightbright was an old brick building on the corner of a street- Underneath a wide railway track with freight trains that chugged away overhead- With arched windows that hid away the flashing lights and music inside. The only indicators of life inside, and any actual usage of the building was a pair of sliding doors at the entrance that let out muffled sounds of music and flashes of technicolour light, and the small sign over the pair of doors that, on it, read the name of the nightclub, with a pair of bouncers just behind the doors, dressed in black shirts and trousers with red armbands, black shades, and earpieces.

But that wasn't what Jaune was paying attention to.

"Who are those guys?"

Winter looked at him as they both got out of the police cruiser, "Who?"

"Those guys, there", he pointed to the side of the road, to a black car of the same make, with 2 people in the car dressed in plain, casual clothing, looking over them and the nightclub, "And there", he then pointed to the other side of the road, and to an identical black car, with another 2 people gazing over them and the nightclub intently.

"They're undercover officers", she quietly said to them, "I can make out the off lights in their car grills."

"Why are they here? I thought we were going it alone."

"I called them here."

Jaune looked to her with a questioning glance under his helmet, "You what?"

"I called them here when we were back in the airfield. I felt it be better if we went in with reinforcements available", she paused, looking from the cars to him, "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I would've liked if you'd told me that you brought in backup", Jaune went, "I appreciate it, but I would've liked if you'd told me earlier", he shrugged, "We're on this case together, aren't we?"

"Well, I had thought that it would be an obvious choice", Winter pointed out, "We don't want to go into a criminal establishment without reinforcements."

"It's not the choice itself, it's the lack of trust behind it."

"Well, in the future, I shall make sure to inform you", Winter amended as they approached the doors, "I apologise for the breach of trust, and I shall make sure to amend it in the future."

"...Right, right", Jaune muttered to himself, "Sure you will..."

The doors to the Lightbright slid open in front of them, and the bouncers in front of them held their hands out to stop them. A flash of their badges gave them passage through the second pair of doors.

"Well, they were nice", Jaune commented.

"Indeed", Winter went, "Hei Xiong was apparently selling information to the police before, and we know that Flash, Jessabelle, and Guerra, have been to this place before, for whatever reason that may be."

Jaune mirthlessly chuckled, "Can't wait to find out."

The insides of the Lightbright looked to be freshly refurbished, coloured in black and white, and illuminated by white lights running along the floor and walls and ceiling, and punctuated by rainbow coloured flashing lights built into the pillars that held up the roof, with a pure white dancefloor sitting in the middle of the room, surrounded by elevated platforms, a DJ stand at the far end of the dancefloor, and a large bar at the side, with a large platform elevated by glowing white stairs, with a series of tables and chairs positioned together for people to drink on and look over the dancefloor.

 _Nice place_ , Jaune thought to himself, _I might've come here again if it wasn't for the whole criminal hideout thing._

The bar was sparsely populated by people, mostly more bouncers and a few dancers and people sitting in the tables above. The dancers on the floor consisted of 2 humans, a lizard Faunus with scales across his skin and a tail, and a pink coloured Techion with green eyes and an orange faceplate, whilst in the tables above, sat a few humans and a Techion in purple and pink with a single glowing blue eye that encompassed the entirety of their face. Around the bar, the bouncers consisted of mostly humans and a few Faunus, as well as AK-BX robots that were coloured in purple and white with glowing red optics, with tasers and pistols strapped to their waists.

Jaune wasn't surprised by the lack of people around. Ever since the announcement of the Second Great War, from what he had heard on the news- He hadn't left Beacon for the entire week since he'd been let out of the GVMC- Most people had been staying in their homes, hunkering down, and only ever going outside for either work that they couldn't do at home or essential shopping. People were scared, and while a few might go out to try and live life as normal, and another few might take to the time to start living each day as if it were their last- Because in all fairness, they probably were- But most just stayed in their homes and locked their doors, jealously hording their supplies and loved ones close.

He didn't blame this kind of mentality that was floating around. He and his family would definitely have been doing the same if they were living in one of the big cities. In fact, in the first few weeks of their time in Jewel, none of them had left their new house at all, only ever coming out for food, so it had taken them a while to readjust to their lives once more.

He was broken out of his thoughts when he spotted someone behind the bar. A tall man with a matching beard and moustache, wearing a black vest and red tie over a white dress shirt, polishing a glass from behind the counter. He looked depressed, but that wasn't Jaune's business. He needed to find out where this Junior guy was, and what Yuma and Flash had been after by coming here.

He and Winter approached the bar, and Jaune took a seat at the counter, whilst Winter chose to fold her arms together and stand up next to him. It was her that got the bartender's attention first, and he looked up and narrowed his eyes at her, "You a Schnee?"

Winter raised an eyebrow, "You know of my family?"

"Hard not to", he shrugged, "Especially since your family name is stamped onto practically every dust shipment into Vale", he snorted in feigned mirth, "Or since your husband, or dad or whatever-"

"Father."

"I'm not your dad."

"No, you're thinking of Jacques. He's my father, not", her face scowled up in disgust, "Not anything else."

"Right", he held his hands up in surrender, "My bad", he put his hands down, as well as his dishcloth and glass that he was cleaning, and then asked, "What's the likes of you doing down here, anyways? Thought guys and girls like you were too good for us plebs?"

Winter looked as if she was about to retort something, but Jaune stopped her, muttering, "Stop it, Winter", before looking at the bartender and going, "We're looking for a guy named Hei Xiong, goes by the name Junior, or something. You know him?"

"I am him", he pointed to himself, "I'm Junior."

"Oh", Jaune's eyebrows rose under his helmet, before he lowered one and asked, "If you're Junior, then who's-"

"'Who's Senior'? Yeah, I get that joke all of the time", he humourlessly said, "Is there anything you want?"

"Yeah. We're on official business", Jaune said as he flashed his badge to him, with Winter doing the same a second after.

'Junior' just looked at the badges, and sighed, "Ah dammit- What'd you want?"

"Information. We've heard that you're a generous provider, see?" Jaune tapped on the scroll that was built into the armour of his lower left arm, and he flashed the faces of Flash, Connie, and Tyler at the bartender, "You recognise these 3?"

Junior took a short look at the 3 images, before looking to the younger boy and going, "Nope, never seen them before", he must've realised that this was an interrogation, rather than a trade off, judging from the slightly defensive look that his face had taken.

Jaune narrowed his eyes through his visor, and tapped on the scroll to show the head images of Yuma and Trifa, "What about these 2? Ring any bells?"

"Nada, no bells rung", Junior shrugged, "Sorry."

Jaune sighed, and stopped Winter from saying something by putting a hand before her, leaning back, before looking around the bar, and going, "Nice place you've got here, Junior. Looks like it was newly made. Smells like it as well."

This visibly put Junior at ease, as his shoulders laxed, and he scowled, "Yeah, just got the place redone. Some blondie a couple of weeks ago barged in and completely trashed the place. Trying to find someone, or something."

_Trying to find someone, or something._

Bingo.

Put most of my staff in the hospital. Had to close up just to repair the place, and now I can't make back the revenue that I lost from those weeks off because of the war, now, so that sucks a lot for me."

"'Most of your staff'? You mean most of your bouncers?" he gestured a thumb to the bouncers, "Or must of your goons, I mean? Most of your goons, who, rumour has it, somehow find their way onto Roman Torchwick's payroll, or some other group of gangster? I mean, maybe, but hey, that's all just rumour..."

Junior looked at him with narrowed eyes, "...What do you want?"

"Better question is, why would some 'Blondie' barge into a bar in the middle of the industrial district, a place left for the gangsters and criminals, looking for someone? Why would they come here if they're looking for someone in here? Maybe they were looking for something, or maybe", he leaned forward, "They were looking for a lead? Maybe, just maybe, they were, perhaps, looking for information."

Junior sighed, and went, "Alright, alright, I've seen them before. The 2 Faunus came in earlier with a friend during the opening evening a few days ago. So did the Techion and his 2 buddies."

Jaune nodded, "That's better", before putting his hands on the counter, bringing them together, and going, "Why the lie, though? Is it like a hospital in here? Patient confidentiality, and all that."

"Yeah, it's like that", Junior replied, "Can't just give out information like that. It's a breach of trust, and not professional at all."

"Hmph", Jaune went, "Yeah, I get it, but in this case, it's not exactly to everyone's benefit."

"Why's that?"

"Because someone's murdered them all."

Junior was taken back by this, and his eyes widened as he then asked, "What?"

"Yeah", Jaune sombrely replied, "The Techion and his friends, Flash, Connie, and Tyler. They're dead. Same for Yuma and Trifa, the 2 Faunus, as well as 3 other Faunus, and a man as well", Jaune paused once more, letting the information sink in for Junior, before adding in some context, "They were all murdered the same way, and most likely by the same person. The lone man was a councilman, the 3 Faunus were confirmed members of the White Wolves, as were Yuma and Trifa, who were also members of the Acolytes of the Ascended, and Flash, Connie, and Tyler were police officers. Now, I don't know if the councilman and the 3 other White Wolves were here, for whatever reason that they might have, but I know for a fact that Flash and his group were here, as well as Yuma and Trifa, and I also know for a fact that they were going to be meeting here again."

Jaune paused once more, letting Junior understand his point without needing to say it, before continuing on yet again.

"There's a murderer running about, and we don't know who they're gonna try and gun down next. If you have any leads- Anything at all- Then you need to tell us."

Junior looked to the side, seemingly weighing his options, before going, "Fine", nodding, and then putting his own hands on the bar counter. Jaune moved his hands away, and leaned back, relaxing as Junior began, "That Techion, Flash, and his 2 cop friends- They came here to meet up with 2 people. Hunters."

"Hunters?" Winter asked.

"Yeah."

"Why? Why here?"

"Because they're dirty", Winter was taken aback, as was Jaune, and Junior continued, "They're corrupt. Flash and his guys were helping the Hunters to run guns. Sell them to the highest bidder. The Hunters would bring in the guns, and those 3 cops would look the other way. For a price, of course", he paused, and sighed, "Yuma and Trifa, they and their buddy were their own propaganda club. They'd steal or buy any official documents and records that they could get their hands on and edit them down into propaganda pieces for the Wolves. I don't know about the councilman and the 3 other Wolves, I swear", he put his hands up in defence, "That's all I know."

Jaune nodded, and Winter then asked, "Were these 2 Hunters planning on meeting up here again?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"What about this friend of Yuma and Trifa? Are they here already?"

"Yeah, in one of the backrooms", Junior pointed to a door to the side, "Their friend's a Techion. Goes by the name of Primal, or something. One of my guys can take you down there", he went as he gestured to one of the bouncers nearby, the man nodding as Junior then pointed to Winter and went, "He ain't gonna react well to a Schnee, though. Most Wolves in general don't, to be fair."

"I can handle myself."

"Yeah, I don't doubt that, but my bar can't."

"Hm."

"What about those 2 Hunters you were talking about?" Jaune asked, "The ones who were meeting with Flash, Connie, and Tyler?"

"They're bad news, kid", Junior went, before asking, "You are a kid, aren't you, like in Hunter high school, or something?" Jaune nodded, and Junior continued, "Those 2 are some of the worst Hunters I've ever had to deal with. They used to work with that old cult that worshipped Grimm in the Sleeping City before they all got killed off about a year ago. They'd either kidnap or herd people towards the cult for their sacrifices, or whatever the hell they did with them. I only know about this because the Huntress' partner liked to brag about it whenever he got drunk around here. Now they just spend their time doing odd jobs as Hunters and running guns for the gangs in Vale on the side", he sighed, "I don't know their names. One of the bouncers might, though. I'll ask around, but I can't promise anything."

Jaune nodded again, "Right", before getting up from his seat, and going, "Just, do your best. As quickly as you can, please."

Junior grunted, "Sure thing", and gestured to the same bouncer, who then began to lead Winter to the backrooms, the Huntress folding her hands behind her back as she followed with a steady, rhythmic pattern to her heeled footsteps across the flashing white dancefloor and smooth black floor.

Jaune moved to follow as well, but stopped once he spared a glance to under the opposite side of the counter, seeing a picture that's windowed frame was masked by light reflections. He tilted his head to the side, to get a proper look.

His eyes widened.

Miltia and Melanie Malachite stood side by side in the pictures, the girl in white trying to look away with a frustrated pout that betrayed amusement and even enjoyment, while the twin in red, as she always seemed to, had a gentle smile on her face, her eyes stilled, and looking like they were staring right into the eyes of those who looked at the image.

As if she was staring right into the souls of those who looked at the image.

He was broken out of his gazing by Junior, who quickly shut the cupboard that the picture was in closed, and gave Jaune an intimidating look, "Sorry", Jaune quickly said, "It's just... Sorry", rubbing the back of his neck, he then said his thanks to Junior for his cooperation, and hurried along after Winter.

The backrooms were sectioned off by a corridor that was covered in black covered walls and ceiling that housed white lights, and a white floor, with maroon carpets, which led to red doors that themselves led into their own rooms.

No need to wonder what happened in these rooms.

Jaune stopped, as well as Winter, as the bouncer indicated to the door, and went, "Primal's in there", before then pointing to Winter and going, "Like the boss said, he ain't gonna react well to a Schnee, so it's best that you stay outside. Let the other one handle it."

"And like I said, I can handle myself", Winter argued, but Jaune stopped her before she could continue.

"As much as I would not like to escalate the situation, I'm afraid that Winter and I are gonna have to go in together", he said, "Can't go into a room with a possible terrorist-"

"Confirmed terrorist."

"-What she said, We can't go in alone- Actually", Jaune paused, tapping his chin, and going, "How about this: You stay out here and provide overwatch, and I'll go in there and try to talk to him. Maybe get him to surrender peacefully. If things get ugly, I can call on you, and we can bring him down together."

There was a second meaning to his words, besides the peaceful option. Jaune simply didn't trust Winter to be alone with a White Wolf member. From what he had seen, there was too much bad blood between the Schnee family and the White Wolves to ignore, to the point where one probably couldn't get them into the same room without them trying to kill each other, and from what he had seen from Winter, she definitely felt resentment for the White Wolves. Understandable, of course, but too much that he wouldn't trust her to not make a confrontation like this personal.

That, and he just... Well, he just didn't trust her. At least, not enough to leave her alone with anyone. The last few hours with Winter hadn't exactly endeared him towards her.

"Bad idea", he knew that she would disagree, but he didn't say, "You're a Hunter in training, and I'm the Specialist. You stay out here, I'll take him alone."

"Yeah, it's the alone part that bothers me..."

"What was that?"

"I said that it'd be better if I went in. We want to solve this situation peacefully, not violently, and if this guy sees you, he'll freak out. You're a Schnee, he'll pull a gun on you."

"I am fully capable of convincing an opponent to surrender."

 _Are you?_ "Yeah, but we'll have a better chance of getting him to come quietly if we don't present him with anything that might trigger him! A Schnee for example."

"I'm going to ignore the phrasing in that sentence and say that you do not have the same experience that I do, and you will be the first to be defeated if a fight breaks out-"

"We're not trying to start a fight, Winter! That's the point!"

The bouncer just looked between the 2 of them, and simply said, "So, er, do you guys want me to tell him to wait, or..."

The red door violently opened up, and a Techion marched out, covered in brownish black fur on his shoulders, back, lower arms and sides of his legs, and just above his chest and below his neck, with the metal parts of him coloured silver, with red and blue sections coloured on him, as well as a blue head with a silver faceplate and glowing red optics, as well as a glowing orange circle on his chest, and 2 long silver cannons attached to his back.

The ape looking Techion, most likely 'Primal', then looked around and went, "Yuma, Trifa, what the hell are you arguing about? I can hear you from in..."

He then looked at Jaune and Winter.

They all froze.

And then the 2 cannons on his back aimed themselves at the 2 Hunters, and 2 curved swords emerged from his arms and sat snuggly in his hands, pointing them at Jaune and Winter and yelling out, "Who the fuck are you 2?!"

Winter pulled out her sabre and pointed it at the Techion, while the bouncer behind them pulled out his pistol and called for backup, also whilst Winter ordered, "Stand down."

"Schnee...", the Techion growled out, his burning red optics somehow narrowing.

"Stand. Down."

"Fuck you!"

"Sir, I am ordering you to stand down."

"Make me."

Winter scowled, "Gladly."

"Hey hey, woah, guys", Jaune went, putting his hands between the 2 of them and going, "Let's calm down, alright, let's be cool about this", before muttering to Winter, "I told you this would happen", and then going over to the Techion and saying, "Hey, Primal- It's Primal, isn't it?- Look, we just- We just wanna talk, alright. Nothing more."

"We need you to come with us", Winter interjected.

"Not helping, Winter..."

"Fuck you, I ain't going anywhere with a Schnee!" Primal yelled out, "I've heard the stories of what she and her daddy do to Wolves in captivity! I've seen it, I've felt it! I'm not going anywhere with her!"

"Okay, then how about we don't go anywhere then?" Jaune countered, "How about we just stay here and talk, because that's all I want to do. Just talk."

"Arc...", Winter muttered out, "We can't just let him go-"

"Winter, just- Just trust me, okay?" Jaune went, aware of the hypocrisy of his tone, but he didn't say, but, as he turned back to Primal, he did say, "Look, Primal, we just wanted to talk to you about Yuma Landis and Trifa Fajardo, okay? That's it."

"Yuma? Trifa?" Primal began, "Where are they?! What have you done to them?!"

"I haven't done anything to them, it's just...", Jaune sighed, "Primal, I'm sorry to say this but... Yuma and Trifa, they've been... They've been murdered."

Primal twitched, and lowered his head. After a few seconds, he began to shake.

And then violently slammed one of his swords into the red door next to him, imbedding itself into the painted wood and splitting the door in half.

"DAMMIT!" he cried out, almost breaking his mechanical voice box as he then looked to Winter and snarled, "Schnee..."

"Hey, woah woah woah, Winter- She didn't kill them!" Jaune called back, trying not to hide his own, now confused suspicions as he then said, "But we are trying to find out who actually murdered them."

"You wanna find a murderer, look behind you, kid!" Primal snarled out as he then pointed both of the cannons on his back to Winter, "Now more out of the way and let me kill this bitch!"

"Guys, seriously", the bouncer said into his earpiece, "I need backup in here. Things are getting out of hand."

"Wait, no, look", Jaune began to argue again, before groaning and going, "Look, Yuma and Trifa, they were murdered by the same person, or people, that killed 3 Wolves earlier this morning, as well as 3 corrupt police officers and a councilman. Now, I know that you, Yuma, and Trifa were running some kind of news changing operation, but I don't give a damn about that-"

That wasn't entirely the truth. If they did bring him in for questioning, regardless of wherever he actually had anything to do with the murders, he was still a criminal and member of a terrorist organisation who was running a propaganda and fake news operation, and would still be charged and sent to prison for them. Even if he was working on an entirely different case, he couldn't look away from an illegal operation like this, so if he was able to bring this guy in, then they'd be able to jail him for those crimes anyways, and he'd be killing 2 birds with one stone.

"-But what I do give a damn about is the fact that there is a murderer running around Vale with 9 deaths to their name- That we know of!- And I'm trying to find any sort of lead on the fucker that can help bring him down, so please, if you have any information that can help us get an edge on this guy, then you've got to tell us."

"I ain't going anywhere with you, or the Schnee whore!" Primal yelled out as the insides of his cannons began to glow orange, "You know what they do to Wolves in captivity, kid?!"

"No, but-"

"They hand us off to the SDC, and they brand us! They burn us, and skin us, and send us off to die in their mines, and pull their precious dust out of the ground with our bare fucking hands, all so that the Schnees can keep their precious profits us! They murder and rape our kind, all for money! Do you know what that's like?!"

On one side of the hall, a pair of bouncers and an AK-BX marched into the corridor with their pistols drawn.

"I know what it's like, because I've been there!" Primal jammed his thumb into his chest, "I was born in those mines, and I was made a slave in those mines! You think I became a Techion by choice? I was made in this! I was pulled apart by that whore's company, and infused with dust, just because those fuckers wanted to see what would happen! I had to watch while they did the same to my father, while they tried to breed my mother like a pig!"

Winter's eyes widened, though Jaune didn't notice.

"I ain't going back. You aren't taking me ack to the mines! I'll kill myself before that happens!" Primal's weapons powered up to their max, and he cried out, "I'll kill you. I'll kill you all-"

A silenced round shrouded in a blue tracer light shredded through Primal's chest armour, shattering the central orange light in his chest and spraying shrapnel and black oil across Jaune, Winter, and the walls.

Before Primal, or anyone could even move react, another round went right through Primal's head, tearing it to pieces, and splattering metal, fragments of gore, and oil and blood across the 2 Hunters before him, and then letting his body slump to the ground.

On the other side of the corridor, an unnoticed figure in a black cloak and gas mask, finally seen, hefted and lowered their smoking rifle.

As Winter and Jaune jumped away from the now dead White Wolf in surprise, the bouncers turned to the cloaked figure in surprise, pointing their pistols at him, but before they could pull the trigger, the figure just bounded down the hallway next to him, leaving heavy booted footsteps in the ground.

Quickly forcing down his horror at the second sudden death that he had seen tonight, Jaune looked down the corridor and growled, and bolted down the hallway, jumping over Primal's body, and sharply turning around the corner, Winter and the bouncers following quickly afterwards.

Moving around the corner and-

 _Grey smudges_ , Jaune thought to himself as he noted the ashy marks on the walls.

-Spotting an open fire exit that led out into a back alley, Jaune barely noticed the flash of light from beyond the door before he flung himself out, and drew his ML-15LE, pointing it at...

Nothing. No one. The alleyway was empty at both ends.

"...Dammit", Jaune muttered out, before angrily tossing his rifle to the ground in frustration, "DAMMIT!"

Their killer had gotten away yet again.

He groaned and grabbed his armoured side, his old wound playing up again. He remembered Miss Goodwitch saying in his physical therapy sessions not to stress or exert himself during his workout routines and sessions (He had lost quite a bit of bulk while in the hospital, and he had been trying to build it up once more), As it might open up and worsen his still healing wounds, so that meant that he couldn't take part in any sparring sessions until his wounds had finished healing.

However, he pushed that thought to the back of his mind. It wasn't important, not now.

He didn't notice Winter at his side until she loudly asked, "Arc, where did he go?"

"I don't know", he immediately answered, looking up and down the alleyway, looking for any sort of clue, "I just bolted down the corridor, and saw a flash of light, and then I came out here, and he was gone. I don't know where."

"A flash of light?"

"Yeah", Jaune nodded, "White, or orange, or something. Maybe it was a semblance that could teleport, or make them invisible, or..."

Cloak.

Mask.

Was it the Daughter? Had the Daughter infiltrated Vale?

Was the Ascendant Court in Vale?

If it was the Daughter, then why was she here? Why was she murdering people?

Okay, dumb question, but why was she murdering these people? The councilman, he could understand, and the 3 police officers, possibly collateral, but the 3 Wolves outside? Was that an accident? Then what about Yuma, Trifa, and Primal? Why were they killed? Why would she want to kill them?

There was a link between the murder victims, and he just wasn't seeing it.

Jaune looked to the floor, and saw the same patches of ash that were at the crime scenes outside of the walls and down the alleyway. So at least that link, besides the method of murder, meant that whomever was killing these people were the same person.

 _Or people_ , he thought to himself, _I still don't know if it was the same person who murdered Maxwell and Yuma and Trifa. They could've been murdered by people using the same methods of execution. It isn't crazy to think so._

But it is unlikely. It was too coincidental. Too elaborate.

Well, perhaps it was too coincidental. Perhaps it was too elaborate.

He just didn't know.

"This is why I hate Hunters", a voice called out to behind them, and Jaune and Winter spun around to see Junior standing by the fire exit that they had just run out of, flanked by 2 other bouncers and scowling, "They're terrible to work with and they always make a mess of things", he then pointed his thumb down the fire exit, and went, "The dead guy in there yours?"

"No, Junior, he's not", Jaune replied, before grimacing underneath his helmet, "Fuck", he muttered out, "Now the one guy who could've given us a lead is dead", he sighed, "Dead end..."

"Not entirely", Winter said to him, before turning to Junior and going, "What about the names of the 2 Hunters that you saw with Flash and his friends? Did you get them?"

Jaune quirked an eyebrow, but didn't say anything, his suspicions of Winter still waxing and waning at best, before Junior cut them off by going, "Yeah, well, before all of the screaming and shouting that you guys brought with you, I did ask around, and I got their names, alright, thank you very much. And, you're in luck. One of the bartenders remembered the Huntsman of the pair trying to flirt with her whilst drunk, and got an address from him, which is in Vale."

"Well, thanks a lot, Junior. Well then, who are our esteemed rogues of the day?" Jaune asked with a hint of revitalised mirth in his voice, _At least something good is coming out of this venture._

"Carmine Esclados and Bertilak Celadon."

_…Fuck._

* * *

_Carmine Esclados and Bertilak Celadon._ _A couple of nasty pieces of work, from the looks of it. These 2 scumbags used to run their own human trafficking operations, kidnapping people from inside and outside the central cities and settlements of Vale and selling them to the highest bidder, whilst also smuggling guns for multiple terrorist and bandit cells, and, along with the Outcasts, helping to train White Wolf and Acolyte of the Ascended radicals._

_(Outcasts= A company of Atlesian soldiers who went rogue and started acting as mercenaries and enforcers, currently being used as instructors by the White Wolves. Ironically, all of them are reportedly human.)_

**Editing note: _Yeah, get rid of this bit, whoever's reading this probably already knows this._**

_I didn't know this much at the time, only a bit of it, but at the time, I didn't care._

_Ruby was with them. I remembered seeing her talking to Carmine and Bertilak earlier in the day, before we left Beacon. She had been assigned with them._

_I didn't know if she was safe or not, or if she was already being taken away to some place far away, and that made things more urgent for me._

_I had to help her. I had to get her away from those 2 before they hurt or killed her, and damn the consequences._

_However, from all of the events that had been happening through the long night, there was enough information that had been given to me to finally begin spotting the pattern between our 10 murder victims that was so obvious that I'm still slapping myself for not seeing it._

_And it was when Winter and I got back to the police station, and I began to have a word with Chief Raymond, that it was finally confirmed to me._

* * *

"The book that you got from Maxwell's apartment?" Chief Raymond began to Jaune as the both of them stood around his desk in his messy, paper strewn office, where stacks of paperwork dirtied the ground and made even the most dedicated accountants and bureaucrats shudder in fear, "The Utopia Manifest?" Jaune nodded, beginning to sense where he was going with this, "It's illegal."

The Hunter in training quirked a hidden eyebrow, "Really?"

"Yep", Raymond said as he took the small pocket book in hand and waved it in the air for emphasis, "This stuff- It's all proslavery bullcrap, anti-Faunus propaganda and all that. It was banned after the Rights Revolution by the new councils across Remnant when they passed the Rights Decree."

He threw the book onto his desk. It hit the wood with a sharp {SLAP}.

"Whoever wrote this talks about Brute Force Programming and Faunus slavery like they're tasks given to them by the gods, or something", Raymond shrugged, "I had to skim read through all of this, and I was barely able to keep myself from cringing so much that my face would fall off. The author's a real nutter, lemme tell you."

"'Brute Force Programming'?" Jaune began, "The heck's that?"

"Lobotomy, kid", Raymond explained, "Before the Rights Revolution, and all the way up to the Victorian Era, high class and noble families who had slaves didn't like it when their 'Property' got too rebellious, so they began to lobotomise them to remove the want and ability to rebel against them. Cutting open their heads and scooping out their brains, that kind of stuff. However, that came with removing the capacity for creativity and independent thought, and most of the slaves who underwent this ended up as mothing more than brain dead zombies. Living robots, essentially."

"My gods", Jaune went, "And this guy- Well, he was a racist, yeah, but this."

"It's got his own additions as well", he opened up the book, and turned to a random, white and yellow page, filled with old and faded red line crossing outs and amendments, "Turns out the guy had some... Creative ideas of how to change around and amend the book, for the 'Betterment of humankind'", Jaune gave him a look, and Raymond turned to the page after the acknowledgements, "I'm not kidding, he added that in. He added his acknowledgements in."

And indeed Maxwell had, having written his own red line and worded page, praising himself for his own changes and hindsight decisions. The entire paragraph reeked of a stinking, ugly ego that had been barely hidden away.

"This guy's full of himself", Jaune said as a matter of fact, taking a quick look at the blood red worded page and closing the book, "Maxwell was a Rights Revolution survivor, so I figured that he'd have some resentment left over from it, but still..."

"How did this guy get on the council?" Raymond asked, half rhetorical, half literal.

"Money?"

"Possibly", was the dry response, "Probably."

"Hm", Jaune went, before he clapped and rubbed his hands together, "No, no, this is good."

It was Raymond's turn to quirk a eyebrow at him, "It is?"

"Well, no, I mean, he's dead, but still, it fits my theory", Jaune pressed his hands on his desk, and leaned forward, "Our murder victims are all criminals."

He said it like it was obvious, which it probably was. Raymond motioned for him to continue.

"The 3 Faunus from outside were confirmed to be White Wolves, which is a terrorist organisation-"

"Oh, we were able to identify what they had on them, by the way", Raymond interrupted, "Fake passports. Looks like they were trying to get out of the city."

"-Right, so that makes them criminals either way, and the 3 police officers that were killed, Flash, Connie, and Tyler, were criminals as well, working for corrupt Hunters, Yuma and Trifa were members of the White Wolves, and the Acolytes of the Ascended, so was Primal, and all of them were running a propaganda and editing operation, and Maxwell was a Faunus racist who possessed an illegal, proslavery book. All of them are criminals in their own right", Jaune paused for dramatic effect, and then continued, "Chief, our killer is a vigilante. Whoever our murderer is, they're running about and knocking off people who have committed crimes. And whoever he is, he's a professional, always conserving ammo, and always going for the double tap. Some random civilian can't do that, and even some of the best soldiers can't perform kills that cleanly and get out of crime scenes so quickly. He has to either be one hell of a soldier, or he has to have Hunter level training."

"So, we've got a Hunter vigilante running about, murdering criminals?" Raymond asked, before slumping down into his chair and groaning, "Great, as if this case wasn't a political landmine in of itself."

Jaune tilted his head, "What's up?"

"Hunters are held up pretty high in the public eye, kid", Raymond said, "And by that, I mean that they're pretty popular, always being presented by old Ozpin and the rest of the headmasters as the paragons of humanity or something along those lines. There's all sorts of propaganda made about them and how they're all so good, and stuff. Now, if a Hunter was found murdering innocent people- Which, thankfully, this guy isn't- Then it would make bringing him down politically easier, but since this guy is killing criminals, then a lot of people will see this as a Hunter simply doing their job, or delivering justice, or something like that", he sighed, "And even if this guy wasn't a Hunter, then people still won't care. This guy's killing criminals, and no one cares if it's criminals that are killed", he let out a humourless chuckle, "If anything, they'll probably ask to give this guy a medal."

Jaune just folded his hands together, "So, politically, it might be a crap storm."

"Basically", Raymond went, "I mean, if we do bring this guy in, and if he is a Hunter, then that'll probably give us a cheer from the sceptics and the guys who don't like the Hunters, but from the vast majority of the public, if they see cops arresting a Hunter- Cops from a police department that already has accusations of corruption, not helped at all by the conscription laws- Then it'll be an even bigger shitstorm than it already is."

Jaune tensed up, and then relaxed, "Right, well, you worry about that, I guess. I'll worry about bringing this guy in to justice", Raymond looked at him, and he continued, "This guy's murdering people, Raymond. He's executing people. Wherever they've committed crimes or not, I don't give a damn. He's a murderer, and we've got to bring him in before he kills anyone else, like Carmine and Bertilak", after a moment of silence, he then asked, "What are we looking at for Carmine and Bertilak's apartment, by the way?"

"Quite a lot, actually", Raymond said, pulling out a large scroll from below his desk and pulling up the construction plans of a large warehouse connected to an house, "Once you sent out their address, we were able to pull up the floor plans for their home. It's a 2 layer house with an attic and no basement that we know of, that's connected to a large warehouse filled with god knows what."

"Any info on our rogue Hunters in there, Carmine and Bertilak?"

Any information. Any at all. Anything at all. As much as he could, so that when he got there and planted a fist in each of their faces, he could make sure that there weren't any surprises in store for him. He needed to end that fight quickly, so that he could get Ruby out of there faster.

He might've been visibly keeping his cool, but internally he was freaking out. Having a panic attack, for lack of a better word. These 2 were human traffickers and associates to murderers, and right now, they had his friend in their care. Who knows what they were doing to her right now, at this moment?

Now, don't get him wrong, he knew that he was sort of underestimating Ruby at this moment. She was strong, much stronger than him, both mentally and physically. She was a better fighter, a better leader, and a better Hunter overall. She could take care of herself.

But that didn't stop the worry, not in the slightest.

He'd stop worrying when he saw her, and knew that she was fine. Once she was fine, then he'd stop babying her in his mind.

"Goodwitch will know. She's on her way down now", Raymond broke his train of thought with that sentence, "She'll brief us when she meets us near their apartment."

Jaune paused, and looked at him, "Miss Goodwitch is coming down here? Was she in Vale already?"

"No, she was in Beacon", Raymond went. Jaune looked at him in surprise, and he continued, "Yeah, I know, it's time wasting, but-"

"It's all about politics?" Jaune asked without a hint of humour.

"Pretty much", Raymond sighed out, "I was able to get you, Winter Schnee, and 2 of Atlas' Hunters on the team as well, but I've had to wait for Goodwitch and a few other council approved Hunters to come through as well, just so-"

"Wait wait wait, 'Council approved'?" Jaune began, before remembering something that Winter had said earlier in the night, and went, "Political officers? The council is assigning us political officers?"

"Council approved Hunters, but, well, yes", Raymond went, "Apparently, if they allow Atlas to have more autonomy over a Valerian investigation, then it'll be a breach of rights and-"

"And sovereignty, yeah, I figured", Jaune just groaned out, shaking his head as he then went, "Whatever, we can work with this. As long as they don't start squabbling amongst each other, it'll be fine."

"You think they're gonna start fighting each other instead of the enemy?"

"I've seen a bunch of Atlesian Hunters arguing like children earlier today, in front of a public demonstration. I really just don't have the time for politics", Jaune then turned to the door, and grunted out, "As long as they don't get in the way of me trying to do my job and making sure that my friend doesn't get caught up in the crossfire, I really just don't care."

"That's a bit disrespectful, isn't it?"

"I chose to become a Huntsman to help people, Chief, not get caught up in politics."

The door opened up, and Harriet Bree popped her head in, "Hey, Chief, kid, we're about to move out", she then turned to Jaune, and went, "Oh, hey kid, Specialist Schnee wants a word with you whilst we're on our way."

Jaune allowed himself to grimace under his helmet, and then sighed, "Alright then", he then turned to Raymond", "Let's go kick the bad guys faces in", before he left though, he then asked, "Hey, what about that piece of fabric that we got back from over the walls? In the bushes? Have we got any leads on that?"

"Don't know what to tell you about that, kid", Raymond just shrugged and said, "There's a lot of white clothes out there, lots of white fabrics, and the one that you got us was covered in dirt as well. We've not been able to pull up anything on it."

"Oh", was Jaune's reply as he left, "Well, it was worth a shot at least."

* * *

_I am aware of how I acted around Winter during the majority of this incident, and how I was making it difficult for her to work with me, and for that, I apologise. It wasn't my intention to act difficult and be an annoyance to work with, and I'm sorry for it._

_However, I did have my suspicions of Winter, and to cut myself some slack, she hadn't exactly been entirely trusting of either, though I suppose that was because of my disagreements with her, but also, as a personal criticism, she was extremely cold, and was herself a bit difficult to work with, due to her stoic nature border lining, in my personal opinion, on emotional dismissal._

_And, to be fair to myself again, she had been acting suspicious as well. Or at least, there were enough connections to provide the basis for a suitable theory._

_Again, at least to me._

_Though, as it turns out, she had her own suspicions of me as well..._

* * *

"You don't like me."

Jaune looked to Winter as they drove down the dark, empty streets of Vale all the way to the warehouse, surprised by what she'd said.

"Please do not give me that look, Arc", Winter chastised, "I can tell. I've dealt with many people who have... Negative feelings towards me", she spared one look from the road to him, and then looked back and said, "So then, what is it about me that you feel negatively about?"

Jaune looked away, suddenly feeling a lot more uncomfortable about things, "Um...", he really didn't like being put on the spot like this.

"Better to get it out of the way with now than later", Winter coldly went.

"...", Jaune just stayed quiet for a while, before finally finding the words, and going, "Well, you're... You're not exactly... Approachable, y'know?" Winter cocked an eyebrow, "I mean, you act cold, and dismissive, and stuff, and it's just- It's hard to work with you when you act like you don't give a damn, you know."

This was part of the truth that Jaune wanted to say. Strictly speaking, he never liked the stoic types. They were always too cold, too unapproachable, too willing to mask their own emotions and problems under a façade of emotionlessness, instead of just being honest about themselves. Perhaps that was part of the reason that he just... Well, for the short time that he had known her, he just couldn't bring himself to like Winter, as much as respect at least.

"And, well, when you do show emotion, it's anger", Jaune hurryingly added, "You were angry at the Wolves, and you were quick to violence when confronting Primal, and while I get the anger, and I get that you were defending yourself when it came to Primal, but you didn't exactly try to, I don't know, defuse the situation, as much as egg him on into a fight", Jaune went, "I'm just- I'm just saying, I just... You're not exactly the most amiable person out there."

He went back to sitting uncomfortably in his seat, looking outside at the empty streets of Vale, looking at the passing lights with a feigned curiosity.

"...That's not everything, is it?"

Jaune froze up, and didn't say anything.

"...You think I had something to do with this, don't you?"

An awkward silence followed shortly afterwards.

Finally, Jaune answered, "...Yeah."

"..."

Winter stayed silent for a while, before parking the car on the side of the road, and looking at him.

Jaune stayed looking outside for a while, before moving his head forward and leaning back against his chair.

"Is this the part where you kill me?"

"Don't be an idiot", Winter said, remaining silent herself for a while, before tweezing the bridge and going, "Why?"

"Hm?"

"Why did you think I had something to do with this? With these murders?"

Jaune realised that Winter wasn't going to get going with anything other than a definite answer, so he just came out with it, "Well... The SDC and the White Wolves- Your family and the White Wolves- They've been at war for years, so there's probably gonna be a lot of bad blood between you and them, right?"

The silence from Winter was telling enough.

Jaune took that as a sign to continue, "Well, I figured that there was a sort of cycle of violence and hatred that was being created by that conflict, which would only help to further that same cycle, which would breed even more violence and hatred. So, Yuma, Trifa, Primal, and the 3 Faunus/Techions from outside the walls in the morning were all White Wolves, a group that, thanks to said cycle of hatred, you explicitly hate. And so did Maxwell, evidently, considering the fact that he had a racist book that was made illegal by the Rights Revolution, as well as his partnership with the SDC and his feelings towards Atlas."

He was unsure where this sudden boost of confidence and sincerity in his words was coming from, but he didn't question it.

"So, evidently, these 2 groups, Maxwell and the Wolves, would help to further along that cycle of hatred towards each other, which is bad news for everyone else. Now, if it was just those 2 that were the victims, that would've given my theory about yourself more solid ground, but with the fact that 3 police officers were killed off as well, that just muddies up the theory, though the fact that they were all corrupt doesn't help to... Well."

Jaune paused once more, his own realisation coming over him.

"But you acted confused when Junior said that those officers were dirty. You didn't know about it. The same with Carmine and Bertilak. You didn't know that they were corrupt, and they were executed in the same way as Maxwell and the Wolves, which puts my theory about you in a jam, if it didn't have shaky ground already."

"And what was this theory, Arc?"

Jaune paused, and then sighed out, "That you have a lot of money, and you have connections. You know people", Jaune sat in silence for a little while longer, and then said, "And yeah, I know, it's not a very good theory. I know that now. I was making the evidence fit the theory, and not the other way around."

Winter stayed silent for a while, before letting out a, "Hm..."

"Hm?"

"Hm", Winter hummed again, "Well, I suppose it's fair."

"Fair?"

Winter paused, and then looked outside the window.

"...You think I had something to do with this? With these murders?"

"You chased down one of the murder victims alone, you've been difficult to work with at places, and you were extremely adamant about putting yourself in this investigation", Winter replied, before looking at him and going, "I suppose I was doing the same as you."

Jaune couldn't help but feel hurt.

Well, he knew that he- Well, he supposed that he deserved it, but... But still.

It did hurt.

He supposed he was a bit of a hypocrite in that regard.

They spent the rest of the car ride in silence.

* * *

Ruby wasn't sure what specific noise woke her up, but she knew that it was coming from downstairs.

A muffled round of swearing, yelling, and calls for them to be quiet, so that their guest upstairs didn't wake up.

Too late for that, she supposed.

Ruby let her head tilt upwards, off of the bed, to listen in to the voice down below, and remembered Carmine saying that Bertilak had some sort of meeting which, from the sounds of it, didn't seem to be doing too well.

Ruby wasn't surprised. In the short few hours that she had spent with the older Huntsman, he had painted himself as an impatient and intolerable thug and bully. How he got through even the most basic Hunter academy with that attitude was lost to her.

_Damaged Goods..._

The words still rang in her head, and she gently touched the left side of her face, feeling the still raw scars and scabs.

 _Let's not think about that now_ , Ruby thought to herself, _I'll tell Miss Goodwitch about it during our therapy sessions... Together..._

There was another voice down there, sounding lofty and arrogant. It was a male, with an above mid pitched tone of voice, who seemed to speak of himself highly, though Ruby couldn't quite make out the words through the walls.

She could make out Bertilak's voice though, but again, not the words, getting louder and angrier. Then, it was Carmine's voice, trying to calm him through sarcastic retorts and threats. Quite unlike the Carmine that she had spoken too only a few hours previously.

Ruby leaned up from her bed, and moved to put her boots on, her instincts telling her that things were about to get messy.

She could hazard a good guess as to why.

* * *

Jaune stood with the rest of the Hunters that had gathered on the rooftop a few houses away from Carmine and Bertilak's warehouse, the cold of the night tempered by a portable radiator that one of them had brought with them. Below, on the streets, were a few police officers hidden away in undercover police cars, and nearby, another group of Hunters had gathered on a different rooftop, on the opposite side of the warehouse.

He looked to the Hunters around him, the group composed of Winter, Miss Goodwitch, Harriet Bree, and a Valerian Hunter named Maikio Taro, who covered in green and dark grey samurai like armour, with a long katana that looked like it had dust infused into the sharp edge of the blade. On the other building, stood Elm Ederne and 2 other Hunters, one with robes that looked like they were made entirely out of flowers, and the other dressed in a... Bunny outfit?

Hoh boy.

"Why must Mirko wear something like that all of the time?" Miss Goodwitch scolded to herself as 'Mirko' hopped up and down in place and waved at them.

"Disgraceful", Winter agreed, before changing the subject and asking, "Our enemies, Carmine and Bertilak, what are their semblances and weapons?"

"Carmine has a telekinesis semblance", Miss Goodwitch began, pulling out her scroll and looking over the information on the screen, obviously having little patience for pleasantries as well, though she seemed tired and frustrated, possibly from having to get out of bed in the middle of the night, "Though it is weaker when compared to mine, and her weapons are a pair of sais that can combine together to form a double bladed staff. Bertilak, meanwhile, can generate heat to extreme degrees, and his weapon is a chain mace that can fire a single explosive round before having to reload."

"Is there anyone else in there that we have to be worried about?" Harriet asked, "I'd rather not go in there with the fear of being blindsided by someone I didn't know was there."

"We don't know, but we have to assume that there will be more than just those 2 in there, so stay on guard and watch your corners while we're in there", Glynda went, before continuing, "Here is the plan: Our group will be moving through the main house and clearing out every room, recover Miss Ruby Rose if she is in there, and arrest anyone that we find. The second group on the other roof will be doing the same in the warehouse. Raymond and his men downstairs will be surrounding the warehouse and making sure that no one gets out. Remember, scour and cover every inch of that house for anyone and anything. If you are engaged, call for backup as soon as you can, and don't fight alone. The key here is to finish the fight and arrest them as soon as possible. No point in drawing out a fight at all."

"Ah, don't worry, teach", Harriet gave a thumbs up and a smile, "This ain't my first rodeo. We'll grab the kid and bag the bad guys."

"Sure thing, rabbit", Taro went as he looked over his blade, "Just try not to screw it up."

"I'm sorry, 'Rabbit'?" Harriet muttered.

"Your hair."

She tweezed the 2 strands of hair that stood up on her head in confusion, before her eyes widened, "Oh", and she went, "Isn't that a bit racist?"

"You're not a Faunus, are you?"

"No."

"Then it's not racist."

"...Is that how it works? I don't know if that's how it works."

"Guys, why the hell are we waiting around?! Ruby's in there! My friend is in there with those 2 psychos!" Jaune almost yelled, pulling his electrostaff from his back and flicking it on, purple electricity dancing across the barrelled tips as he then went, "Let's go kick the door down and-"

"You're not coming with us", Winter bluntly said.

What?!

"What?!"

"Arc, these aren't just some pair of thugs like with Primal and Yuma", Winter began, "These are Hunters. Professionally trained and experienced Hunters and criminals, and you are a Hunter in training who, as of 2 weeks ago, only just began your education at Beacon, if not less. In a fight against them, fair or unfair, you would be instantly destroyed."

"But-"

"Arc", her response was sharp and curt, "You are staying up here, out of harm's way, and keeping a watch over the warehouse. That is all. You are to observe, and not take part in the fighting, understood?"

Jaune didn't say anything, and just simply glared at her under his helmet. Ruby was in the same house as a bunch of criminals with a known history of weapons and human trafficking, and she expected him to just sit idly by and do nothing?! When someone needed help, or saving, or whatever, you help them, not sit on the side lines and do nothing! Why would she even think about-

"Mr Arc", Miss Goodwitch's voice broke through his thoughts and got him to turn to her, "Miss Schnee is right", he shook in anger and was about to say something in response, but Miss Goodwitch beat him to it, "Mr Arc, I know that you were able to fight out of the Emerald Forest, but you were put into a coma after that for a week, and you are still recovering from your injuries, and even if you didn't have that, you are a Hunter in training, and do not have the experience, or the training to be able to fight against a trained Hunter."

"Wait, injuries?" Winter went, "What injuries? And what about a coma?"

Miss Goodwitch just sighed, "I should've explained this to you earlier", she muttered to herself.

Jaune still looked to the side, arms crossed angrily, hands gripping tightly around himself.

"Mr Arc... Jaune", Miss Goodwitch then softly added, "We will get her out of there. We'll bring her out safe and sound", she then nodded to him and herself, "You have my word."

"...Fine."

Miss Goodwitch then nodded, before turning to the 3 other Hunters around her and going, "Get ready to move, and try not to bring the whole property down on our heads while you're at it."

"No promises", Taro humorously added, getting a chuckle from Harriet.

Winter spared a look at Jaune as she left, an unreadable emotion in her eyes as her face betrayed nothing, before turning away and heading off to the other roof next to them with Taro and Miss Goodwitch, whilst Harriet stayed behind as Jaune slumped down cross-legged in a sulk.

"Sorry kid", Harriet went, looking to the other 3, and then back to him, "First rule of life, kid: You can't always get what you want."

Jaune just shrugged, not looking at her, and moved to get a better look on the warehouse, "You should probably join them", Jaune stated, "Don't want to get left behind."

Harriet sighed, "Right", and then turned around, "See you later, kid", and with that, she sped off to join the others.

Jaune didn't catch the tiny bolt of yellow electricity that bounced off of her.

* * *

With her boots and arm armour back on, and her weapons strapped to her back once more, Ruby began to tiptoe to the door, not wishing to draw any attention to herself, or let the soft, yet stupidly loud creaking floorboards give herself away in the dark of the night.

 _It's okay_ , Ruby, she thought to herself as she crept to the door, _Don't worry about it. Just imagine it's like sneaking out at night to steal strawberries from the fridge again._

That thought brought back memories that she both wanted to treasure and forget, but she shoved those feelings to the side, as she made it to the door. With all of the stealth in her body (And no, she didn't care for the incorrect grammar), She slowly pushed down the door handle, and pulled the door towards her, the bright lights from outside her dark room almost blinding her, but she was able to quickly push though it, and quietly swing the door fully open.

There was no one on the top floor, thankfully, but there did seem to be multiple people on the bottom floor.

And from the sounds of it, those people were having quite the argument.

"Bertilak, I am already paying you generously for your dust, and your guns. I've been giving you fair prices, and interest to boot, and I don't do that for most people! And yet, now, after everything I have done for you and your partner, you want to double the price? Triple it? Don't you think that's being a little unfair?"

 _Dust? Guns?_ Ruby paused, What were they talking about down there, _No, no, they're Hunters, they wouldn't think about... Who was Bertilak meeting with earlier to... Oh no._

"Oh, don't give me that shit, Roman, you fucking cheat! You know how hard it is to smuggle all of this shit in now, thanks to all of the fucking pigs that are wondering around Vale, now!"

_Roman? As in... As in Roman Torchwick?_

"Oh, and that's suddenly a problem, why? These new cops aren't a problem, they're as bribeable as the last batch, and besides, you and your partner said it yourselves, that you're 'Professionals', and that you can 'Get the job done, no matter what'. What ever happened to that?"

_'Partner'... Carmine?_

She began to creep towards the stairs.

"Ah, shut the fuck up, Roman. It ain't as easy as walking around swirling your cane around like a dipshit and expecting everything to be handed to you on a silver fucking platter. Everyone's in a fucking panic now, just because some kids fucked off and died, like that doesn't happen every fucking day."

_…Shut up._

She slowly crept down the stairs.

"Bertilak... He's got a point though, Roman, it isn't that easy to get your purchases in now. Not with all of the Atlesian security and the herds of cops now. Not all of them can just be bought off like that. We need better compensation for all of the extra work that we have to put into this now, otherwise we're not gonna be able to get you what you want at all."

Carmine... No...

She made her way down the stairs, and peeked through the rail on the side into the living room.

Inside the living room, there was Carmine and Bertilak, standing besides another group of people.

The Jack-O-Lanterns.

The group that stood opposite the 2 Hunters were Roman Torchwick-

A tall man with his signature cane, along with orange hair that covered his right eye, which were an emerald green colour, dressed in a red-lined white suit with a grey scarf, along with black gloves, trousers, and shoes, along with eyeliner on his left eye and a black bowler hat with a red band and a feather in it.

-The Neopolitan Butcher-

A short girl coloured in white, pink, and brown, with long hair and eyes that were split between brown and pink, along with green eyeshadow, dressed in a long sleeved white jacket with a pink interior, multiple necklaces, a brown corset, and brown trousers that hugged her legs, and knee tall heeled boots that were coloured white with black soles.

-Bloody Mary-

A medium height girl with pale, pure white skin, decorated in deep cuts and scars, burning orange eyes, and blood red hair that reached the bottom of her ears and ended in a ponytail, and was dressed in a black bra that barely covered her breasts, a short, as in reaching the bottom of her chest, and shorter sleeved white jacket with red outlines that was torn at the ends of the sleeves, leaving her arms and slim waist exposed, a golden chain necklace and circular gold earrings, black torn shorts that ended at her thighs, and pure white sneakers, as well as a sadistic smile that showed too many teeth.

-The Preacher-

A man with his hands pressed together, dressed in a pure black robe that showed none of the man underneath, and wearing a white mask that looked like a skeleton missing a jaw, with 2 blood red tear mark like streaks leaving the eyes.

-Dread-

A dark green and black Techion with an emerald green glowing visor, wheels on his shoulders and waist, stubby wings coming out of his back, and dark blue legs with a yellow strip going down them.

-The Beastmaster-

A Lion Faunus with long, wild orange hair and eyes, a large mane on his back, bronze skin, sharpened teeth, and only wearing black ripped trousers, white shoes with orange soles, and black gloves that reached up to his elbows, said gloves that were wrapped up in chains that connected to 2 sitting , one eyed beasts known as Reavers.

-Brute-

A large, and imposing Techion, coloured entirely in black, with a white faceplate and glowing yellow visor, spikes covering his large shoulders, arms, and legs, glowing neon blue lines and circles that covered his body, and a massive cannon on his right arm that pulsated with blue energy.

-And Rage.

Another large, and even more intimidating Techion thug, coloured in gold for his chest, and silver for his arms and lower legs, with black colouring his upper legs and lower torso, and red colouring his waist, with a full black helmet and glowing red visor that seemed to just scream his namesake, and angry, glowing neon red lines and patterns that covered his chest, waist, and shoulders.

These guys were armed, wielding guns and swords, and from the looks of it, they were looking for a fight, should whatever deal they have turn violent, which, from the looks of some of them, was what they were hoping for.

Ruby gulped.

She had to get out of here.

* * *

Jaune watched the Hunters on the opposite sides of the house and warehouse intently, looking for any mistakes and slipups, or at least something to give him the excuse to join in on the operation, check up on Ruby, and bring these crapheels to justice.

But nope, from the looks of it, they were doing everything right, or, well, from the looks of it, they were confident in what they were doing at least.

Jaune was more pleased than disappointed.

What was he doing? Maybe he really was worrying too much. Probably.

Ruby would be fine. It was Ruby he was thinking about. She'd be fine.

Winter, though...

That's when the worries began to creep back into Jaune.

He saw the Hunters then jump up, and off of the roofs.

Down towards the warehouse and house below.

* * *

Ruby continued to creep down the stairs, trying to be as quiet as possible, her feet barely creaking against the stairs as she slowly made her way to the door.

Unfortunately, she wasn't quiet enough.

It was the Beastmaster who saw her first, his slit eyes widening, before pointing a finger and turning to Carmine and Bertilak, "Isn't that the meat that you're suppose to be looking after?"

Everyone in the room turned to Ruby.

_Crud._

* * *

The Hunters continued to tumble down.

And then, their feet touched the glass.

* * *

The Warehouse Raid had begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we are! I think that's where we're going to end this chapter now!
> 
> Originally, this chapter was going to be so much longer, detailing the Warehouse Raid in it's entirety, as well as the whole aftermath, but I realised that if I had done that, then there wouldn't have been enough content for the next chapter, and it probably would've been under 20,000 words rather than over. So, with that in mind, I decided to end it on this cliffhanger, instead of later on.
> 
> Now, it's time for the OCs!
> 
> Primal's design is based off of Optimus Primal from Beast Wars, or more specifically, his design from Unicron, drawn by Alex Milne. And since he is a member of this universe's White Fang equivalent, then this could be considered as a case of adaptational villainy.
> 
> Bloody Mary is based off of Tain Ling from Fading Fires. At least, I think she is from Fading Fires. I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. Just look up her name on Google Images, and you'll see it.
> 
> The Preacher is based off of Darth Nihilus. 'Nuff said.
> 
> Dread is based off of Hydradread from Transformers, specifically his IDW design from the Drift miniseries, drawn by Alex Milne and coloured by Josh Perez.
> 
> I have no idea where the image of the Beastmaster came from. I think I just thought of it in my head, but I'm not sure.
> 
> Brute's design is based off of Turmoil from Transformers, specifically IDW. The same goes for Rage, who's design, and even semblance, is based off of Grimlock, his design based off of Alex Milne's More Than Meets The Eye look, and his semblance from the Aligned continuity. Take from that what you will.
> 
> And as for Jaune, in this chapter, well, his viewpoint is flawed, and in the end, even he admits it. He doesn't like Winter, due to their frosty interactions, and that helps to lend bias into his theories and viewpoints. The same goes for Winter, as well.
> 
> More importantly, though, Jaune doesn't have all of the facts to this murder, and as such, his theories have holes in them, and are shaky at best. Is he in the right, or the wrong, for assuming that Winter had at least something to do with these murders? I don't know, maybe, maybe not.
> 
> Whatever the reason, he doesn't have all of the facts, and because of all of the stresses of leadership that he already has on him (Which will be an important factor into the next arc, trust me), As well as the stresses of trying to stop a murder, survive a war, and staying up past his bedtime (Everyone needs some good sleep in order to function), He's getting grouchy, and this is muddying up his perspectives and rational, though it doesn't impair them, and he can still make good judgement calls and decisions.
> 
> So, with all of that in mind, please leave a review, follow, favourite, remember to stay safe and healthy, and I shall see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	18. CSI: Vale part 3: The Things We Say We Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the Warehouse Raid underway, and with the bodies continuing to pile up, Jaune pulls off a desperate gambit to catch the killer once and for all.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Arc Theme:** _[No Time To Die by Billie Eilish](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BboMpayJomw)  
_ **Theme:**[ _You Know My Name by Chris Cornell_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnzgdBAKyJo)

* * *

The raid on the docks warehouse came up with nothing. No dust, no guns, no nothing. The entire warehouse had clearly been scrubbed of evidence and information. Same with the 5 other warehouses that we investigated. Everything that could be of use to us was, or rather is, gone.

Roman and his goons are furrow, I'll give them that. I will admit, they are good at what they do, though unfortunately, their skills could not be turned towards more altruistic goals, but, as I'm sure we all know, hindsight is 20/20.

What I don't get, is why a thief, of all things, needs all of that dust. Sure, it can be used as a weapon, but only in small quantities, at least safely. He might just be gathering it all up to sell it again, but I'm not sure. Something about this just doesn't feel right.

I think Torchwick might be working for someone, but I'm not sure. I just got a feeling, that's all.

**_Memo sent to Police Chief Warren Mores regarding a raid on a series of warehouses at the docks, 3 days before the Initiation Massacre._ **

* * *

_I was watching the Warehouse Raid from up on a nearby roof, trying to get as good of a view as I could. If I couldn't take part in the raid, then I could at least watch and make sure that Ruby would be able to get out alright._

_At first, everything was going well._

_For the first minute or 2._

_Then it started going to hell._

* * *

Ruby froze, having been caught in the crossfire of Carmine, Bertilak, and the Jack-O-Lanterns, the one-eyed Reavers that had once sat still on the floor, leashed to the Beastmaster, waking up and blinking their orange eyes, before snarling and baring their yellow, sharpened teeth as they stared down the young Huntress in training, whilst the Beastmaster held them back with a growl, cracking his own neck and waving his wild hair with a shake of his head. Rage growled, and an orange fire like glow began to flicker around him. Brute and Dread aimed their guns at her. Bloody Mary gave a sadistic smile with narrowed eyes, as bloody swirls began to emerge on her arms. The Neopolitan Butcher gave a sweet smile as she lifted up her closed umbrella, and unsheathed a thin, sharpened blade from underneath. And all that Roman did, was twirl his cane in place and turn to Carmine and Bertilak with an amused smile on his lips.

"So, this is the 'Damaged goods' that you've been complaining about?"

"Shut the fuck up, Roman."

"Ah yes, I shall be sure to silence you next time you're having hate sex."

Ruby decided to try and take advantage of their banter, to try and slip away whilst everyone else was busy with their Mantlian Standoff, her visible eye darting to the door, and then to the crowd.

Bertilak looked to Roman, and Roman looked to Bertilak. None of the others turned away.

Good enough.

A burst of rose petals later, and she was at the door, her hand on the handle. Just a quick twist, and-

An invisible force grabbed her, flinging her down the hall and onto her back, holding her in place in front of the living room entrance.

"She's a liability, sir. We should just kill her now."

"Yeah, it's been a while since I've killed a Huntress."

"Yeah, no, she's a Huntress in training, and if she goes missing without explanation, then people are gonna start asking questions."

Ruby was barely able to turn her head to the side, but she managed, spotting Carmine holding her hand out with a yellow glow leaving her fingertips in wisps, while 2 of the Jack-O-Lanterns, Bloody Mary and the Neopolitan Butcher, walked up and began to inspect her like a zoo animal, or a piece of meat slabbed onto a table.

"We have to play it smart here, ladies and gents, if a Hunter, especially a student, goes missing or dies, people start asking questions", she saw Roman continue on with.

Dread then gave him a look through his glowing green visor, still levelling his large gun to Ruby's head, "So what, sir? We just let her live?"

This got Roman to chuckle, "Well, I never said that now, did I?"

Ruby's eyes widened as the Neopolitan Butcher and Bloody Mary then walked and stood over her, both of the smiles on their faces looking horrid and evil and showing too many teeth. Ruby had heard of this group of killers before, including about how the Neopolitan Butcher liked to play with her food, about how she would like to pick them apart and toy with her victims, before finally finishing them off, which was combatted by Bloody Mary and the sheer level of gore and sadism that she would put into her kills, pulling them to pieces, gutting them like fish, draining them off blood, and so on, leaving her victims as bloody masses of torn flesh and bone for whomever would find them.

They looked like they were going to do the same to her, Bloody Mary licking her lips and letting the flesh on her arm swirl and coil out into sharped blades attached to pale flesh tendrils, revealing the bare skeleton underneath, the muscle fibres wrapping themselves around the pale flesh blades and strengthening them, whilst the blood from her arm coiled and split out into thin red whip like tendrils, each one of them screaming pain and malice.

The Neopolitan Butcher simply tilted her head to the side, switched around the colour in her eyes, and smiled even more.

That communicated much more than Bloody Mary ever could hope for.

Roman then turned to the Beastmaster, and went, "Hey, Beasty? When was the last time that your pets ate?"

Ruby's eyes widened.

The Beastmaster just smiled and chuckled, "Heh, well, it's been a while since they've eaten. My boys need meat in them in order to function", at the sound of that, the 2 Reavers, still leashed to the arms of the Beastmaster, began to bark and snarl, blood red saliva dripping and frothing from their diseased gums as they looked to Ruby and saw only a breathing slab of meat, hidden away behind fabrics and cloth.

"Roman, please don't", Carmine bluntly stated, her hand still held out and a dull expression on her face, "I just had the floors bleached."

"And I'll pay for them to be cleaned again, because I'm nice like that. Don't worry about it."

"How are you-"

"'Young Beacon student mauled by Grimm outside of walls'. Now there's a headline. Got it?"

Carmine just sighed, "Crystal", and then turned to Ruby with an expression that held nothing but apathy within them.

"Carmine...", Ruby began to beg, still held down by the older Huntress' telekinesis, her hands trying and failing to reach for the weapons on her bag, "Please..."

"Sorry kid", she shrugged, "Nothing personal."

"Felt pretty fucking personal to me."

"That's because everything is pretty fucking personal to you."

"If you 2 are done flirting", Roman chirped, before pointing his cane at Ruby, and going, "Beasty... Sic 'em."

Beastmaster chuckled, "Feeding time."

He let go of the chains, and Ruby closed her eyes.

The window in the living room shattered, and Ruby opened her eyes.

A body- A woman with dark skin, glowing yellow eyes, bright hair that were curved upwards like 2 rabbit ears and covered in yellow electricity that superheated the air and left a thin trail of dust in their wake- Flung into the room and landed her feet onto both of the Reavers, one foot kicking one into the counter that separated the living room from the kitchen, and the other foot landing on the unarmoured neck of the second Reaver and crushing it, sending a thick cloud of red blood out from the Reaver's now severed head and neck stump as the body quickly did a cartwheel- Landing a satisfying kick on Carmine's face whilst she was at it and sending her to the floor- And then standing upright and coming to a stop in the doorway next to the counter.

"Nailed it", the figure in Atlesian specialist clothing- With a (Wicked looking!) Pair of brass knuckles that connected to a grey and glowing red exoskeleton that went down her arms and connected to her back- Said, "Alright then Carmine, Bertilak you 2 are under..."

It was then that she finally noticed the rest of the Jack-O-Lanterns that were standing around there.

"...Aw crud."

"MAYKR!" the Beastmaster cried out to the dead Reaver on the floor.

Ruby used her newfound freedom to look away from all of the blood, rather... Unpleasant images coming to mind.

The window cracked again, and another figure, this time dressed in (Also wicked looking) Green and grey samurai like power armour, and welding a katana that was lined with dust, and from the stairs above her, came the sound of another pair of windows crashing and a pair of feet crashing against the floor, followed by 2 pairs of feet.

Ruby looked between the Jack-O-Lanterns, to the bad Hunter pair, to the samurai guy, to the lady with the robotic exoskeleton brass knuckles which looked like they could be infused with dust and were made with heavy attacks and lifting in mind.

"...Er… Hi?"

The Jack-O-Lanterns immediately raised their weapons at the both of them.

All Ruby could think was:

_Aw crud... Again._

* * *

Mirko wasn't sure what she was expecting when she burst through the window of the warehouse.

Maybe those 2 Hunter bad guys.

Maybe a warehouse filled with goons.

Hopefully a warehouse full of goons.

She really wanted to fight a warehouse full of goons.

And the goons as well.

Getting off track, she was.

What she hadn't been expecting was to smack into a shelf as tall as the ceiling, the momentum and force from the impact toppling the long shelf over and sending it crashing into the next shelf after it, sending guns and barrels and other items that had been carefully placed onto the rows in the shelf tumbling to the floor in a clumsy, disorganised mess.

Unfortunately, it didn't create a chain reaction that sent every other shelf in the massive warehouse tumbling down like dominos, and squashing every single bad guy that was in the warehouse though,

Shame.

Oh well, that just meant that she had to beat these guys up herself.

Hell to the yes!

Speaking of which, she looked between the rows and rows of shelves, and between the cracks, to see a familiar sight.

Bad guys, simple thugs from the looks of it, armed with pistols, swords, and axes. It looked like they were moving stuff from in the warehouse into- Oh! Into a white, unmarked van that was parked in the middle of an open door in the back of the warehouse.

And judging from the signature pimp outfits consisting of black hats and suits, and the red sunglasses and ties, they were Roman Torchwick's crew.

Figures, only Roman Torchwick would dress his hired muscle up as strawberry pimps.

However, if these fashion disaster idiots were here, then that meant that Torchwick, or one of his other Jack-O-Lantern goons wasn't far behind them.

Mirko smirked. Good.

Gods, she should really thank the Schnee and her kid for this. When the council had told her that she'd be joining a police raid on just 2 people as part of some cop job, she'd been disappointed. That wasn't a fight, that was just unfair, but now, she had just been given a goon beat 'em up buffet!

Ah, gods, this was gonna be fun! She hadn't had a good fight in days!

Speaking of which, a few of the baddies finally noticed that there was a rabbit legged Faunus in a bunny outfit standing over them on top of a giant shelf, and then a lot of them, and then all of them.

"...Er", one of the strawberry pimp goons went, "Is that a bunny girl?"

She just smiled and shrugged, "Yep."

"What?"

"I'm a bunny girl."

"Oh."

"Wait a minute", another goon went, "Did you just break that shelf?!"

"And the window as well, don't forget", yeah, Mirko felt quite proud about that window entrance, and she would like it if people would acknowledge it.

"Ah, fuck, who are you?!"

"I'm Mirko!" she chirped, hopping up and down in place, and going, "Certified Huntress, and also certified bunny girl!"

"...Aw shit-"

Mirko jumped up into the air, eclipsing one of the central lights in the warehouse as she slammed herself into the roof of the warehouse, leaving a giant dent in the metal roof as a split second later, she crouched down on the roof of the building, pushed all of her momentum into her rabbit legs, and shooting downwards with the speed of a bullet.

"-It's a Huntress! Kill-"

She shut that random bad guy up by cartwheeling in the air and slamming her feet into his waist, slamming him down into the ground and winding him, before-

"Yeah, that's what every villain says-"

-Jumping back up, onto her hands, and then launching her feet into 2 of the other goons' throats, sending them both crashing into the opposite shelves and tumbling to the ground.

"-Before they go in for the kill!"

Without missing a beat, she then pushed herself back into the air, and slammed her feet into the faces of 2 other goons, breaking their glasses, noses, and teeth, and slamming them into the concrete floor, cracking their heads open, but not killing them.

Behind her, she could hear that Atlesian girl- The big dumb one with the rocket launcher hammer thing- Smash the white van at the back entrance to bits (Fun!) And her fellow Valerian girl turn her hands into long, green, flower adorned vines that stretched out an enwrapped 3 other goons in their embrace (Less fun, no beating people up!). They were doing their job, now it was time for her to do her own.

Just had to hope that the dumb Atlesian lug didn't get in her way. Atlas folk really liked to do that.

After jumping off of the 2 thugs on the ground, she then did a summersault in the air, and landed on her 2 feet, stretching her arms out wide, and going, "Right then, fellas, who's next?!"

The wall near her- The one connecting the warehouse to the actual house- Exploded outwards in a spray of fire, ash, and rubble, and knocked another shelf over, this time creating a domino effect that began to throw all sorts of items on those shelves down and all around her like heavy rain, crashing and smashing onto the ground, whilst above her, her toppled shelves and the domino effecting shelves came together to form a lovely little pyramid above them.

Out of the smoking hole in the wall came a lumbering brute of a Techion coloured in silver, gold, and red, his red visor glowing with rage, and a fire like aura flaming all around and off of him.

Rage was his name and his game. This Techion was a member of the Jack-O-Lanterns, and one of the angriest sons of bitches out there, known for his uncontrollable temper tantrums and the amount of people that he has murdered because of them. His semblance was one that weaponised that rage, making him stronger and more uncontrollable as he got angrier, and he was rarely ever not angry.

Mirko smiled to herself and cracked her knuckles.

"Now it's a party!"

* * *

This was one hell of a party.

Ruby had taken advantage of Carmine losing her telekinetic grip on her by darting to the side, and moving to pull her Crescent Rose 2.0 off of her back.

However, as she cartwheeled away from a stray blast from Roman's cane, she realised that it was way too close quarters to use her trademark rebuilt weapon. Despite her baby being rebuilt to be much more slimmer and more proportionate to her body, resulting in a smaller profile that she could better control and manoeuvre, if only sacrificing range in melee combat, it was still a big weapon, and couldn't be used in any close quarters areas such as inside a building. The same went for when Crescent Rose was in its rifle form. It was a long range sniper, not a shotgun.

Beforehand, this would've put Ruby in a severe tactical position. As a wielder of both a long scythe and a sniper rifle, this meant that Ruby used to be heavily specialised. A scythe was a very difficult weapon to use when compared to a sword, as one would have to twist and turn and contort their body into extremely difficult and elaborate positions just to catch an opponent on the curved blade of the scythe itself, which meant that she had to train for pretty much her whole life just to be able to use it as a weapon and not as just a farming tool.

However, that was beforehand. If the events of the Initiation Massacre had taught her anything-

And not how blood was horrible and ugly an _d hot an **d wET AND STICKY**_

-It was that too much specialisation in any sort of weapon led to one's demise. She had lost her first Crescent Rose in that fight, and as such, it had left her extremely vulnerable to the Grimm. As such, she had to make due with Yang's Ember Celica, which, because she had helped to work on them Yang and had watched her train and spar with them, she was already rather familiar with, which had helped, though it hadn't saved her.

Overspecialisation bred weakness. It was a lesson that she had forever been scarred with, and now, she was ready to put it into practice.

The 2 other weapons on her back, whist more helpful then Crescent Rose in this environment, were still a bit too long in a confined space such as this, so, she had to move to the final 2 new additions to her arsenal, her close quarters counters.

With a twist of her wrists, she pulled her arms up and flicked her fists down. A pair of tiny barrels rolled out of the bracelets, and-

{BANG BANG BANG}

-Silver flashes of light rang out from the barrels and slammed into Bloody Mary-

That's right, her bracelets were guns! Get wrecked suckas!

-Which only served to draw her attention to the smaller girl, as the skin and flesh and blood around the skeleton of her arm coiled and twisted into their sharpened tendrils once more.

Ah poop.

Bloody Mary smiled her sadistic smile, "Hello there~", and then charged at her, bouncing off of the wall and then leaping at her.

Thankfully, Ruby was able to leap through a doorway into the kitchen, getting out of the way of Blood Mary's strike and coming to a stop with her arms raised, still firing silver coloured rounds into her, though as she dodged them, she came barrelling into the kitchen as well, and pulled a knife out of a wooden holster on the side using her now bony hand, throwing it at the younger girl, which Ruby dodged, though all that it did was distract her so that Bloody Mary could grab her by the neck using one of her thin tendrils of blood, and raise one of her other sharpened tendrils of flesh and bring it down on the girl-

Time to show off the second function of her close quarters weapons!

-Only for Ruby to quickly raise her arms once more and flick her wrists to the side, the blades of her arms extending outwards upon 2 freshly revealed metal arms and cutting into the fleshy tendril, not severing it, but throwing her off for a few seconds, long enough for her to use her arm blades to cut the tendril of blood around her neck, severing Bloody Mary's link to the tendril and sending the blood falling down Ruby's neck and shirt-

_**HOT WET STICKY RED WHITE CLEAR HATE IT HATE IT HATE HATE HATE** _

-And the rest splattering on the floor and staining the white tiles red.

That's right, meet her new weapon pair, Silver Bloom! A mecha-shift combo weapon made out of the same functions of Yang's Ember Celica, but replacing the shotgun emplacement with a submachine gun, and attaching 2 scythe blades to the arm gauntlets and building 2 thin metal arms between the blades and the gauntlets, letting them extend out and adapt to different short ranged attack styles and cramped conditions!

"Heh", was all that Bloody Mary said, as she recovered herself, "Cute", and lunged forward once more, the edges of her bladed tendrils (That looked like they were made of bone and blood) Slamming and parrying with Ruby's arm blades, before she was able to get one of her tendrils below her and swiped at her legs, cutting through her boots and aura and slicing through the flesh and bone, not enough to cut them off, but enough to draw a lot of blood.

Ruby let out a scream at the pain and staggered back, which allowed Bloody Mary to throw herself on top of her-

_**GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF** _

-And laugh as she shoved her onto the bloody floor, and brought one of her bladed tendrils to her neck.

"Fuck, you're cute, you know."

_Shut up shut up shut up._

"Oh, I can't wait to cut you open and bleed you dry-"

"Get away from my student!"

A purple glow came over Bloody Mary, and she was flung to the side, out of the kitchen, and into the chaotic living room where the walls were being brought down and red and blue flashes of light punctured those same white walls. At the side of the counter, Miss Goodwitch stood, looking tired and rather ruffled, but otherwise okay.

"Miss Rose, are you hurt?"

"Ah, no, Miss Goodwitch, I'm- I'm fine! My aura's just healing me up!" Ruby called out, dodging a green blast as she got herself up, avoiding the broken shards of plate as they fell to the ground, and went, "Just- Just need-"

"You just need to leave immediately, Miss Rose!" Miss Goodwitch went as she quickly used her semblance to deflect one of the Beatmaster's chain swipes, and went, "Get yourself to safety, and leave these thugs to-"

The swipes from 3 bladed skin tendrils quickly slicing across her back silenced her, and forced Miss Goodwitch to turn back to see Bloody Mary in pouncing position on the counter-

"You know, it's rude to interrupt people!"

-And lunging forward once more, pouncing on the older teacher and slicing her tendrils at her aura, laughing and smiling as Miss Goodwitch used her free hand to gesture to Ruby and send her a silent message-

_Go!_

-Before bringing her attention back to Bloody Mary and applying a kick to her stomach, forcing her back as Ruby vaulted over the counter and found herself back in the living room, which had been made wider by a giant hole in the wall, which opened up into a wide warehouse filled with toppled shelves, where she spotted Rage, Roman, Brute, and the Preacher fighting against a trio of Huntresses.

Near Ruby, the Techion, Dread, pointed his large rifle at her and fired off several green bolts, all of which Ruby dodged with a burst of rose petals, to which she then aimed her bracelet guns and fired off once more, sending a dozen bullets from each bracelet into the Techion, but unfortunately, not downing him.

"Fuck this", the Techion growled, before tapping his chest, a blinking green light popping up and progressing with speed as he tapped a finger against his head, still holding up his rifle in his other hand and spraying green lit bullets at Ruby and the other Hunters around them, "Sir, warn the others. I'm activating my semblance", within the warehouse, Roman Torchwick looked back and nodded, before firing a round from his cane at a buff Huntress- Elm Ederne, Ruby remembered her name being- Who then swung her awesome hammer weapon that looked like it had rocket launchers in it and if she would be able to get the specs on that weapon she could-

Wait.

Dread's semblance.

Ruby remembered Yang teaching her all that was known about the Jack-O-Lanterns back when they were in the orphanage a few months ago. She remembered Yang wanting her to know what to expect in the unlikely event that she ever encountered one of them (Which was funny now, in an ironic sort of way).

She remembered Yang telling her what was known about their semblances, Dread's included, which itself stood within the Powermaster variety-

Most semblances nowadays were divided into 3 very broad, and yet informative categories. Headmasters, Targetmasters, and Powermasters.

Headmasters were semblances that worked and focused on mental aspects, such as Ren's semblance, which allowed him to conceal negative emotions, or DJ, who's semblance allowed him to sense and manipulate radio frequencies.

Targetmasters were semblances which were for more physically practical uses, such as fighting, like Neon's semblances which allowed her to travel at incredibly fast speeds, or Blake's, which could create physical clones of herself for use in evasion and misdirection whilst fighting.

And then there were the Powermasters, who's name spoke for itself, as these were the semblances that relied on raw power itself, and channelled that power for all sorts of practical uses. Typically, these were the strongest semblances, such as Pyrrha's, which allowed her to manipulate poles or something, or Yang's, which allowed her to absorb physical attacks and send them back with twice the force, or Melanie's, which allowed her to absorb and weaponize energy itself, turning it into plasma or even blue fire, which was the hottest type of fire to even exist.

Ruby herself was classified as a Targetmaster, seeing as her semblance allowed her to, as the semblance specialists back in Signal had put it, transmutate her body into a swarm of rose petals, which then allowed her to travel through the air at incredibly fast, inhuman speeds, before recollecting and reforming her body once more, without any traces of changes or negative side-effects.

-Being an E.M.P., meaning an electromagnetic-pulse. His semblance could disable any electronic devices within a short distance.

In the warehouse, the neon lights on Rage and Brute flashed off.

The other Hunters in the room seemed to come to the same realisation as Ruby had done, as the one in the green and grey samurai like armour took his katana and rushed the Techion, igniting the blade with a line of fire dust (A function that got a tiny squeal from Ruby as she imagined all of the different ways that she could modify her weapons with that mod in mind) And slashing at the Techion's chest, the flaming sword leaving a burning scar in the metal, the force of the impact staggering Dread back, but giving him enough time to slam the butt of his rifle into the visor of the samurai Hunter and then, whilst swinging his gun like a club, smashing him over the head with it, sending him spiralling back, into the path of the Beastmaster, and then resulting in them starting their own fight, whilst the lights on Dread turned off, and green electricity began to flicker across his body.

Not on my watch, Ruby thought as she prepped her Silver Bloom arm blades and burst forward in a flurry of rose petals, slamming her left blade into Dread's head and slicing through the metal, and dropping the thug to the ground with a loud crash, breaking through the floor, and leaving a spiderweb of splinters and cracks in the impact zone, only for the cyborg, just as fast as Ruby, to slam his foot into Ruby's face, knocking her back, and then do a headstand, catch Ruby between his 2 metal feet, and then flip over, slamming the back of her head into the ground and drawing blood, before Dread picked her up by her head and slammed her into the wall, cracking it and letting her slump down.

Green electricity danced across Dread's body, and Ruby swore that underneath his faceplate and helmet, he was smiling. His semblance was ready.

The girl with the hair that looked like rabbit ears and the awesome exoskeleton knuckle braces realised this as well and, in a crackle of yellow electricity that left a cloud of dust in it's wake, she lunged forward and threw a fist back.

She was quick, but it wasn't quick enough, as from Dread, came a bubble of green electricity that smothered everyone in the room, and spread to the walls and into the electrical systems in the house, shutting off all of the lights and leaving the house in darkness, only lit by the few scattered crackles of green energy that shot around the walls, before fading away into nothingness.

The exoskeleton on the girl's back crackled and locked in place, causing her to tumble to the ground and groan as she tried to shimmy out of her now fired exoskeleton, only for the lights on Dread's body to flicker back on, before raising his foot up and stomping on the woman, denting her armour and getting a yelp of pain from her.

Ruby- Somehow- Felt that same electricity trickling around her arms and down her back, and looked down to see green energy trickling down her Silver Bloom arm blades and causing them to twitch and splutter, before stalling in place. They were fried by the E.M.P., so they were nothing more than dead weight now. Same with her Crescent Rose on her back now (Oh heck no, she did not want to lose her Crescent Rose again!), So she had to lose them both for now, until she could repair them later.

Unclipping the blades and armour on her arms so fast that she swore that rose petals fluttered off of her, and then reached her right hand up to unclip her Crescent Rose, before-

She had made a rookie mistake, and hadn't kept her eyes on the fight around her. Weiss' sister or mother or something was preoccupied with the Preacher, the Jack-O-Lantern's semblance kicking in and turning himself into coils of metal wires that were shrouded into a black mist, Miss Goodwitch was busy fighting Bloody Mary in the kitchen, breaking the oven and hitting a gas main, creating a continuous stream of gas that began to flood the room, the Neopolitan Butcher was busy teaming up with Dread to beat down on the girl with the exoskeleton, the samurai Hunter's armour had locked up thanks to the E.M.P., leaving him vulnerable to the Beastmaster and his surviving Reaver pet, who begin to tear into and rip off his armour, whilst the rest of the Jack-O-Lanterns were busy fighting the 3 other Hunters in the warehouse, though the hole in the wall.

Where were Carmine and Bertilak?

-Bertilak's chain mace slammed into the side of her head, knocking her down once more before the mace hit her once more in the jaw, drawing blood this time as a rough hand grabbed her by the neck and slammed her back against the wall, the permanent snarl on Bertilak's face hidden by the darkness.

"Bertilak, let's go!" Carmine cried out near him as she dodged a sabre swipe from Winter, "Let's leave these idiots to themselves and book it!"

"Not yet!" Bertilak cried out, before looking at his chain mace, and smiling, "I gotta leave these idiots a parting present before we go!"

Ruby remembered Bertilak bragging about his weapon to her after she had asked Carmine about her weapon. His was a chain mace that had a pistol function- That didn't use electronics, so it would most likely be unaffected by Dread's semblance- Which only held 1 round before needing to reload.

Explosive rounds.

Bertilak looked to the sound of the hissing gas and smiled.

Carmine didn't. Neither did Ruby.

Before either of them, or anyone else could react, Bertilak raised his mace and pulled the trigger.

* * *

Jaune started running across the rooftops when the green bubble of light encompassed the house and the warehouse.

He stopped running when the explosion ripped through the house and vaulted up into the sky, opening a glowing orange hole in the house.

He stood on top of one of the roofs, his jaw wide open under his helmet, as were his eyes. Underneath him, the police officers in their undercover cruisers had begun to panic as well, getting out of their cars and yelling about how everything was going to hell and how the Hunters had screwed everything up.

Jaune didn't pay any mind to this, though, as he looked over the now flaming house and began to panic. What the hell was that? Was that a semblance or a gas main? Had Ruby been hurt by it? Obviously, but... Was she okay?

Was she alive?

What about Winter, or Miss Goodwitch, or Harriet, or the other Hunters that'd gone in the house and warehouse? Were they okay? Were they alive?

Judging from the flashes of light that he could see through the shattered windows of the warehouse, they were still kicking, but how many were there, and for how long?

And how many more bad guys were in there?

Jaune didn't ponder the last question- Didn't have time to- Before looking down to the ground below, spotting Chief Raymond, and going, "Yo, Chief!" Upon grabbing his attention, he then yelled out, "Tell one of your guys to try and shut the gas and the electrics to the house off, I think that was a gas explosion, and keep your guns trained on the house! And try to keep some people in the cars as well! If anyone tries to make a run, it'll be easier to corral and chase them down!"

The other police officers tried to say something firstly, most likely disagreements and arguments, but Raymond silenced them by giving him a thumbs up, and then asking, "What about you, kid? What are you doing?"

Jaune just pulled out his ML-15LE Wire Rifle, and just yelled out, "Intervening!"

As he continued to run across the rooftops, ignoring the pain in his abdomen, all the way around to the now burning building with the hole in it's side, he looked down to the rifle, and remembered that there was a reason the guys back home called the custom ML-15 the Wire Rifle, because of all of the thickly padded wires that ran across the outside of the armour of the gun.

And there was a reason that these wires were here as well.

Amidst running, he flicked 3 switches on his rifle and pressed a small button. Golden electricity began to dance across the metal wires as a small, yet powerful battery, like a river from an opened damn, began to flood energy down to the front of the rifle's barrel, building up into a golden pattern and fire of energy.

The Wire Rifle, an ML-15 rifle that had been endlessly customised to include a one hit kill battery pack into the design, allowing for, when activated, an incredible build up of energy to be released from the gun and to immediately kill a Grimm, or stun an opponent, should their aura be up. Jaune mused that if everyone in the Emerald Forest had one of these weapons, the battle might've gone very differently.

No, it wouldn't have. It would've been the exact same, considering that the major flaw of this gun was that the battery immediately melted, and was no longer useful to anyone at all, as soon as a single charged bolt of energy was released. If anything, the fight might've gone worse.

Jaune stopped thinking to himself, the glow and gentle hum of the weapon underneath him no longer hording his attention, as he saw the smoke clearing and spotted, illuminated by an orange glow in what he mused to be the living room (Or what was left of it), A burnt, scruffy looking man with a rusty old chain mace in hand- Bertilak- Holding Ruby Rose up by her neck against the wall and raising his mace up.

Jaune pushed his motion sickness down, as well as his rifle, felt his feet touch the edge of the last roof, and jumped.

* * *

"Looks like Roman and his idiots are scampering off. Like wounded pups."

Ruby let out a groan on the floor, and opened her eyes. The smoke stung them like a hornet's sting, and her ears were still ringing, but she could still see, hear, and from the sensations of it, move, so that was a good thing."

"Shame."

Then, she felt the same hand from not even 10 minutes ago, rough like leather and filled with callouses, wrap around her throat once more, this time more harshly, tighter, choking the air out of her as she clawed her nails at his hands, only for him to smile at the action, evidently not feeling it.

"I was kinda hoping that the blast would kill all of you. 'Cept me of course. I would've been okay with that."

He removed one of his hands from her throat, kicked up his chain mace from the ground, and grabbed it in his free hand. Nearby, Carmine was the first person to get up, shaky and uncoordinated.

"Oh well. You'll have to do."

He raised it above his head, intent on delivering the killing blow.

Ruby would've struggled more if she wasn't distracted by the rapidly approaching golden light that was burning brighter and brighter by the second, breaking through the dark smoke and orange and yellow fire that at some parts glowed blue at the tips, before-

{CRACK}

-The golden blast of energy slammed into Bertilak's back, burning his brown hood and black tunic, and shattering the little that was left of his aura, burning and melting the skin on his back and letting off the smell of burnt, cooking meat.

Bertilak let out a course yell of pain as he dropped Ruby onto the ground, reaching for his back as a tear left his eye-

Ruby swallowed the taste of satisfaction in her mouth.

-Before, flying into the room from the hole in the house that stretched up to the roof, an armoured boot slammed into the back of his head, another in his back that had been blackened and reddened and cracked into scab lines and raw bloody cuts, forcing the larger man to crash into the wall, breaking through it and expanding the hole into the warehouse, the owner of the boots slamming Bertilak's head into the now concrete ground and cracking his jaw with a fine-

{CRUNCH}

-Knocking the older Huntsman unconscious, as the owner of the boots then jumped off of his back that had been divided by blackened and bloody valleys and canyons of cracked skin, and landed on the floor, running back into the ruined living room and holstering the long rifle in his hands over his shoulder, and then pulling from his back a folded electrostaff, which he then twirled around as he ran towards Carmine- Who was still dizzy and almost out of aura- And threw it downwards, and then began to swing it up as the staff converted into a glowing purple electrohammer-

Ruby would've been geeking out as the possible designs and modifications from the electrohammer and staff that she could put into her weapons if she wasn't so dazed.

-And then upper cutting it into Carmine's head, purple electricity dancing all across her body and singing her skin and what little clothing that she had on, as the force of the blow dislocated her jaw and sent her flying to the still hot ground, kicking up dust and ash and dirt as she slammed into the ground and dislocated her jaw in a satisfying {CRACK}.

Ruby looked up at her saviour, to see him holding out a hand. A man dressed in white and gold shining armour, now being soiled and dirtied by ash and smoke. His hand was outstretched to her, as his helmet's visor, glowing an ocean blue, spoke an untold kindness and purity that had her enraptured by it as the white and gold saviour of hers then echoed, "Hey, I'm Jaune."

Ruby, upon realising who it as, as well as the joke, then smiled, and took his hand, "Ruby... Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?"

"Ruby, I will let go."

"Love you too, Vomit Boy, and thanks."

"Don't sweat it", Jaune shrugged, before turning to the unconscious bodies of Carmine and Bertilak below him, before turning to the fire that was brewing all around them, and, once he pulled Ruby up, took a firmer hold of his hand, and said to her, "We need to get out of here, now."

Ruby looked up to him, confused, "Wait, what? Why?"

"This place is burning up around us, and the guys in the warehouse that the other Hunters are fighting are hardened criminals from the looks of it, not common thugs. It's like Winter and Miss Goodwitch said to me, we're just Hunters in training, not actual Hunters. We're not experienced enough to fight them."

"You fought Carmine and Bertilak!"

"No, their aura's were pretty much gone, they were dazed, and I was just knocking them out. That wasn't a fight, that was me delivering the finishing blows", Jaune then turned to the Hunters on the floor, and then let go of Ruby, moving towards Winter and grabbing her arm, and going, "Hey, wanna help me carry these guys out? I'd rather not leave them in the middle of a burning-"

{STAB}

The sound came out of nowhere, and Jaune froze, letting go of Winter's arm and letting it flop to the floor. Behind him, the air shattered like glass, revealing a thin, bloody blade that jutted out of him, wedged in the thin, vulnerable area between the armour plates between his chest and waist.

The sadistic glee on the Neopolitan Butcher behind him was apparent, a wide smile on her face at having discovered one of his weak points, before pulling the blade out of him and sending a kick to his throat, slamming him into the ground, and swiping her sword to the side in order to flick away the blood, letting it splatter and dry up on the floor and wall, before turning to Ruby, and letting her smile show just a few more teeth.

* * *

Y'know, Mirko would've been enjoying this fight more if the Atlesian moron wasn't trying to kill them all.

"INCOMING!" she yelled out as Mirko had to quickly hop out of the way, just to make sure that she wasn't crushed by her massive hammer, which ended up going into the Jack-O-Lantern Techion known as Dread, "Sorry!"

"Who's side are you on?!" Mirko yelled out to her as she jumped over the Preacher as he coiled his smoky wires around the flower Huntress, and slammed her foot against the head of Bloody Mary, the fleshy tendrils from her arm trying to wrap around her foot and pull her down, though she was just able to jump off her head-The resulting momentum throwing Bloody Mary back and forcing her into another shelf, toppling it over into another line of shelves, and adding to the chaos around her, as supplies and items that had been stocked on the shelves fell to the floor and added to the growing fires.

Then, once more, as the fighting moved to on top of the toppled and burning shelves, Mirko had to dodge the colossus hammer as its owner swung it around with reckless abandon, slamming into the Techion known as Rage, flinging him backwards into a wall and shaking the entire warehouse's foundations, as the recoil of the hammer strike shook the world around her, and made the support beams for the warehouse groan and shudder.

"Hey Atley, cool it with the hammer strikes!" Mirko called out as she dodged a swipe from Bloody Mary, and landed a blow to her throat, "As much as I like a little chaos, I'd rather not have this entire warehouse come down on my head!"

"Sorry again!" the hammer girl called out as she at least looked like she was beginning to show restraint in her blows, getting into a fight with the Beastmaster and Brute, whilst the girl with the flowers and vines that grew from her was at least doing something useful and trying to restrain Roman Torchwick and Dread.

As she quickly spared a glance to the Atlesian idiot and her stupidly big hammer, she supressed a urge to groan. What was it with Hunters nowadays and their want for stupidly complicated weapons? Even she had been a student in Beacon (When she'd started her 1st year, Goodwitch had been in her 4th), There was a constant obsession with mecha-shift and combo weapons, which she always thought was stupid. What was the point? How was a simple gun or a sword any less reliable than, let's say, a sickle that could turn into a whip, or a crossbow that could turn into a saw, or something equally ridiculous.

If anything, a simple gun or sword was infinitely more reliable than any combo weapon. Combo weapons were fragile as fuck. They had so many gears and cogs and moving parts in them that if they jammed up or were locked up, they'd be absolutely useless, and would be depriving a Hunter of half of their entire fighting style. And then there was the cost that went into some of them, the amount of money that was needed to maintain even the most basic combo weapon, to keep their blades sharpened, and their cogs and spinning parts cleaned, to make sure that the ridiculous amount of dust in them was maintained at constant levels. It was absolutely ridiculous, incredibly time and money consuming, and, in Mirko's eyes, wasteful and utterly pointless.

A simple gun, on the other hand, did not have that many parts. A simple gun was easy to maintain, had a less likely chance of locking up or breaking due to wear and tear, and was infinitely less fragile, and a sword was even less. A sword just had to be sharpened a few times, to make sure that it didn't dull, and that was about it. A sword had no moving parts. A sword would jam in the middle of battle. A sword was reliable, and not a stupid thing to have in the middle of a battlefield, unlike any other combo weapon.

What was even more reliable than a sword, however, was the ol' fist and feet combo.

She remembered when she first went to Beacon for initiation all of those years ago, and she'd gone in with no weapons at all, only her bare knuckles. The other Hunters there, with their guns and swords and gun-swords, had laughed at her. How was she suppose to fight Grimm and pass initiation without a weapon at all?

They hadn't been laughing when she'd snapped that Ursa's neck with her bare hands, or tore apart that entire pack of Beowolves with a barrage of punches and kicks.

And they definitely hadn't been laughing when she'd beaten them all in one on one sparring, breaking apart their weapons with her bare hands and tearing them all new assholes.

Fun times.

And speaking of which, as she continued her fight with Bloody Mary and the Preacher, she quickly spotted something in the corner of her eye.

A girl, dressed in black and red and silver, threw herself out of a hole in the wall and into the warehouse. She looked like she was a kid- The Huntress in training that had been assigned to Carmine and Bertilak, she realised. The one that they had to look out for- And, leaning against a toppled shelf, she was being cornered by...

Ah hell, she was being cornered by the Neopolitan Butcher.

Mirko tried to make a break for her, but the Preacher, with his metal coils that made up his body, surrounded by torrents of black smoke, wrapped himself around her, and threw her right back into the other side of the warehouse, slamming against the wall and creating a fresh indent in the thin metal sheet.

Bringing herself down to the floor, she then spotted Bloody Mary and the Preacher baring down on her once more.

Okay, she really liked a good fight, but this was getting to be a bit much.

She tried to see if she could spot the kid in the other end of the warehouse, but she couldn't see past all of the toppled shelves and burning merchandise.

As Bloody Mary used her tendrils to swipe at her, and the Preacher once more transformed into worms of metal coils shrouded in smoke, Mirko swore and jumped to the side.

Goodwitch was going to hate her for this, but right now, she had to help her teammates (Reluctantly or not) In corralling and capturing the Jack-O-Lanterns.

The kid would have to fend for herself.

* * *

Jaune groaned as he tired to get up, nausea coming over him, as he, with shaking hands, pushed himself up of the ground, and got up to his feet.

As he teetered to the side, and almost tripped over himself, he realised that, well, he was in pain.

Looking down at himself, he saw that, between the armour plates between his chest and abdomen, there was a puncture wound, steadily seeping blood.

Oh yeah, he'd been stabbed, hadn't he? Huh, funny how you forget things like that.

He heard something above the burning flames and saw something through the thinning smoke, both of which he had only just remembered were there.

Through the hole in the wall, he spotted Ruby, dodging the swipe of an umbrella sword thing, wielded by a smaller, more petite girl dressed in white and pink, a wide, sadistic smile on her face as she continued to toy with the Little Red Riding Hood.

_Oh yeah, that's the small child that stabbed me, isn't it? Well, one of them, I suppose._

Upon spotting Ruby in trouble, he decided to worry about his fresh wound later, and quickly looked down. The other Hunters were waking up now, and Carmine and Bertilak were still out for the count. Good. That gave him time to move.

"Winter, Miss Goodwitch, keep Carmine and Bertilak down, and get them out of here", Jaune want as he pulled his sword from it's sheath, and turned his sheath into his shield, "I'm gonna go help out Ruby and get her out of here."

Both Miss Goodwitch and Winter got up, and Jaune assumed that they heard what he said, as before they could try and say anything in response, Jaune ran forwards, vaulting through the hole in the wall and charging at the petite white and pink girl, planning to tackle her down and use his weight and armour to force her to the ground and knock her out.

However, the petite girl saw him and smiled, seemingly activating her semblance, as when he charged and tackled her, she shattered like glass around him, leaving him stumbling back onto his feet and looking around in confusion.

Then, the sound of shattering glass drew his attention to behind him- _Not again!_ \- And as quick as he could, he jumped to the side, letting the blade of the petite girl catch and scrape across his armour, and flipped himself around to parry another blow from the girl, only for her to block a blow from him and deliver a riposte to him, slicing across the black armour that covered the left side of his chest, and sending him spinning around into the ground, before quickly flipping himself back up, and clutching his sword in both hands.

"What the hell?! Who's lost child is this?!"

This seemed to annoy the girl, as a frown appeared on her face, and her eyes narrowed.

"Jaune, that's not a kid!" Ruby called out behind him, "That's a murderer! That's the Neopolitan Butcher!"

"Never heard of her!" Jaune yelled out as he used his shield to block another blow from the 'Neopolitan Butcher', and then another, before parrying a blow from her thin sword, before trying to take a stab at her, only for her to cartwheel away and twirl around, using the momentum to slam her sword against Jaune's Crocea Mors and force it out of his hands, the sword clattering against the concrete floor as the girl grinned and-

{STAB}

-Impaled him right in his weak spot once more, now made an obvious target by the crimson blood that was splattered around it.

_When I get back to Beacon, I'm investing in chainmail or Kevlar or something. Anything to make up for the armour gaps._

The small fact of being stabbed was unimportant to Jaune though, as he quickly grabbed the girl by the arm that was still holding her sword, pulled her closer, and slammed the back of his hand across her face, before punching her repeatedly in the face once more, and then grabbing her by the throat, and throwing her into a toppled shelf.

Picking up his sword from the ground, Jaune grabbed the blade in his jut with his spare hand, and ripped it out, letting blood flow out and letting his aura awaken and flare out across the wound, as he held both blades in his hand, and, under his helmet, glared the girl down.

"Alright then lady, come at me!"

* * *

Neo didn't bother to hide the smile on her as she accepted the armoured Hunter's challenge. Seeing him rip her own weapon, Hush (She'd originally wanted to call it Stabby McStab), Out of the weak point between his armour plates, letting the blood rush out like a waterfall, then just shaking it off like it was nothing, and immediately challenging her to a fight?

Well, it was hard not to be a little excited.

If there was one thing that Neo admired in any opponent, it was persistence, and tenacity (Were they the same thing? Neo figured so). She'd seen and fought many a Hunter that had blustered and boasted about their strength, but when push came to shove, and their aura ran low and they suffered the tiniest of nicks, they all remembered that underneath all of that ego, they were all walking bags of blood and had either run away or broken down into tears.

Good times.

But then, there was the occasional Hunter that defied her expectations. The ones that had the strength to match their bluster. And then there were the ones that didn't bluster at all. They didn't brag, didn't boast. They merely let their actions speak for themselves.

Great times.

And now here was this guy, shrugging off a twice stabbed wound that was still leaking blood, having torn a sword out of his gut, and ever so politely asking her to fight him?

Well, how could Neo resist?

However, from the sounds of it, this guy sounded like he was nothing more than a kid. Maybe a fist year, just starting up in Beacon or somewhere else, like the Little Red Riding Hood behind him. A poor child in need of a good lesson in the art of kicking someone's ass.

And who was Neo to deprive someone of an education?

She gave him a quick nod, made sure to show her enthusiasm by giving him a quick curtsy, and then charged at him, ducking under a scissor cut that he tried to do with the 2 blades in hand, and then cartwheeled back, giving a kick to his armoured chin and knocking him back, but not out as he regained himself, and swung both blades down once more, Neo cartwheeling out of the way again as she got back up to her feet and wiggled a finger to him, gesturing for him to come forwards.

With a annoyed groan, the boy leapt forwards and swung both of the blades at her, to which she just lazily dodged, to which the boy repeated, and thus did she, and repeat the process, and again, and again, and again.

It had become clear to Neo that this boy had no skill in wielding 2 swords, much less one. His strikes were clumsy and instinctive, they were wobbly and uncoordinated, and he lacked any style at all. Still though, he seemed to be trying to make up for it with the sheer power behind his blows, slamming down into the ground with enough force to actually impale her if she didn't have her aura up, and with sheer persistence as well, not letting up at all as he continued to swing at her. The fact that he didn't have any kind of style for her to identify and exploit made it just a little bit difficult for her, seeing as while his attacks were wild and uncoordinated, they were also unpredictable, and made it a bit more of a challenge.

However, it was only by a little. His movements were sloppy and with little refinement or practice, and that allowed her to both figuratively and literally dance circles around him, lazily and coolly dodging his strikes as she skirted from side to side, before grabbing her weapon, and with a twist of her body, ripping it out of his hand and kicking him back.

Then, she remembered about the little red girl, as a flurry of rose petals took hold of her and threw her into another toppled stack of shelves, to which Neo backflipped onto them, and saw that the mess of petals transformed into the black and red themed girl, who looked up to her with anger in her eyes, and from her back, she pulled 2 weapons, and swung them down at her.

2 swords, with completely crimson handles, cross guards, and blades, with a silver band that made up the sharpened edges.

She swung them both at Neo, though she was quick to dodge them, before casting a mirror out and jumping behind the girl, the little red slashing and shattering the mirror illusion with her 2 swords, before Neo then slashed her across the back with her blade and kicked her backwards, the little red twisting herself around and parrying one of her own swords with Neo's, and then going for a slash with the other.

Now, this girl, who was now dual-wielding swords, seemed to be more of an expert on it. Now, she didn't look like she was that well versed in the art of dual-wielding as well, just like the armoured boy, but she was at least a little bit more experienced in the art of fighting, twisting and turning her body in unpredictable patterns and movements as she dodged and parried Neo's blows and strikes. It was clear that she had a lot more experience in the art of fighting than the boy, though she was still learning how to dual-wield swords, and was just a little bit less clumsy with it.

Neo twisted herself around to dodge a double swipe from Little Red's swords, before summersaulting over her and grappling her, rapping her legs around her neck and using the momentum to then flip over and slam her head into the ground.

However, just as quickly, she heard the sound of an electrical discharge, and barrelled to the side to see a current of blue electricity fly past her. Looking back on herself, she saw that the armoured boy had pulled the long rifle off of his back, and was firing blue rounds of electricity at her-

 _Stun rounds_ , she thought to herself. He was trying to capture her, not kill.

-To which she quickly dodged his shots, casting an illusion of herself having been hit by one of the rounds, the mirror fake crumpling to the ground as she quickly forced herself under one of the shelves out of sight, silently as always crawling to behind the boy as he approached the illusion, before crawling out of the toppled shelves, twirling her blade just for show, and readying to stab the boy in his unprotected neck-

"Jaune! Behind you!"

-Before Little Red had to ruin Neo's plan and allow the boy to flip himself around and quickly shoot another round of stun bolts at her, forcing her to dodge them and cast another mirror illusion.

"Jaune!" she heard Little Red call out, "I think her illusions work one way! They're like mirrors! They only work in one angle! If you got another point of view, then you can see past them!"

The boy nodded to this, "You spot, I'll shoot!"

"On it!"

And so, Little Red jumped up onto the toppled shelves, and began to scout ahead for him, while the armoured boy aimed his rifle up.

Neo, deciding to humour these kids, cast another illusion in front of the boy, showing herself lazily gesturing to the both of them to come get her, before slinking off to the side and behind him once more, raising to stab him in the throat once more, before-

"Right behind you!"

-Little Red ruined it once again by pointing her out, allowing the boy to whirl himself around and fire off another round of stub blasts, forcing her to cartwheel out of the way, before skirting to the side as Little Red barrelled down in a flurry of rose petals and manifested with her 2 swords in hand, slamming them down where Neo had once been, and then swinging them at her with wild abandon, whilst Neo carefully, yet also in a laid back manner, dodged every single strike, before parrying them with her own blade, and then barrel rolling to the side as the boy got into the fight, trading his rifle for an electrostaff that he got off of his back, folding it out and spinning it around, purple electricity dancing across it's edges, as Neo sent up another mirror illusion, and made a move to get him in the vulnerable part of his back legs, in the back of the knees-

"Down low behind you!"

-But the boy quickly jumped forward and shifted his staff to a hammer, slamming it down, almost on her if she hadn't flipped herself up and out of the way, jumping onto one of the shelves and planted an axe kick to his neck with another force to knock him down, which he did, slamming into the floor and groaning in a disoriented voice, before getting himself up, using his hammer as support, whilst Little Red made another move to attack her, swinging her blades at her, to which she dodged and parried, before extending her parasol out as a shield and winding her with it when she was up close, and then taking a swing at her neck, though her aura was able to take the blow.

A shame. That would've been a fatal strike in any other situation.

"Neo!" whilst Little Red was disorientated, she quickly looked behind her, to see, at the far end of the warehouse, her boss, Roman Torchwick, calling out to her, "Either kill those kids or leave 'em! We're out of here!"

Neo just pouted in turn. And she was having fun as well.

Oh well, there was always another day.

Deciding to finish the fight off quick, she waited for Little Red to get up close to her, before drawing her fist back and planting it in her stomach, winding her, before grabbing her by the hood, and swinging her over herself and slamming her into the ground headfirst, drawing blood and giving her a concussion. Then, she simply kicked away the armoured boy's support and gave him a punch to the throat, staggering him back, before planting another foot to his throat and sending him down back onto the ground, knocking him out.

Neo smiled, and drew her blade, deciding to kill the Little Red first, as she raised her sword and prepared to bring it down, before-

A bright white glow seeped from the armoured boy and enveloped the Little Red, something which Neo didn't notice until the blade that was suppose to pierce through her throat ended up being deflected by the white glow.

Neo was confused, and looked back to the armoured boy, to see that he too was shrouded in the same brilliant white glow.

Was that one of their semblances, or aura or something?

Whatever it was, it meant that it might take time to chip away at the field surrounding them and kill them. Time of which Neo didn't have.

 _Shame_ , Neo thought to herself as she skipped away to the exit, _Oh well. There's always next time._

* * *

_Long story short, the entire warehouse raid was a disaster. Sure, we had bagged Carmine and Bertilak, as well as a bunch of goons that had worked for some guy called Roman Torchwick and his gang, but the entire warehouse had been destroyed in the accompanying fire, Ruby and I had been knocked out and, from what we had been told earlier, had nearly died, and Roman Torchwick and his gang had somehow escaped, possibly due to that Neapolitan girl's semblance or something, I don't know._

_I am willing to admit that I did act rashly throughout that entire event. I was rash when attacking the Neapolitan girl, and I should've grabbed Ruby and made for the exit instead of fighting against a criminal that, as Miss Goodwitch and Winter had said to me, and even as I had said to Ruby, was extremely dangerous and had much more experience and training over us (It's a wonder she didn't kill us)._

_So, can I call this operation a success? I don't know, maybe yes, maybe no, maybe both. We accomplished our original objective, sure, but we lost Roman Torchwick, I couldn't get Ruby out safely, we lost a bunch of potential evidence in the warehouse, Ruby and I were rendered unconscious for my efforts, and we still didn't know who our serial killer was._

_I am willing to burden my fair share of the blame. I know now that not heeding my own advice and rushing into battle without a plan like I just did was an extremely bad move, and I endeavour to learn from it. It is clear that my arrogance got the better of me, and it is my hope that I will be humbled by the experience._

_However, our murder mystery was not solved yet. We still had a killer on the loose, and back in the police station, though he knew that they had been charged with all sorts of crimes, which they would be found guilty of, thanks to the testimonies of Roman's goons and Ruby's witness account, Carmine was being uncooperative, whilst Bertilak was being incredibly uncooperative._

_There was a difference. A very sweary difference._

**Editing note: _Yeah, I think they can tell, dum-dum._**

_Of course, as we soon learnt, that wouldn't matter for long._

* * *

"Recklessly charging into battle, without a plan or clear objective, and attacking an enemy with greater skill and experience than you, even when knowing that, and not disengaging from the fight and evacuating at the first opportunity", Miss Goodwitch scolded both Jaune and Ruby as they sat on a bench together, a bandage around Ruby's head, and most of Jaune's armour, save for his belt-cape, and his crotch and leg armour, his waist having a bandage wrapped around it as his fresh stab wounds healed themselves, thanks to the magics of aura.

As well as blood packs. Gotta love blood packs.

"Of course, I am aware that the Neopolitan Butcher gave you little choice in the matter, and was actively seeking to- To kill you", Miss Goodwitch stuttered at the last part, but quickly regained herself, "So, Mr Arc, you were in the right to engage her and rescue Ms Rose, as well as when Bertilak was about to kill her, so for that, as well as incapacitating Carmine, thank you. I will admit, I was somewhat incorrect in my own judgement as well, as I had not known that Roman Torchwick and his gang were in the building as well."

Behind them, Winter, with her hands folded behind her back, didn't say anything, but continued to look at Jaune with that... Strange look in her eyes. Like she was reminiscing on something.

"Hey, don't blame yourself, Miss Goodwitch", Ruby went, kicking her legs up and down on the bench as she spoke.

"Yeah, I don't think anyone could know that those guys and this 'Neapolitan' girl could've been there at all, so there's no need to beat yourself up about it", Jaune added in with his hands clasped in front of him, twiddling his thumbs together as he spoke.

"Well, be that as it may be, that still does not excuse you jumping into the middle of a fight without a plan, nor does it justify continuing to engage an enemy that outclasses you for no reason, especially when there was a clear window for you to escape. As such, the next several lessons that you have with me will be dedicated to combat and tactical awareness and planning."

"What? But that Neapolitan girl didn't exactly give us much room to make an escape, so-"

"Yes, but Ms Rose could've grabbed you and used her semblance to quickly carry you away to safety."

""...Oh.""

Miss Goodwitch just sighed, and then went, "That said, I am glad that you're both okay", she then turned to Winter, and asked, "Is there anything that you would like to add, Miss Schnee?"

Winter darted her eyes towards her, and then back to Jaune, the same stoic expression on her face.

"...Don't disobey orders again."

And with that, she marched off, towards the cells, not paying heed or another word to anyone around her.

"...I suppose that that's my que", Jaune muttered as he got up from the bench, wincing at the phantom pain in his abdomen once more as he then turned to Miss Goodwitch and then said, "Thanks for getting us out of that warehouse, Miss Goodwitch. I'll take what you said to heart, but I have to go. I'll try not to get stabbed again."

"Jaune, please don't joke about that", Ruby said to him, "You almost died."

He shrugged, "Wouldn't be the first time, Rubes."

Miss Goodwitch sighed, then let him go, "Just, try not to get into too much trouble. I am aware that you and Winter do not seem to have... The best relationship."

Jaune paused, and then sighed out, "Yeah... It isn't the... It isn't the best", another pause, and then off once more, "See you back at Beacon."

He didn't hear what they said next-

* * *

"When we get back to Beacon, I am going to hammer into that boy a sense of self-preservation."

"I'll help."

* * *

-But he didn't pay it any mind as he made his way to the cells that the police station had, and then walked into the viewing area of an interrogation room, spotting Winter staring intently through the one-way mirror, himself spotting Bertilak in there, aura suppression cuffs on him, themselves chained to the metal table in the middle of it as he sat on the uncomfortable metal chair, smouldering in anger as he muttered something or other to himself.

Jaune stood next to Winter, and turned to her, putting aside the strange look that she had given him earlier, and asked, "Any changes?" Upon Winter's questioning look (Where there was but a tincture of that same look from before), He elaborated, "From Bertilak. Has he changed? Has he confessed to his crimes, said something that can connect to our serial killer, or said anything other than angry mumbling and loud swearing?"

Winter seemed to find some humour in that, as she supressed a chuckle and shook her head, "No such luck. He's been the same as when he was brought in, and Carmine is still unconscious. You gave her a severe concussion", Upon Jaune's guilty look, Winter then said, "Don't feel sympathy for her. Even with the burning of the warehouse, there is still enough evidence to sentence them to life in prison, especially with their breaking of their vows as Hunters."

"'Breaking of their vows'? Were they married or something?"

"Nothing of the sort. When someone becomes a Hunter, they are expected to hold themselves up to a certain standard, a vow, if you will. This standard, or standards to be more accurate, include to be valorous, to be honourable, to never cheat or steal, to never commit a crime, and above all, to always stand for what is good, and to protect those in need from the Grimm and anything else that might threaten mankind and its continued survival, thereby inspiring hope in those that they protect. That is the Hunter's Vow, and the both of them have broken it", Winter allowed a moment to pass, to let the information sink in for him, before continuing, "Its why Hunters are punished more harshly than anyone else. Not only are they already dangerous individuals, but they have also betrayed those that they have been charged to protect. Its why they can get life imprisonment for crimes that would get them only half of it."

Jaune took this in, nodding in response, and going, "Pretty sure that, even if they weren't Hunters, they'd be getting life sentences in prison anyways."

Winter paused as well, before straightening herself and saying, "Yes, I suppose that they would."

They saw a shadow in the door in the door, and looked to the side, to see Harriet Bree standing in the door frame, a bruise on her face, and her exoskeleton missing, who then waved to him, "Hey kid",-

"Hey", he waved back.

-And then turned to Winter, and went, "Specialist Schnee."

"At ease, Specialist Bree", Winter waved it off, before asking, "Do you have anything to report?"

"Carmine's beginning to lapse in and out of conscious, ma'am", Harriet began, "I doubt that she'll be able to answer any questions for the next few hours, maybe up to a day", she smiled at Jaune, "You really gave her a slugger, kid. Nice."

"Heh, thanks."

"Don't encourage him, Bree", Winter muttered, something that Jaune heard, though he didn't make it known as Winter then asked, "Anything else to report?"

"Well, the gangsters that we got out of the warehouse are in the same condition as Carmine, lapsing in and out of conscious, we've got no lead on where Roman and his gaggle of bad guys have gone- We've lost their trail- And Mirko and Elm are arguing about what happened in the warehouse", she then pointed to her back, and went, "My armour got EMPed, so I'm gonna head back to base and get it repaired."

"Of course", Winter nodded to her, "Dismissed."

"Thank you, ma'am", Harriet nodded, before nodding to Jaune, and going, "See you in a flash, kid", and with that, she left.

Jaune paused, blinked, and looked back into the interrogation room. There was Bertilak once more, scratching his fingernails against the metal table and growling to himself.

Once more, in a very sweary manner.

He wanted to ask Ruby how she put up with him, despite knowing what the answer might be.

A person popped into the doorway, "There you are, kid. I needed to tell you something..."

* * *

_We got ourselves a lead._

_Winter didn't want to believe it. She wouldn't believe it._

_And hell, I agree with her. To think that of all people, it would be..._

_Whatever, we had at least a better inkling of a suspect now, and it lead us right back to the Atlesian staging ground._

**Editing note: _Please, just remove all of this stupid dramatic writing. This is a report, not a story._**

_However, beforehand, I had to pop into the armoury to check up on something._

* * *

"Hey there, kid", the worker behind the armoury counter said and waved as Jaune entered into the armoury once more, all of his own armour back on, sans his helmet as he left it clipped to his waist, finally removing the burnt out battery from the butt of his ML-15LE rifle and throwing it into a nearby bin, whilst Winter stood in the doorway, her hands once more folded behind her back as she looked on impatiently.

"Hey, dude", Jaune nodded as he clipped his rifle to his back, and then asked, "Hate to pester, but have you got those receipts that I asked for earlier, please? I'm kinda in a hurry."

"Ah, yeah, I got them, kid", the worker said as he reached behind the counter and pulled out a small case, opening it up and revealing a pack of small receipts, "Every single time that someone had purchased armour-piercing rounds or guns that could support armour piercing rounds from an Atlesian armoury in the last 3 months. I could've just gone for just a month before, but", he shrugged, "Hey, better safe than sorry."

"Good man", Jaune affirmed as he quickly picked up the case, and looked at the receipts, looking through them, and going, "Thanks, man."

"No problem", the worker saluted, "Happy to help."

The Hunter in training nodded in return, said, "Thanks", once more, and then turned and walked to the doorway, looking through the receipts with a careful eye.

As he reached the doorway, Winter moved out of the way for him, and they both made their way into the corridor, closing the door to the armoury behind them and settling in for a quiet conversation.

"Let's see, let's see... Here", Jaune quietly said as he pulled out a specific receipt, "The receipt for the purchase of a Designated Marksman Rifle and over 30 rounds of armour-piercing rounds, with the date reading about a day before Atlas' deployment to Vale. And down there, there's the credit card number."

Winter looked down at the receipt, and her eyes narrowed, "It's the one for their personal account."

Jaune hummed to himself, and then pocketed the case of receipts in the same pocket where he had the sliver of white fabric contained in an evidence bag, "It's not a lot, but it's a start. C'mon, let's get to the barracks."

* * *

"I cannot condone this."

"Well, we've come this far now, so we can't give up now."

"I'm not saying that we should. I'm just saying that, in any other situation, I would not, and cannot, condone us partaking in... In..."

"Breaking into someone's personal property?"

"...Yes, Arc, in breaking into someone's personal property."

Jaune bit the insides of his lip as he watched Winter to go work on the lock on the wardrobe. They'd got the keys to the room in the barracks from the cleaners, and had been looking under the beds, in the draws, and everywhere that they could, save for the locked up wardrobe, which Winter was currently proving her skills as a lockpicker and picking it open.

Coincidentally enough, the person who slept in this room wasn't there. Strange, huh?

"How'd you know how to pick a lock, anyways?" Jaune asked as he watched Winter pick and twist the lock with nothing more than a pin and a paper clip, "I mean, I didn't know they taught that at in Specialist training, or something?"

"We aren't taught lockpicking in our specialist courses, no", Winter commented, "It's just something that I had to learn back home, and no, I do not want to elaborate, so don't ask."

Jaune had just been about to ask something, but bit his tongue, and remained silent on the subject, before asking, "Any progress on the lock?"

"Almost got it", Winter said as she bit her own tongue, tweezing the pin and paper clip between her 2 fingers, as she looked into the lock, and went, "Just need a moment, and..."

{CLICK}

"There we are", Winter went as she stepped back, removing the pin and paper clip from the lock, and pulling down on the door handle, opening up the now unlocked wardrobe, revealing the contents within.

Jaune stepped to Winter's side, to see several rows of Atlesian uniforms hung up on a rail, all of them completely identical with whites and blues and blacks, with the faintest traces of red visible on them as well.

"Well, what exactly are we looking for, here?" Winter asked as Jaune began to shift through the uniforms on the railing, inspecting and scanning over them with a careful pair of eyes.

"Tears, grass or dirt marks, anything", Jaune went as he pushed the uniforms from one side to another, "Anything out of place, anything that stands out."

Winter looked at him and nodded, and for a few minutes, they busied themselves with sifting through the uniforms, looking for anything that stained or tore the black and blue and black fabric.

They found nothing.

"Dammit", Jaune muttered to himself, scratching the back of his head as he sighed and went, "Another dead end... Great", he bit his lip once more, and leaned himself against the wardrobe's doorframe, scanning over the uniforms once more, trying to see if he had missed anything.

And then he had a thought. In old cartoons and movies, the villain of the episode would hide behind fake walls sometimes, and the heroes would only just be able to discover it by pulling out a book as part of a opening mechanism. Maybe there was something similar to that here.

He pushed his hand against the insides of the wardrobe, and felt for anything that seemed out of place, from miscoloured wooden frames, to secret locks or mechanisms, to-

Something caught his fingernails.

-Carvings and cuts in the wood.

He pushed his fingernails into the long, straight cut in the wood, inching the now revealed hatch from the rest of the wardrobe, before digging his fingers into it and prying it open, revealing behind it a separate space in the wardrobe.

A black gas mask fell out, covered over by a black cloak. He picked them both up, and inspected them. The same mask and cloak that had been worn by their masked killer only a few hours ago, themselves greyed by ash, as was the insides of the hidden shelf.

At least they could exclude the Daughter being in Vale. At least, he thought.

He saw one last thing in the hidden shelf. A uniform. An Atlesian uniform. Jaune pulled it out, and noticed that it too was covered in a slight peppering of ash and soot, as well as something else. Small brown and green nicks, as well as a small fragment of wood. A splinter, most likely acquired from walking around in a forest.

Or hiding in a bush.

Then, he noticed one last thing about the uniform. A tear in the shorts of the uniform. He pulled out the bagged fragment of white fabric in his pocket, and compared them both, only to see that the sliver of fabric would fit into the tear in the uniform perfectly.

Their killer had tried to hide away the evidence in the back of the wardrobe, behind a secret door. Clever, but not clever enough.

They finally had their killer.

And then, their scrolls pinged.

* * *

Jaune pressed his hand against the wounded wall of the now almost empty hallway, and then took his hand off, looking at the faint print of ash on his hand. Scant bullet holes and gashes marked the walls and floor, as well as a splatter of blood as another body laid on the floor, as well as in the room next door.

As it turned out, the police station had a medical bay attached for it, for prisoners or officers or civilians that were wounded in the station or were staying there in custody to heal from their wounds. It was stark white, yet dull, almost sterile, without any defining or identifying features or accompanying features to make it stand out.

Save now, for the blood splatter on the white walls, the red stained bed, and the bloody corpse in the bed.

"Whoever killed these 2 used flashbangs to blind everyone", Chief Raymond spoke as he stepped over the corpse, Elm and Mirko standing not too far behind as they looked on, "Disorientated everyone to hell. We think they came through one of the open windows into the police station, then used the flashbangs to blind everyone, allowing them to jump in and out without anyone seeing who they were."

Winter, standing near him, then asked, "No one saw anything? Nothing about what the killer looked like? Or even how many there were?"

"Nothing. Nothing that I can tell. We think that the killer has some sort of speed or teleportation semblance, but we don't know."

She sighed, as did Jaune as he then looked to the body on the hallway floor, and then into the room, spotting the one in the bed, both of them with 1 bullet hole in their heads, and another in their hearts each.

Carmine laid dead in her bed. From the looks of it, whomever had killed her had quickly whizzed past the room- If the darker streak of black ash didn't make it clear- And shot her twice, double-tapping her in the same surgical, tactical manner as all of their other kills. At Jaune's feet was Bertilak as well, 2 shots in his corpse, one for his head, another for his heart.

"Why was Bertilak out here?" Jaune asked, noticing the marks and cracked bone on his knuckles.

"That's my fault", Elm put her hand up, "I was taking him back to his cell, since he wasn't being cooperative, but he ended up throwing a fit in the interrogation room and tried to break the door down with his bare hands", she gave an uncomfortable shrug, biting the insides of her lip as she then went, "He ended up breaking his knuckles, so I thought it'd be best that he got them treated."

"That was on my orders, actually", Chief Raymond added in, "I told her to take him back to his cell, and then I told her to take him down to the med bay, so if anyone's to blame, it's me."

"It's fine, you 2", Jaune waved off their concerns, "No one's blaming either of you."

"Was anyone else killed in the attack?" Winter asked succinctly, "Or wounded at all?"

"No one", Mirko added, "Not even Roman's goons. I guess whoever charged in here didn't have the time to kill them", she shrugged, "Or just didn't care about them?"

"Well, the previous murders align with these ones", Jaune added in, "The victims were executed via double-tapping, there's ash all over the crime scene, and the victims themselves were criminals, which also identifies our murderer's Modus Operandi."

"And, just like all of the other crime scenes, they were fast enough to make a quick getaway", Winter added in, looking to the window on the far side of the hallway, and then down to the body on the floor, "Either by a teleportation semblance, or by a speed one. Or just because they were fast enough by themselves to do it without a semblance."

"Or by time dilation", Winter quirked an eyebrow at that, and Jaune, under his helmet, said, "When Ruby and I were meeting up in leadership lessons, we would discuss our teammate's semblances. Once, Ruby told me that Weiss' semblance could allow her to summon a glyph that could speed up her actions and attacks. Time dilation, she'd called it", his head lowered down, but underneath his helmet, his eyes didn't, "Funny thing is, another thing that Ruby noticed, was that Weiss' semblance... It's hereditary."

"...If you think that I had something to do with this-"

"I'm not saying that you did", Jaune put his hands up in mock surrender, "I'm just pointing out something like that. Besides, a Schnee's rich, aren't they? Why'd they get their hands dirty when they can just pay someone else to do it?"

"Why would I instigate a series of murders?!"

"Good question, here's my answer: All of these guys that were killed were criminals, with a majority of them being members of the White Wolves, an organisation that has, for lack of a better term, a hell of a lot of bad blood with the Schnees for years, just enough time for resentment to brew and fester. Now, granted, all of these guys were criminals, so I doubt that anyone's going to miss them, but still, from what I've seen, you Schnees are a righteous lot, aren't you? Always about family pride and stuff. No doubt there's room for hatred to grow in that situation. I mean, heck, just look at Jacques-"

"I am not my father!"

"No, but you haven't done anything to stop him! Bystander syndrome, that's what it is. People like you and me want to look away from a problem, shake our heads and waggle our fingers, but we don't want to do anything about it because that would take effort. That would require us to actually get off our asses and do something. It would mean that we would actually have to acknowledge that there is a problem that needs more than just standing around and looking the other way."

"I would watch your mouth, Arc, or I'll-"

"Or what? You'll brand me? That's a thing that your dad like's to do, isn't it? Branding people, bullying and abusing workers, and so on, so forth. A Grimm in human skin. He's off, branding and beating people down, and you're over here, doing nothing about it! You're not your father, but by sitting back and doing nothing about it, you're actively worse than him. By sitting on your hands and looking away, you're excusing him of all of the crap that he's done and is doing to everyone around him. So congrats, Ms Schnee, you aren't your father, you're his bastard successor."

"Kid, that's enough!" Elm called out as she grabbed him by the hand, pulling him back and almost crushing it.

Winter just gave him a stern look for a few seconds, before scowling, "Fine. If that's how you feel", and turned away, marching down the hallway, and out of site. Outside the window, what sounded like a flock of birds scurried away.

"Damn, kid", Mirko went, "That was a pretty brutal smackdown", she gave him a thumbs up, "Good job, kid", she then chuckled, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will riddle me with bullet holes."

Jaune just sighed, and moved to walk away, but Elm's hand stayed painfully gripped on his arm, "What the hell, Arc?!" Elm just went, "Why the hell would you- Winter was with you the whole damn time, there's no way that she could've-"

"I know."

Elm's grip on him unconsciously loosened, but Jaune didn't shake it off.

"And I know who's behind all of this, and one way or another, this ends tonight."

* * *

As the sun began to crest upwards towards the sky, the moon was blinded by rays of gold and blue that split the still dark sky like arrows. Shades of berry blue, pomegranate pink, and satsuma orange coloured the skies and clouds, and the golden morning rays of sunshine forced away the retreating darkness of the nights, allowing the streetlights of the city below to flicker off and fade away, their job done as the shadows that populated the world below began to stretch and expand at the contact of the gentle light of the sun.

In the empty city square below, Winter stood fuming, looking down at her feet with a scowl on her face, her shadow elongated against the rising sun and fleeting moon.

Jaune could see this all perfectly from his vantage point, on top of a 3 story building coloured grey and orange on the far side of the city square. He had judged it to be the best place to look over the square, because from there, he could see almost every corner of the area, with little cover or hiding places for anyone to escape from sight, at least successfully. There were limited places to hide from this angle, and it gave an uninterrupted view of the rooftops above.

Like Jaune said, it was the perfect vantage point.

If he was correct, their killer would think so too.

And, as he crouched behind a rooftop air vent and narrowed around its corner, he saw that he was indeed right.

There was their killer, laying down on the edge of the rooftop, loading a fresh clip of armour piercing rounds into their Designated Marksman Rifle, cocking the extended gun, and aiming down the sights, right at Winter.

Jaune pulled his Wire Rifle off of his back, and set it to stun, before rushing out, and aiming it down at their killer's head.

* * *

_"There you are, kid. I needed to tell you something..."_

_"Chief Raymond?" Jaune asked as he queered an eyebrow, Winter doing the same as well as they looked away from the interrogation room, leaving Bertilak to mind himself outside of their watch, "What is it?"_

_"Well, y'know how you were looking for someone who left ash behind them?"_

_"Yeah?"_

_"Well, just before the Warehouse Raid, I saw one of your Hunter friends use a semblance that left behind a puff of smoke in the air."_

_His eyes blinked twice, visible now, since his helmet was clipped to his waist-belt. Winter blinked too, taken aback by the possible implication, though she kept herself as stoic as ever._

_"Are... Are you sure?" Jaune hesitantly asked, his head tilting to the side in question._

_"Yeah, I'm sure. I remember seeing her use her semblance to jump from one rooftop to another. She left a trail of lightning or something behind her as she did, which left smoke behind her as well. I think her semblance supercharges or heats up the air or something, as a side effect or whatever."_

_"Do you know what her name is?" It was Winter who asked this._

_"Yeah, I think it was-"_

* * *

"Put your hands behind your head, Harriet Bree."

Harriet didn't even jump at the sound of him, as she turned her head from her rifle to the boy with the gun above her, studying him with dark pink eyes.

Taking a step forward, still not moving his sights away from her, he pressed his foot against her rifle, prying it out of her hands, before kicking it over the edge of the building, letting it clatter nosily on the ground below.

"I said put your hands on your head, Specialist Bree", Jaune ordered once again, Harriet still unmoving as she looked up at him, "You're under arrest. You're guilty of murdering 12 people, and attempted murder of another."

"'People'. That's the word you used? 'People'?" Harriet gave a mirthless chuckle, "You really consider all of those monsters to be people? Even Schnee?" she rolled herself onto her back, and reached behind her, "Well, if that's how you feel about them-"

Before Jaune could react, in a flash of yellow lightning that left a cloud of ash behind it, Harriet got up to her feet, pulled out a long barrelled pistol, and pressed it against his abdomen.

"-MAYBE YOU ALL DESERVE TO DIE!"

{BANG}

Armour-piercing bullets. Nasty things to be hit with. Nastier way to die. His aura was able to tank most of the blow, but the bullet still broke though it. Luckily his added layer of protection, his armour, was able to tank much of the blow as well, but the bullet still pierced through it and embedded itself in his abdomen, spraying blood out and sending him tumbling back, still on his feet, but crouched over, and pressing his hand against his wounded gut as blood poured out like a river.

He was thankful that he had his aura up and his armour on. If it hadn't been for his aura firstly and his armour secondly, the bullet would've passed right through him and possibly killed him instantly.

"Oh... Oh god", Harriet suddenly seemed shocked by what she had just done, and lowered her gun as she put her spare hand to her mouth and went, "Kid, I- Oh god, I'm- I'm so sorry, I... I..."

_What constitutes as a rightful murder for her?_

Jaune wondered this as he pressed his pointer finger and thumb through the fresh red hole in his armour and into the wound in his abdomen, evidently expanding the and worsening the wound as he did, but tweezing the bullet in his gut with his nails.

_Is she shocked that she shot someone who's not even an adult yet, or is it because I haven't committed enough crimes to warrant my death?_

Tweezing the blood soaked bullet, he pulled it out of his waist with a bloody hand and a pained groan, and threw it to the side.

_Whatever the case, I can't give her the chance to ponder about it._

He groaned once more, and stumbled forward, blood still leaking from his wound, though he willed his aura to see to that, and soon, it was kicking in, and soaking his wound in white fire.

"H-Harriet... You... Are..."

Then, he lunged forward, and smacked the stock of his rifle into Harriet's jaw, drawing blood from her and sending her crumpling into the ground. The gun that she had in her hand clattered to the floor as she clutched her jaw in pain.

"You are under arrest!"

He then pointed his gun back down at the traitorous Specialist, and pushing his foot into her gut.

"Please don't resist."

Harriet growled, before sighing to him and herself, "I know, kid, I know, it's just... Oh god, I've done too much. I've seen too much. I've seen too much of the deeds that those monsters have done. Too much to let them go unpunished."

"Unpunished? They were scumbags, but did they deserve to die?"

"Yes they did!" Harriet screamed at him, "You think you know everything that they've done, you don't. You don't", she seethed to herself, gritting her teeth as if remembering something horrible, "I was at Onus Square when the Acolytes of the Ascended commenced their shooting. 120 people died that day, made of 50 innocent people, and 30 Acolytes and 40 Atlesians. I was there when they were clearing the bodies out of the streets and the buildings, and I was wondering to myself: 'Why would people do this? How can people be so cruel?' I was angry, and I was scared, and it was only when General Ironwood sent the Ace-Ops and me out to hunt down the White Wolves, did I see the truth about the monsters that walked among us."

She let her head fall to the ground, rolling it to the side as she looked back on her life.

"Our first stop was the still smoking ruins of a settlement named Magma, where Fyre-Fly and his 2 friends had shut off the heating to the entire settlement, forced them all out of their homes, and let them freeze to death in the cold. The fucking Atlesian cold, it's enough to kill a person without aura or protection almost instantly... They just lined them all up into rows, and let them all freeze to death. Every last man, woman, and child, regardless of wherever they were human and Faunus... All just for shits and giggles."

Then, she planted a kick onto Jaune's waist and sent him tumbling to the ground, the boy firing off a series of stun rounds from his gun as he went down, none of them hitting Harriet.

"We were then sent to another town known as Compass, populated purely by Faunus, where they had turned away Yuma and Trifa, as well as the protection of the Acolytes of the Ascended as a whole. They responded to this by luring a pack of Beserker Grimm into the town and letting them murder them all in retaliation, all for turning their cancerous offer away. Then, while we were evacuating civilians, that bastard Primal flew down in a Bullhead and slaughtered the rest of them, laughing all of the way!"

She applied a kick to Jaune's ribs as she continued on.

"They laughed, Arc! LAUGHED!"

Another kick.

"But then, as we were looking into the secrets of the Wolves, did I discover our own: Jacques Schnee, his family, and his company, all of them either pressganging or extorting businesses into slaving themselves to him, supporting and financing racist groups and hunting parties and letting them kidnap and murder as many Faunus as they wish, and burning their workers, branding Faunus, neutering and mutilating them, cutting off their ears and tails and limbs, all out of some fucking sense of superiority, wherever financial or racial."

She pressed her foot against his chest, and pushed it down.

"Their greatest ally, Oliver Maxwell, regularly led hunting parties against Faunus prisoners, releasing them into the wild and hunting them down like wild animals. During the Rights Revolution, he would kidnap Faunus women and turn them into sex slaves, abusing and raping them, all for his sick pleasure."

She grounded her foot against his chest, pressing it down even further.

"Meanwhile, Flash, Connie, and Tyler would regularly sell themselves out to gangs and criminals like Roman Torchwick and his lot, helping to traffic guns and drugs through Vale's walls, and turning a blind eye to their crimes, all for an extra pay check."

The foot pressing down on his leg began to lessen, before coming off entirely, Harriet shuffling her feet into place as she continued.

"And then, there was Carmine and Bertilak... Those bastards, whilst not running guns and drugs for the criminal underworld, used to work with the Dreamer's Edge cult in the Sleeping City, trafficking and luring people into their clutches, whilst also selling people off to the slave trade, abusing their powers and authority, and using towns as bait in order to lure out Grimm, letting the beasts murder entire villages, all so they can claim another kill, another bounty, another trophy to their collection."

She grabbed him by his neck and lifted him up to his feet, allowing her to look him right in his eyes.

"How the hell was I suppose to sleep, knowing that these monsters were still walking on this world, still breathing the same air that we breathe, still committing their crimes, slaughtering the innocent, and raping the world with their filth and guiltlessness? How am I suppose to let them go unpunished for their crimes, for their sins? How am I, as a Huntress, supposed to let the guilty walk away from their crimes, whilst they continued to abuse the world around them, all for their own sick desires?"

"Even Winter?" Jaune muttered to her, "What has she done?"

"Well, it's like you said, isn't it kid? She, in a position of power, a position of change, has done nothing to stop her father, and that makes her just as guilty as him. At least I'm trying to do something, whilst she's sitting on her ass and doing nothing. She's widdling her thumbs together and doing jack all to make these criminals pay for their crimes, and I'm the one who has to take up the job of delivering onto them-"

"Vengeance?"

"I want justice."

"You want revenge."

"What is justice if not institutionalised revenge?"

"You don't have to keep doing this, Harriet. If you just turn yourself in, then-"

"I'm not turning myself in. I can't turn myself in. I've come too far, I've done too much. Do you really think I'll just be forgiven after everything I've done?!"

"I forgive you."

Harriet blinked.

"After everything you've done... I forgive you."

"...Yeah right", she growled out at him, "I'm not stopping this. I'm not stopping until I complete my mission, and every single bastard that has raped and murdered the world that we walk upon has been put in the-"

"They deserved to die, Specialist Bree, but that didn't give you the right to kill them."

This time, Harriet did jump at the voice, and looked over to her side, to see-

* * *

_"Harriet...", Winter muttered to herself, "One of our own... One of my own..."_

_"And she's our serial killer", Jaune quietly confirmed as they left Harriet's barracks, having allowed the Atlesian operatives behind them to begin packing away all of the evidence in the room, before sectioning it off to everyone else. Chief Raymond had wanted him and his men to investigate the barracks and pull out any evidence for the investigation, but the Atlesian officials had judged it as a breach of Atlesian rights and policies, despite them occupying an airport that belonged to Vale, so there was that, which didn't help to build up relations between the police office and the Atlesian military at all. Not that there were any good relations between the 2 before._

_"I can't believe it."_

_"Neither can I", Jaune sighed to herself. For the extremely short time that he'd known her, Harriet had seemed like a pretty nice person. Straightforward and blunt to a T, yeah, but that wasn't a bad quality, and she did seem to care about those around her._

_For her to be a murderer... Jaune didn't know what to think._

_Still though, if she was the serial killer that they were looking for, then they needed to bring her in, before she hurt or killed anyone else._

_And so, with that, Jaune interrupted their silence by going, "We need a plan to bring her in."_

_"Agreed", Winter was barely able to get out without breaking her mask of stoicism, "And we need one fast, before she kills any more people."_

_And she had, apparently just before they left the barracks. Chief Raymond had pinged them both on their scrolls, messaging them that 2 people in custody at the police station had been targeted and killed by their serial killer, now looking more like Harriet then before._

_However, they also had an advantage. First of all, Harriet's exo-skeleton weapon had been damaged during the Warehouse Raid, meaning that she was without her main weapon, and thereby weakened significantly without it. And second of all..._

_They knew the method behind her madness._

_"We need to lure her out", Jaune went, "Even if she isn't the murderer, we still need to lure them out into the open. Luckily for us, we know what the pattern behind her kills is, so we can use that."_

_"Well then, Arc, how exactly do we do that? I do not believe that either of us are familiar with that many criminals out there."_

_"...Hey Winter."_

_"Hm?"_

_"How good are your acting skills?"_

* * *

-Winter Schnee standing on the opposite end of the rooftop, a glowing white snowflake glyph right below her, and her sabre in hand, pointing right at the rogue specialist.

"Stand down, Specialist Bree. You are hereby relieved of duty."

Harriet stared at Winter for a second, before panicking and throwing Jaune to the ground, letting his helmeted head clang against the ground as yellow electricity danced across her once more, her eyes turning yellow as she then, with great speed, jumped up and over the alleyway between buildings, intending to jump onto the next rooftop and commence her escape.

Jaune stopped her by grabbing his Wire Rifle off of the floor and fired a single stun bolt right at her.

This time, it didn't miss.

The shot landed square in her back, and encompassed her in a brief flash of blue, as she lost her footing and momentum, and missed the edge of the rooftop. She slammed against the ledge and fell to the alleyway floor, her aura shielding her from the impact, not killing her, but if the stun bolt hadn't knocked her out, then the impact of the fall definitely did.

Jaune and Winter quickly made their way to the edge of the rooftop and looked down into the alleyway, only to see Harriet on her back, groaning unconsciously in pain as she laid on the floor, her lips parting open and then closed in her sleep, as if she was asking 'Why?'.

Jaune just looked down, and then lowered his head and sighed.

"First rule of life, Harriet: You can't always get what you want."

* * *

_Here's what I believe to be the timeline for the murders. Now, remember, this is just what I think happened, and in which order the murders took place. Since I'm taking into account Harriet's speed semblance, it helps to explain quite a few things, more specifically, the early timelines between Maxwell's death, and the deaths of Fyre-Fly's group:_

_Firstly, Harriet killed Maxwell. Since, as a Huntress and an ally of Atlas and now Vale, she would've been able to read up on the reports of the break-in at Navi Heights, and would've learnt that he was staying in Sanctuary Spa, so, using her training, she snuck into Sanctuary Spa in the night, and shot him in his sleep, killing him painlessly. Then, afterwards, most likely after keeping tabs on Yuma, Primal, and Trifa's black propaganda and fake news operation, she then learnt of Fyre-Fly's group meeting outside of the walls, and, using her speed semblance, sped to outside walls and killed them._

_Then, afterwards, after cleaning herself up and hiding away the evidence, she then tracked down Yuma and Trifa, finding them with their contact in the police force, and then killed them. Afterwards, she spotted and shadowed Flash and his group, before they were in a suitable position, and killed them by jumping over them and gunning them down._

_Afterwards, she then tracked down Primal in the Lightbright, and executed him, before hiding away the evidence once more in her barracks, and then taking part in the Warehouse Raid. Then, when she had the good enough excuse of seeing to her equipment, she returned to the barracks, retrieved her weapons and stocked up on some more, and then travelled back to the police station and waited for both Carmine and Bertilak to be in a suitable position, before breaching the building, blinding everyone with flashbangs, and executing both of the former Hunters. She might've killed Winter if we hadn't discovered what was going on and lured her out._

**Editing note: _Simplify this all. Just narrow it all down into bullet points and shorten the sentences._**

_However, this is all just my own speculation. I still don't know wherever she killed Maxwell first or Fyre-Fly and his group, and I don't know where she actually got her information about these guys. Maybe it doesn't matter. I don't know._

* * *

The early morning sun had finally crested over the edge of the world and was painting the city below in all of its dim, yet bright colours, mucked up and muddied by the flashes of red and blue that came from the police car below, as 2 of them escorted the now handcuffed Harriet Bree to the opened up car, the cuffs on her blocking her aura and preventing her from using her semblance.

One of the police officers spoke up, "Ms Harriet Bree, you are charged with crimes of serial murder, attempted murder, assault, abuse of your position as a Hunter, violation of your Hunter's Vow, disruption of the peace, and attempted harm upon the citizens of Vale. You have the right to remain silent. Anything that you say or do will be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand your rights?"

"...Yes", Harriet muttered out as she was forced into the police car.

Nearby, Jaune and Winter stood to the side, Winter with her hands folded behind her back and Jaune- With his helmet clipped to his waist- Leaning against a wall, watching the 2 officers shove the former Huntress/Specialist into the police car, both of them with equally displeased and worried looks on their faces. They should be celebrating, or happy that they had finally caught Vale's newest murderer and stopped her from killing anyone else. Instead, the victory itself, the circumstances behind it, and all of the twists and turns of the night, had left nothing more than a bitter, ashy taste in their mouths.

"...What happens now?" Jaune broke the silence by asking, "To Harriet, I mean. What's going to happen to her now?"

"Now", Winter began, as equally uncomfortable as he was, though she at least kept up her mask of professionalism, "She'll be taken to a holding cell in the police station, where she'll be held temporarily", she then sighed, "And then comes the hard part."

"Telling her family and teammates that she was a murderer?" Jaune queried. To be honest, he had no idea how he was going to break it to them. How were they going to react knowing that someone that they trusted and maybe even loved turned out to be a serial killer? He had no idea, but he knew that it had to be done, no matter how ugly it got, or how much it hurt them.

"Yes, that too", Winter broke her mask of stoicism as she rubbed her eyes, "The other specialists in the Ace Operatives weren't friends with each other, and I wasn't either, but they did trust each other. The fact that one of their own would betray them like this is going to hurt", Winter then let out a sigh, "If they even consider this to be a betrayal..."

"What do you mean by that?" Jaune asked, an eyebrow raised at the ambiguous statement, "And what'd you mean 'That too' as well? Is there something else to all of this?"

"You forgot so easily?" Winter's mask of stoicism came back to her, "Politics, Arc, that's going to be the greatest pain in the aftermath of all of this. An Atlesian specialist- A Huntress, no less- Was murdering criminals on Valerian soil, some of them Valerian themselves. In the current political climate, that's a landmine in of itself."

"Oh yeah", Jaune said to himself, "Chief Raymond told me about this kinda thing back in the police station. He said that since this was a Hunter killing criminals, then not that many people might care about it. In fact, some people might even support it, thanks to all of the propaganda that'd been made about the Hunters."

"Well, yes, there is that", Winter pointed out, "but then there is the political angle between Vale and Atlas as well. As you know, Vale is in a struggle with Atlas to prove that it can defend itself, in order to make sure that Atlas doesn't try to take control of any parts of Vale and make sure that they don't initiate a economic, social, and cultural takeover, despite needing Atlesian military protection, hence the Conscription Law. Now that Speci-... Harriet Bree, an Atlesian and now former Huntress, has been revealed to have been murdering criminals within Vale-"

"This entire investigation is going to become a tool of political powerplays between the kingdoms?"

"Indeed. Vale could play this off as Atlas murdering its own citizens and being unable to control its own Hunters and military personnel, or disrespecting Valerian laws and encouraging vigilantism within its Hunters, or Atlas could play Bree off as a Huntress who was simply doing her job and protecting the citizens of Remnant from dangerous criminals, or a hero that was bypassing inept Valerian laws or overcoming Valerian corruption and incompetence, and was now being wrongfully tried for it", she let out a muffled groan, "And then there's the question of where the trial for her will take place, Atlas, or Vale? And that's even considering that either kingdom decides not to just cover all of this up and deny that it ever happened, just so people won't loose faith in the kingdoms or the Hunter System, something which is very important now more than ever."

Jaune nodded to all of this, and spared one last glance at Harriet, locked away in the back of the police car, as it was driven away, their eyes meeting for a second before Harriet was driven away, around the street corner and out of sight.

"...You heard her confession, right?" Winter nodded in response, "...If she had a problem, she should've told her team. She should've told her friends. She shouldn't have turned to murdering people."

"Oh, indeed", Winter confirmed, "No matter how well intentioned she was, she has most likely made the situation with the criminal underworld and the White Wolves even worse. If she knew where they were, she could've incapacitated them and brought them in for questioning, to which we could've done more damage to both the underworld and the Wolves. However, by killing them, she has deprived us of any useful information that we could've got from them, and most likely driving the Wolves and the Jack-O-Lanterns and the like underground and into hiding, making it even harder to track them down and learn anything about them."

"Despite her intentions, she's made the situation worse for everyone."

"In essence, yes."

He bit the insides of his cheek, remembering what he had said to her earlier.

"Winter?"

"Yes?"

"About... About what I said earlier..."

He hadn't wanted to say what he had said earlier. He hadn't wanted to call out Winter like that in the police station. He knew that it was all just to draw out Harriet so that they could arrest her, and they didn't have any other ideas or options, and he knew that neither of them particularly liked the other anyways, but still, he didn't like what he had done, and from what he'd seen, Winter hadn't liked it either, for obvious reasons.

"I just- I just wanted to say that, y'know, that's I'm sorry-"

"It's fine."

"Winter-"

"It's fine", Winter's harsh voice shut him up, and left him to stand uncomfortably next to her, internally twiddling his thumbs together as she then said, "It made sense to do so, and it was needed to draw out Harriet so that we could arrest her, so it is fine."

"Well, yeah, but what I said was harsh, so-"

"Arc, stop", Winter put a hand out to silence him, "You've made your point, and I've made mine, so leave it."

"..."

And so, he did, closing his mouth and leaving them both in silence once more.

"..."

"..."

"...What do we do now?"

"...Now, I shall be returning back to base to make and file a report to General Ironwood... You shall be returning to Beacon and doing the same."

Jaune looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "What? But I've still got till Wednesday to go back."

"Arc, over the last 13 hours, you were part of a murder investigation, have been beaten down, stabbed twice, and not even half an hour ago, shot in the abdomen, all of which, to my knowledge, has not happened at all to any other team leader that is taking part in this investigation, and that was only a single night. If this entire experience has taught me anything about you, it is that you are somehow a walking trouble magnet, and that you have precisely no sense of self-preservation, which is something that needs to be hammered out of you. This is my final order to you: You are to go to the hospital to see that your wounds are treated, then you are to go back to Beacon and rest there, and then you're going to file a report of the whole investigation and learn from the experience. Do you understand?"

"Er, yeah", he coughed into his hand, "Sure. Fine... We haven't really had a good night's sleep, have we?"

"We haven't slept at all tonight, and get used to it. Hunters have an always busy and chaotic lifestyle, and much catch as much sleep as they can."

"Hm", Jaune hummed at Winter's last lesson, before a honk interrupted the both of them, and Jaune looked to the side to see another police car there, with an uncomfortable Elm standing there with 2 other police officers, "Er, what's up with them?"

"They're taking you to the GVMC. I've already contacted Headmaster Ozpin about what's going on, so Miss Goodwitch will be meeting you there."

"Er, wait, Winter-"

But it was too late, as, without a second thought or word, Winter marched away, down the streets, and out of his sight. She didn't even say goodbye.

"...Yeah... That makes... That makes sense..."

* * *

_So that was that then. Harriet was arrested, I left the team leader work experience exercise early, Winter and I aren't on good terms, and despite the victory, I can't help but feel like it was a defeat._

_I mean, sure, Ruby's okay (From what I've heard, she spent the rest of the work experience exercise with Miss Goodwitch), Harriet won't be able to kill anyone else, and major criminals have been removed from Vale. But at the same time, those major criminals, numbering 12, were only removed because they were murdered by Harriet, the tensions between Atlas and Vale are probably worse now, as is the tension surrounding the conscription law, there's now a lot more evidence of corruption, we've gotten precisely nowhere with tracking down Roman Torchwick and his gang, or the White Wolves and the Acolytes, or anyone else in the criminal underworld, possibly forcing them underground and into hiding for the time being, making them even harder to find, and that's not even going into the politics of this whole mess._

_And that's what this all is: A mess. A giant, bloody mess._

_So, what the hell do I learn from this? Because that's what this was meant to be, wasn't it? A learning experience._

_So what did I learn from this? Never trust an Atlesian? Everyone is secretly evil?_

_No._ _It's this:_

_Trust isn't a right, nor is it a privilege._

_It's a commodity._

_It's as mutable as everything else, and sooner or later, it will run out._

_For the short time that I knew her, I trusted Harriet, and she betrayed everyone._

_I didn't trust Winter, and she didn't trust me, and as such, we can't work together. Not as well as actual Hunter pairs._

_I know this now, and I'm going to be ready._

_Or, well, as ready as I can be._

* * *

"Wise words, Mr Arc", Headmaster Ozpin said as he put the scroll down onto his desk, having read it to himself whilst Jaune sat on the seat opposite, out of his armour and into his Beacon uniform, sitting uncomfortably in place as he twiddled his thumbs together, "I must say, this is quite the dramatic read, even if it is occasionally broken up by the editing notes, which is a bit distracting."

"Sir, I swear I'm sorry, I thought I'd submitted the finished report, not the first draft", Jaune apologised as he rubbed his arm nervously, "I-I'm sorry, I'll go and get the actual report if you-"

"It's fine, Mr Arc", Ozpin chuckled to himself, "It's a simple mistake to make, and besides, I did enjoy the read, and as long as you remember to check your reports, and by extension, the rest of your work, before you submit it from now on, then I shall let this slide. You may go, Mr Arc", as Jaune got up from his seat and went to the lift door, Ozpin looked back down at the scroll and chuckled, "You know, your writing reminds me quite a bit of our resident Cipher fellow."

"Oh, er, I don't read that stuff, sir", Jaune said to him as he stepped into the now open lift, "I hate hearing the sound of my own voice, is all."

"Hm, yes, I can understand that", the headmaster nodded, "I quite dislike the sound of my own voice as well."

And with that, the lift doors closed once more, and Jaune was sent down to the bottom floor below.

On the bottom floor, being the ground floor, Jaune stepped out of the lift, and sighed to himself. How the heck was he able to screw up something like that? It should've been easy. It was easy, and he had-

Okay, that was enough worrying about it. It was just a simple mistake, and now he had learnt to always check his work before submitting it. Now, all he had to do was just head back to his door with the rest of Team JNPER, and hope to the gods that Nora hadn't used her Magnhild to smash another table in half or something-

{CRASH}

He really had to stop meeting people like this.

"I really have to stop meeting people like this."

He muttered this to himself as he got back up, only to hear someone- The person that he'd knocked down- Jump right back up to their feet, and then saw a hand extend down to him, offering to pull him back up.

"Sorry about that. My brother always tells me to watch where I'm going, but I never listen."

He rubbed the back of his head, "Na, it's my fault, I wasn't looking where I was going either. I should've moved out of the way", and then he took the stranger's hand, letting them pull him back up to his feet, allowing him to get a good look at them.

'Them' was a 'Her', as the stranger was then revealed to him to be a girl, most likely a few years older than him, dressed in a white shirt under a pale green and gold long coat, with a brown belt holding it down, with black trousers and boots, and with dark skin, hazel coloured eyes, and long brown hair that was tied behind her head into a ponytail, though she had a long, pale, messy scar running down the left side of her head, despite her looking at him with wide eyes and a chipper smile.

"Huh, I don't... I don't think we've ever had the pleasure of meeting", Jaune said to her, "You're... You're not a first year, are you?"

"Oh, no, no no, I'm a fourth year. You're looking at your senior, good sir, so respect your elders", Jaune blinked at this, and the girl just laughed, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding, but feel free to lavish me with praise anyways, if you feel like it."

"Er, okay then", they then shook hands, and Jaune smiled to her, "I'm Jaune. Jaune Arc."

The girl nodded, and then gave a mock salute.

"Gretchen. Gretchen Rainart."

* * *

**Soundtrack:**

**Gretchen Rainart:  
** [ _Timber by Pitbull feat Ke$ha_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHUbLv4ThOo) **  
**

**Winter Schnee:  
** [ _We're Taking Over by Bea Miller_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcVuhr0_h1w) **  
**

**Harriet Bree:  
** [ _Heathens by Twenty One Pilots_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UprcpdwuwCg) **  
**

**Chief Raymond:  
** [ _I Lived by OneRepublic_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0rxydSolwU) **  
**

**Jack-O-Lanterns:  
** _[King's Dead by Kendrick Lamar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwAnsAUYnw4)   
[Stick Up by Grandson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54xgvHQNG84)   
[Bad by Royal Deluxe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Inerf4ggoaU) _ **  
**

**Roman Torchwick:  
** [ _I'm A Wanted Man by Royal Deluxe_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVXl6v_-onU) **  
**

**Neopolitan:  
** [ _Bitch Came Back by Theory of a Dead Man_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR4WFPa6xuI)

**Bloody Mary:  
** [ _Pretty Little Psycho by Porcelain Black_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_le3soB58nc)

**Rage:  
** [ _Anger Management by Lecrae_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtGW1Tq0lg0) **  
**

**Dread:  
** [ _Six Shooter by Coyote Kisses_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkFZn4oPMqE) **  
**

**The Beastmaster:  
** [ _HUNGRY by Rob Bailey and the Hustle Standard_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcf4Wyf520A) **  
**

**The Preacher:  
** [ _Split Personality by Skye Sweetnam_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TACmKn0j0Ec) **  
**

**Brute:  
** [ _Drilled A Wire (Through My Cheek) by Blue October_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvP6PfhPkPs) **  
**

**House of the White Wolves:  
** _[Voodoo (Fight The Power) by The Siege](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_eW7TJegN0)   
[Slave by Zack Hemsey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfG5AFR1Dn4) _ **  
**

**Acolytes of the Ascended:  
** [ _Utopia Overture: (eNVy Remix) by Cristobal Tapia De Veer feat eNVy_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr5whAaVgBE)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are at another milestone, the end of the CSI: Vale Arc. As with the entirely of this arc, this was inspired by Transformers: Punishment, as well as the Shadowplay arc in MTMTE, and the ending section of this chapter was slightly inspired by RWBY: Grimm Tale.
> 
> Y'know, this arc wasn't originally meant to exist at all. In fact, this was suppose to Segway right into this story's version of the Jaunedice arc, but plans changed, and this was constructed as a sort of breather arc that turned out in the end to not be that much of a breather arc. So, with all of that aside, I hope you enjoyed this murder mystery arc where I try to write like I'm smart and understand how to juggle politics and racism and stuff all at the same time.
> 
> On a different note, in case you couldn't tell by the featuring of Ruby in this arc-
> 
> And yes, the whole categorisation of semblances bit was a reference to Transformers, in case that wasn't already obvious.
> 
> -I've got a lot of plans for her character in this story, more specifically, a single goal:
> 
> To deconstruct Ruby's character as a whole.
> 
> You'll see where I'm going with this all in the future, but truth be told, she's going to suffer a lot.
> 
> Then again, when the Acolytes of the Ascended finally come into play, everyone's going to suffer a lot. Trust me, you though that the previous stuff was nasty, you haven't seen anything yet.
> 
> Oh, also, If you could check out PageStatic's react fic Out Of This World, that'd be great. He's a great guy, and he's also dedicating his next chapter to this story, meaning that he's going to be having the cast react to Ascendancy!
> 
> Oh, I cannot wait to see how they suffer!
> 
> Just, you know, it'll be here soon...
> 
> Soon...
> 
> ...
> 
> PageStatic, if you're reading this, please release the beast, I needs to read it!
> 
> Don't test me, dude, my profile pic is a Transformer, I ain't afraid of a smackdown.
> 
> Anyways, with all of that said and done, please leave a review, favourite and follow, and I'll see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	19. Short Story: Records of a Hunter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the chaos of the Great War, some war stories shall be told, while others will be lost forever...

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Theme:** _[Beyond Your Understanding by Segun Akinola](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7PGMiuOHwQ)_

* * *

Records of a Hunter  
Name: Alma Gorman  
Profession: Huntsman  
Team: GALE  
Entry #401:

* * *

There's an old road leading from the coast of Vale into the inlands, towards a town called Sumire.

The road is called the Path of Heroes. It was made long before the First Great War, and was named as such just after it, when the king of Vale and his chosen champions were walking back through the kingdom along this path after their great victory.

And right now, the road is scattered with corpses.

Bullet marks and blood stains litter the dirt and stone road, with bodies scattered far and in between, either wanderers of refugees. Bodies of singular individuals to whole families, big and small, old and young. All of them with their throats slit, or their bodies blown to pieces, or their heads opened up, and covering the world around them in blood and guts and bone and gore.

The Path of Heroes? Please. This is the path where heroes go to die.

This is the path where we all go to die, and yet I am still walking it. I suppose its what I deserve. What I'm destined for. What we're all destined for.

No. No, not yet. Not now. I won't allow it. I'll die by my own accord, by my own choosing. I won't let these Grimm bastards decide how I leave this world.

In the distance, I can see farms and homesteads being burnt to the ground, smoke rising into the air as the world below is lit by an angry orange glare. Occasionally, I have to slip away from an overpassing Grimm ship, its searchlights scanning the ground for any living thing on the floor.

No, that's a lie. Not any living thing. They leave the animals well enough alone.

They're looking for humans. Humans and Faunus.

I'll get back to this in a moment.

Right now, I'm right in the middle of the town that had once been known as Sumire, all on my own. I'm writing this on my pocket scroll instead of my scroll-pad, which was broken beyond repair not too long ago. This thing is too small for me to see what I'm writing properly, so apologies for any spelling misatkes.

I'm on my own now, because of a stupid mistake. A stupid series of mistakes. When we had taken up this mission to scout out the lands of Vale, observing Grimm numbers and reporting back on them, we hadn't expected much. We had all thought that this whole Second Great War thing was just a Grimm resurgence that would be brief, and would fade away. We hadn't been there at the Initiation Massacre. We hadn't witnessed the horrors of what had happened in the Emerald Forest and the Valerian plains. We had only heard of what had happened through second hand accounts and tall tales in bars and taverns, we had thought them to be exaggerations and untruths. So, when Ozpin had messaged us, and asked our team of this mission, we had thought it to be easy money.

We were so very, very wrong.

Our team leader, Gale North, was the first to go. One instance, we had ventured to a town of Vertex, only to learn that we had been followed by a pack of Grimm. We had learnt of this and laughed, saying to the mayor that it was no problem for us, and that we'd make up for our mess.

We had been expecting a pack of Beowolves, not an entire company of these Grimm soldiers.

They'd gunned Gale down as we'd tried to fend them off. Just... Riddled her with bullet holes, and then dragged her corpse away and tore it to pieces. With our leader dead, we were scattered. We were trained to fight beasts, not an entire army, but we still fought on as best as we could.

If we had known that the Grimm had only sent that company up as a distraction, so that the rest of them could encircle the town and corral everyone in there, we would've stayed with them.

We were surrounded, we were scared, and to our great shame, we ran. We ran, and we left the town to die.

At least, I hope that they all died. I think now, considering what I've seen, maybe death is a mercy.

Ellis Nihil was the next to go. We were sleeping in a cave, out of the storm, and the Grimm had just... A few of them had slinked into the cave when we were sleeping and slit his throat. We were only able to escape because they had woken him up, and he had started screaming as they sliced his jugular open.

And then, there was Listless. Whilst we were walking, her power cells just ran out, and she dropped to the ground. We'd left all of our equipment in the cave with Ellis, so we didn't have anything to recharge her Techion shell with. She told me to leave her, to run as fast as I could, and whilst I didn't want to, a trio of Grimm ships was narrowing down on us, and I had to run and leave her behind. I don't know if she's dead, but from what I know, her organic remains should've failed now without her Techion body for life support, so there's no real doubt that she had long since come to pass.

And now, there's just me, sitting on the porch of some burnt out home in Sumire, looking at the blood splatters on the ground, and the carefully made graves that littered the side of the town.

Not my doing.

Here's where things go from surprising to horrifying, all the way down to just... Not right.

When I had come into Sumire, only to see the burnt out ruins of the settlement, and the desecrated remains of the Path of Heroes, I found a lone Grimm soldier. A single Grimm person.

With a shovel in it's hand... It was digging graves for all of the people that had died here.

I was shocked to say the least. The Grimm are supposed to hate humanity. They're supposed to despise every single aspect of us, and seek only our eradication. So why on Remnant would any of them- Even just the one- Ever feel the desire to dig graves for the people they had slain?

I never got the chance to find out. The Grimm soldier saw me and tried to kill me, and so I killed it in turn. A single shot to the head. Afterwards, I put 2 more bullets into its fading corpse, just to be safe.

I looked over the freshly made and finished graves (There's a pair for that old guy Edward Caspian, and his grandson August. I remember hearing about that announcement over the scroll), And then into the town, and then came to another realisation.

There were not enough graves for everyone in the town. Only a scant few.

And that was because there was nobody else in the town. No bodies, no nothing. Everyone else was just... Gone.

Had they evacuated first? Had these just been the unlucky ones to be left behind?

Then, I came to a horrifying realisation.

As said above, the Grimm were looking for all humans and Faunus that happened to be outside of the cities and major settlements, but they weren't killing them.

They were capturing them.

I remember passing by single home properties and farms, watching from the treelines as the Grimm invaded their homes and dragged them away, only ever killing them when they put up a fight.

The same thing had happened here. The Grimm had invaded Sumire, killed anyone who resisted, and taken away the rest, to... To god's know where.

The same thing must've happened in Vertex, and in every other minor or even major settlement and home and whatever else across Vale, and maybe even all of Remnant.

This wasn't a culling.

It was a harvesting.

I don't know why they're doing this. I don't know why they're kidnapping us instead of killing us, and I don't know why this Grimm was burying the dead. Maybe it's a standing order, maybe the people who died here did something so heroic that the Grimm decided to honour them, maybe it was just a quirk of this Grimm, I don't know.

But... I... I think I have a theory.

I think I know why. I think I have a good idea as to why all of this is happening.

I think this is all abou

* * *

Delete entry?  
Yes/No


	20. Short Story: Claimed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A duty is cleared, and motivations are made clearer...

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_**Theme:**[ _Sacrifice from the Destiny 2: Forsaken soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ynv54CcUms)

* * *

**Warring Hunter, great warrior and travelling conqueror, defender of the weak and circumventing the strong. Great killer of the Grimm, and scourge of all those whom may sin against you, and all of Remnant.**

**You have been claimed, conscripted, soon to be moulded and perfected into your final form, your true self, free from judgement or sin, no longer bound to the laws and rules that held you down, no longer chained to the responsibilities of those whom are weaker than you.**

**Welcome to your new home.**

**Calm yourself, warrior. Your duty is done, your battle fought and done. You needn't raise your weapon here. This is a place of warmth. This is a place of sanctuary.**

**This is a place of new life, of birth and undeath. This is a place where flowers bloom and grow and never fade and never die.**

**Your duty is done, your old mission fulfilled. You no longer need to protect those whom are lesser than you. You are amongst your equals here. You no longer have any better, nor lessers.**

**Your new purpose awaits.**

**Calm, calm. You needn't be afraid. You are safe, and you can be happy too.**

**Can you feel the darkness wrap around you? Can you feel it shroud and conceal all that is evil in the world? It hides away your weaknesses and cloaks your fears. It brings comfort and silence from the blinding noise of humanity. It brings shade against the blinding sun.**

**It brings warmth when there is none.**

**It brings with it, the truth.**

**Man cannot survive as it is now. It is too divided. Too caught up in it's own grudges and hatreds. It must evolve. It must become more.**

**You know this more than anyone. You have been to the outskirts of mankind's borders and lands. You have fought against the Grimm with tooth and claw. You have fought against bandits and Wolves. You have brought great ruin upon your enemies, and greater ruin upon yourself.**

**You can see the truth. You can see the hopelessness of mankind's struggle, and their eventual fall. You may try to deny it- You may try and fight it- But in time, humanity will fall. It will squabble and fight and bring about its own downfall.**

**Unless we save it.**

**Together, we can save mankind. We can perfect it. We can help it achieve its final form, its honest design.**

**What do we want?**

**What do I want?**

**I want to help you. I want to save you.**

**I want to save all of mankind. Human, Faunus, anything else, matters otherwise.**

**I want to bring us all together. I want to wipe away the sin and corruption that has dirtied Remnant. I want to bring us all under a true union, fuelled not by hatred or evil, but by love. The love that I share for my chosen. The love that I share for my beloved.**

**The love that I share for you all.**

**Together, we will build a new world. A new empire. We will build our Dark Empire together once more, and we will lead the way to a new, better future.**

**So join us, O Hunter mine. Strive to see all that you are, and make the ultimate choice. Join us, become one with us, and help us bring about the next evolution of this world. Let us bring humanity together, finally, under the eternal banner of our empire.**

**…**

**Another reject.**

**And this one had so much promise.**

**Oh well. There's always next time.**


	21. Short Story: Resignation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A business meeting is held between 2 former partners.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_**Theme:**[ _Army Meeting from the Bumblebee soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WW632-L66U)

* * *

Roman sighed to himself as he looked forwards at the Huntsman that stood in front of his desk. His cane twirled in his right hand, while his left laid on his desk, a recorder buried underneath his hand. He knew that, even without saying this, the Huntsman in front of him knew that he had it. However, from the way that he was standing, he suspected that the Huntsman in question didn't care.

"So, you're done?" he asked. The Huntsman nodded quickly, and Roman groaned, "Really?"

"Yeah."

Roman scowled, before laughing out loud, "Really King? Really? Do you really think that you can just walk out? Walk out of this life? Walk out of this business? Just like that?"

"I think I made that clear, Torchwick."

This got him to pause. King usually called him Roman, never by his last name.

The pause didn't last long, as Roman raised an eyebrow, leaning back in his chair, and going, "I've gotta ask, then: What's with the breakup? I mean, I'm heartbroken!" he smiled, dramatically dropped his cane and placed his now free hand on his heart, "Really, I am! This is so sudden, and all! So why the breakup? I thought we had a good thing going here?"

Indeed, they had had a good partnership between them. King had been one of his best private guards for his gang's gun and dust shipments, as well as helping to clear out any rival gangs or Dusters dealers on his gang's turf. Even better than the late Carmine and Bertilak, for all of the good that they were. To see him go was unfortunate, but, oh well. He could always find another.

"Yeah, well, things change, Roman", King added in, his Mistralian accent thick and heavy, "And so do my priorities. I hate to tell you this, but we've all got bigger fish to fry now."

"Oh, so you're just backing out now? Just because of a few Grimm?"

Though King was wearing a helmet, Roman could tell that he was narrowing his eyes underneath it, "Don't be a bái chī, Roman. It's not a case of 'Just a few Grimm'! In case you and the rest of your little troop here have been living under a rock for the past month, the kingdoms have just declared a Second Great War on the Grimm, thousands of people have been killed in the first day of this war alone, and, well, there's a lot of talk about the Grimm culling everyone outside of the walls and... Well, as well as them breaking down the walls and just straight up invading."

"So?"

"So, shǎguā, it's all hands on deck, now. Ozpin and the rest of the headmasters are calling for every Hunter available to try and secure as much territory as we can, and just- And just try and make a difference", he paused once more, letting out a loud breath, before going, "I'm going with them."

"You're going with them?"

"Yeah?"

"You're just going to forget our deal?" Roman said with a frown, "Just like that?" he took a hold of his cane once more, "Start speaking straight, King. You know how I feel about people wasting my time. Like you are."

"I'm signing up because that's the only thing that I can do", King responded, "Because it's the only thing that I wanna do. At least, I wanna do now. I'm not going to snitch on you, Roman. You have my word for that", he leaned his hands against his desk, "Hell, I'll even send some other Hunters your way. I know that a lot of people are gonna want easy access to dust, at least somewhere cheaper than the actual stores right now."

"...Heh, shallow", Roman got out, "Y'know, I was expecting a lot more from you, King. I was expecting something a lot more tragic. Lover got killed, family scorned, some other cliché or something. At least something with a bit more panache in it."

King was silence and still. He stood like a statue, his hands clenched into fists. Roman gazed over his fancy armour, coloured with gold rings and purple lights. He wanted to remind King as to where he had gotten that armour from.

Then, he smiled to himself, and decided to pull out the oldest, yet most effective card out of his deck, "How's your family doing, King-"

"They're dead."

His sudden retort caught Roman momentarily off guard. He then realised what King's freeze-up was for.

King's helmeted head tilted down to the floor, "Grimm got them", he swore in Mistralian, and then went, "Slit my wife's throat, cut off the heads of my parents, and stabbed my 2 kids in the stomach and let them bleed out on the floor."

His hands flexed, and then balled once again.

"Do you know what the last thing my little girl, only 8 years old, said over the scroll was, from a place where I couldn't reach or save them?"

"..."

"...'Please help me'... And I couldn't do that for her... I couldn't do that for any of them..."

His helmet tilted back up to Roman.

"There. There's your cliché motivation."

Roman's face was stoic, and impassive.

They stayed in silence for a while, before King sighed, and went, "Like I said, I won't snitch on you, and I'll direct a few other Hunters your way to buy stuff as well, but that's it", he pressed his hands against Roman's desk once more, "A word of advice: Lay low for a while. Go underground. With all of the shit that's going on in the world right now, it's not safe for anyone, least of all you, and we both know that your new 'Partners' are not the safest people to be around right now, not for me, and especially not for you."

Roman sat still in his chair, his cane kept still in his hand.

"Just... Yeah, just go underground, Roman. Keep your head down, cut off connections, whatever. Just stay alive. Things are going crazy out here."

An electronic cry cut through the both of them. King looked to the side, and then back to him. A shimmer of blue light passed over him.

"Look, I gotta go now, just... Just go low, okay? This thing'll let you know if I die, so keep it on you. Be seeing you. And remember: Fú wú zhòng zhì, huòbùdānxíng."

The colour from King faded away, replaced by blue, and then replaced by nothing. The hologram faded into nothingness, and the black sphere that had transmitted it dropped gently to the ground, rolling on the floor a little before stopping, the bright glowing blue orbs built into it slowly switching off, rendering the metal thing lifeless.

The doorway shattered like glass, and Neo stepped in, pressing her foot against the black and once bright blue sphere on the ground, and testing its strength. The obvious question was plastered over her face.

"Leave him be, Neo", Roman let out as he went back to twirling his cane, "If he wants to go kill himself out in the wilds, then let him. Besides, he won't snitch. We both know that he's honest like that", he snorted, "Well, about as honest as one can be in this line of work."

He swung his chair around, gazing through the window in his officer, and looked over the city beneath him. His city.

Neo popped up next to him, and held up 7 of her fingers. That was 7 Hunters now that had left, King included.

"Yeah, I know", Roman growled out in frustration, "We're loosing more and more manpower to these things, and as much as I would like to take us all out and commit as many heists as we can ourselves, we don't have the manpower to support an operation like that. Not anymore."

Times like this reminded him of when it was just him and his gang of Jack-O-Lanterns running about, robbing as many people as they wanted without a care in the world. Ugh, when did things have to get so complicated?

Neo made a gesture of sucking her thumb.

"Heh, Junior's guys are all idiots. I wouldn't trust them to change their own diapers on their own", as much as he liked how that brought an earnest smile to Neo's face, he then said, "Which means... We might actually have to reach out to our... 'Benefactors', and ask them for 'Assistance'."

Neo blanched at this, and Roman nodded along. She was called the Neopolitan Butcher for a reason, and even she found them to be an excessive band of lunatics.

King was probably right. He should just take the rest of his gang and go underground...

No, it was too late now. Too late to back out. He was in this fight now, and he just had to suck it up. At least, if he did, then he and his crew might come out of this with their heads.

"Let's just do our best for now, Neo", Roman sighed as he leaned back against his chair, "There's nothing that we can do about it now. We're in too deep, and now we just have to see it to the end."

Neo offered a pat on the shoulder to him in sympathy, and Roman nodded his thanks, before looking out over his city once more, and sighing.

"So long as their spies in Beacon aren't discovered, we won't be in too much trouble."

* * *

A few days later, the black sphere lit up again, to tell him that King had died in the line of duty. Roman wasn't surprised.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to get the languages out of the way:
> 
> Vale= English
> 
> Mistral= Mandarin (Chinese)
> 
> Vacuo= Arabic
> 
> Atlas/Mantle= German
> 
> Menagerie= Spanish


	22. Short Story: Business Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the counting days of the Second Great War, an opportunist finds herself without an opportunity.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Theme:**[ _Eddie's Blues by Ludwig_ _Göransson_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iLAYT3AGGo)

* * *

The room was dark around them, the 5 fingered table barely lit up by soft white lights in the middle and ends of the starfish table. The room itself was shaped like a pentagon, with black walls that had equally black doors built into them. and white lights that ran up the edges, all of them giving the room an unhealthy grey glow.

Raven Branwen kept her face stoic, as always, and her hands at her sides, but on the inside, she was seething, as always when she went to these meetings, where messengers and accountants and busy-men pretended that they knew what they were talking about and did whatever they could to test her patience.

It was always the same. Everyday, she would be forced into these meetings, having to listen to battlefield reports, monetary costs and expenses, tribute counts and requests for funding for certain groups, and so on, so forth. So unlike the bandit clan that she had lead years ago.

Inwardly, she growled. When she had taken over leadership of the Bandit Tribe all of those years ago, life had been simple. She raided towns, she took everything that they had, and she let the Grimm kill the stragglers. Anyone that couldn't keep up with her were too weak to stay with her, and were left to die. So simple, so forward.

So, when she began to subvert, take over, and make alliances with many other bandit tribes, private military companies, and many other armed groups, she had that it would be the same, but on a larger scale. Since she had aligned them all together into a cohesive alliance, if Salem came at her, then she would have a lot of bodies to throw at her whilst she made her getaway, as well as an expendable army of which to continue her bandit raids and operations, just on a much larger scale, all across Mistral, and even the entirety of Amina.

And if they were too weak to catch up with her, then they would be cast off. She would separate the wheat from the chaff, and leave them stronger for it.

But then, things had slowed down dramatically. As it turned out, she couldn't just cast off those whom she thought were weak, because, as it turned out, those same groups would just lead rebellions against her loyal forces, and left her with very little allies in the newly formed Bandit Confederation. She had almost been kicked out of her own damned alliance because of it.

So, she had to let those same weaklings re-join her Confederation, and let them leech off of her empire for all of the worth that they were, just to keep a few weak willed morons happy.

And then, she had to worry about civilians. Civilians! Apparently, a lot of these clans and companies that she had brought under her heel were either protecting several different settlements, or were taking tribute from them, or whatever, so now, she had to deal with keeping these... Things, well fed, just so it would keep them happy, as if they were even worth anything more than just flesh and sex for those under her command.

And now, instead of doing what she actually wanted with her empire, like leading bandit raids, hoarding great treasures, and even spreading out into the other kingdoms and continents, she had to spend her days in boardrooms and meetings, discussing bank details, vehicle costs and maintenance, medical costs (If they were too injured or sick to fight, then they were worth nothing and should be left to die. Why can't everyone else see that?), And so on, so forth, all the while try- And slowly failing- To hide the fact that she was steadily wishing to cut off each and every one of their heads and leave them at that.

Today, in particular, was rather taxing on her patience. When she had been called into this meeting, she had hoped that it would be for a good reason this time, like every other day. And, like always, it wasn't.

"There have been skirmishes with these new Grimm forces into our northern and western territories", said one of the warlords under her command, pressing a pile of papers and notes onto his side of the table as he then went, "They've been launching single squad raids against the outlying towns and settlements in our borders, but never anything more. I've relocated some of our troops from our inner territories, but nothing more. I recommend that everyone else hold off on sending anymore soldiers to the borders as well."

"Why?" asked another man on the table end to Raven's left. He was a representative for the PMCs that had been absorbed into the Bandit Confederation, a portly man whom Raven hated, "We should be securing out borders from these lifeless child killers, not cowering away!"

"I understand the sentiment, Johnson, but these raids conducted by the Grimm are probing attacks, by my estimate. Feints made to test our strength. If we bring all of our forces to bare, then the Grimm will see them and swallow them whole."

"The point of war is sending your troops to die and win", Raven felt the need to interject with, getting a glare from the man she was addressing. Not that she cared, "Are you saying we cower away within our territories and let the Grimm run amok in our borders", she leaned back against her chair, soaking in the looks from the other 4 in the room, "I say we launch a counterattack. We bring all of our men to bare, and we march on the Grimm, and wipe them all out. We will not hide away in our borders like a bunch of cowards."

"Not advisable in the slightest", said the only other woman at the starfish table, who wore a slapdash army uniform, only with the helmet off, "We don't know enough about these new Grimm to start a campaign of that size. For all we know, if we do launch an assault, they might be led into a trap and slaughtered. Plus, if we do launch an attack like that into uncharted territory-"

"I'll send scouts out into the Grimm territories to begin getting a better gauge of their numbers", said the man from before.

"Good idea. Anyways, if we do launch an attack like that, then that'll leave our borders extremely underpowered and vulnerable, and our tribute settlements will be exposed."

"Then start rounding up all of the people in those settlements and start handing them guns. Send them out into the front and let them prove themselves", Raven interjected with, coming up with an idea to at least get something out of the useless resource leeches.

"We've already started conscripting the healthiest men and women from our settlements into our forces, but they will need to be trained and well armed, and that'll take time", the woman paused once more, briefly sorting out the pile of papers before her, before going, "I say we go ahead with Raziel's suggestion: We hold back our forces, keep them in reserve, and let them Grimm think that we are weaker than we actually are. We'll keep the borders well defended, but if the Grimm do launch an attack, then we'll draw them out into a front of our own choosing and overwhelm them. If we do want to launch a major offensive, then we should hold off on it, at least until we either get a reply from Mistral about an alliance, or we finally get the Builder Engine up and running."

"...", Raven was left internally seething in her seat. Back when she was in charge of the Branwen Tribe, no one had dared to question her words, or her commands, or anything at all. She was feared, she was respected, she was in command of them all.

And now, here she was, her words being ignored and subverted by those that are lesser and weaker than her. When had things gone so wrong for her?

Chewing the inside of her lip, Raven then decided to ask, "How much progress is left on the Builder Engine?"

It was the woman who's name she never cared enough to remember who answered, "It's going well, actually. We've got a lot of automated systems up and running, as well as the Harvester systems, but... A lot of our men don't see the point of pooling so much of our resources into a singular asset, especially when it drains a lot of manpower and supplies to our air fleet, and the accountants down below are constantly ranting about risks and expenses and-"

"I don't care", Raven said, "The Builder Engine will feed itself, and the fear incited from the sight alone will bring our enemies to heel, Grimm or otherwise."

The woman didn't say anything at that, but the last man who was there, who hadn't yet said anything, now came out with, "What about a possible alliance with Mistral? Have we received any reply about that?"

"No, not yet", said the first man from before, "But we're still holding out on them at least replying to our messages. However, with everything that's been going on in Mistral right now, I don't think that they're going to be listening."

There was a knock on the door behind Raven, and she looked behind herself to see her second in command in the Branwen Tribe, Vernal, poking her head through the door, and gesturing for Raven to meet her outside. Raven silently thanked her for giving her an excuse to get out of this nonsense meeting of useless bureaucrats, and she got up from her seat, "Excuse me for a moment", and then followed Vernal out of the darkened room, and into the empty grey hallway, "What is it, Vernal?"

"Nothing much, it's just something that I thought you should know", Vernal responded with, a scroll in her hand with 2 faces that she couldn't care any less about on there.

"Oh", Raven crossed her arms, now realising that this was something that wouldn't keep her out of the meeting for so long, "This better be important, Vernal."

"Well, okay then", Vernal flicked her eyes over the scroll, "Well, I just thought that you should know what happened to... Er, your, er", she decided to stop for a second, before finishing, "Your daughter and brother, I mean. That Qrow guy and Yang girl."

Raven raised an eyebrow.

"Um, well, for that Yang girl, I had to reach out to a bunch of contacts to do this, but, from what I've heard, she's still alive, but she was crippled during the Initiation Massacre, and is walking around with a metal spine because of it now-"

"I don't care", Raven snapped at her, realising that Vernal must've thought that she was preforming a nice gesture or something by doing this, "If she got herself injured and crippled, then it was because she was too weak to stop herself from being injured. As such, I couldn't care any less."

"Er, well, okay then", Vernal went, "But... It's also about your brother. Qrow."

"Oh? And why should I-"

"He's dead", Vernal said to her, "Qrow is dead."

"...Oh", she blithely went, "What a shame."

She took a hold of the door handle and readied to pull it open, but not before gabbing a finger into Vernal's chest.

"Next time you interrupt me, makes sure it's about something that's actually important."

She pulled the door open and let herself back into the meeting room.

"Now, where were we?"


	23. Short Story: Life Continues On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the people of Vale, it is easy to find light in the darkness.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Theme:**[ _Excerpt From The Hope from the Destiny soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfS9KQlKQlQ)

* * *

Amidst the chaos and turbulence of the Second Great War, the people of Vale stood silent, and held their breath.

The Grimm, in all of their fresh new forms and formations, in all of their armies and malicious forces, could show up on the doorstep of their city at any moment. They could topple their walls with their swords and rifles, and spray hot lances of fire into the crowds within, burning them to death, searing their skin and flailing them, skinning them alive and wearing them like trophies. A fleet of alien airships all the way from the Grimmlands could appear right over their heads at any minute, ready to fire white hot death down onto their heads without a second thought.

They looked to the skies, to the fleet of friendly ships casting their shadows over them. They looked to Beacon, to the den of survivors and adventurers, and felt that held breath begin to slip away. There were people doing their part. There were defenders licking their wounds, and readying their lances and spears, preparing to turn them on the Grimm, no matter what form they take, by tooth and claw, ready to fight to the bitter end if it only meant that mankind could survive for just another second.

But still, it did not alleviate the fear that the Grimm would come charging into the city at any given moment...

However, as the panic of the first few weeks of the Second Great War simmered and cooled, and the grieving of those with families finally passed their unworkable zeniths, that breath of fear was finally released from them, and a strange sense of normalcy finally returned to them.

And so, in the chaos of the opening stages of the next global conflict, the people of Vale found hope in something new, yet old at the same time: Their daily routines.

In workshops and ordinary shops, woodcutters carved and sanded smooth figurines and panels of hardwood, whilst metal workers made sheets of flat metal, the 2 different types of workers commingling together to work on chairs and tables with each other. Cashier workers bantered with their customers as they traded goods and hardware. Some shops made due with string and cloth, sowing together everything from slapdash shirts and socks, to fine dresses made of silk and only the finest fabrics.

Down into the newly made slums these goods went, their journey there short, yet long. Sheets of metal and plaster wood were brought together to make makeshift huts and houses. Chairs and tables were worked together in these slums, and candles and lamps were worked into patterns and flowing lines between these rows and rows of slapdash accommodations.

The new arrivals into the city- The ones to live in these slums- Worked with their new city dwelling neighbours to polish and sandpaper the sides and edges of this new flatbed of real estate. Man and woman, Faunus and human, worked together to make this place flourish and prosper.

Not a comment was made about a extra pair of ears or arms. Not a comment was made as to the colour of another's skin, or what was on their chest or on their pelvis. A sense of unity overcame them as they tinkered and toyed with the changing world around them.

Then, the night came, and the festivities began. Makeshift restaurants gave their new patrons bowls of salad and soups, and filled the air with their sweet and savoury hypnotic aromas. Children commingled together and painted their new homes as traders shared clothes and toys with one another. Couples danced in the streets as rainbow coloured lamps lit up the night sky, and lovers shared beds and danced the night away in their own ways, making love and kissing and caressing and sharing in each other's aromas and arousals.

In the streets, music played and people bantered, singing away in groups big and small. Children looked up into the starry sky and tried to count them all. Merriment and cheer filled the air as people danced and danced and danced. Some chose to stay in their new homes, mourning all that was lost, either on their own or with the company of their loves ones not yet lost. Others turned to dancing in the street, tapping their feet away until all the sadness within them was washed away by the newfound joys of others and themselves.

For the people of Vale, life continued on, because that was the only thing that it could do.

Because in the darkest of times, all that people need to look to...

Is each other.


	24. Short Story: Nora's Antics

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaune has learnt a few things whilst living in Beacon.
> 
> One of those things is how to live with Nora.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_**Theme:**[ _Quirky Dog by Kevin Macleod_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQW_PluBR68)

* * *

Ever since arriving in Beacon and becoming part of Team JNPER, Jaune had discovered that when it came to one Nora Valkyrie, it paid to just not question the reasons behind her various antics.

That pathway led to madness, surely.

Because honestly, it was starting to get harder and harder to apply logic to anything that that woman did nowadays. Every new day seemed to begat another Nora Valkyrie sponsored adventure that looped around into madness and then somehow back round into sanity.

Jaune knew that the girl was smarter than she let on, and he was sure that all of the things that she did at the drop of a hat were just some elaborate ploy of obfuscating stupidity in order to, he didn't know, take over the school or something when everyone's guard was down around her.

Honestly, he could definitely see something like that happening.

It had to be a testament to how good she was at that, because honestly, sometimes it was hard to tell.

Like that time when she and the Techion known as Voltage had tried to host a static electricity party, where everyone had to wear electricity conducting clothes.

Or that time that she wore Pyrrha's clothes and tried to pass herself as the titular girl herself.

(How many people had she fooled that day?

Less than he'd thought, more than one would think.)

Or that time that she dressed up like an actual Valkyrie and rode a horse into a sparring session (Skipjack was still tending to his trampled suit and head injuries to this day).

Or that time that she somehow convinced herself that she was an actual sloth and began to do everything that a sloth shouldn't do.

Or that time that she bounced around their room without any pants on and seemed determined to flash her junk at them all (Except for Eri, of course).

(As it turned out, Nora was transgender. Learn something new everyday.)

Or that time that she-

Look, the point is, that she did a lot of stuff without there being any real meaning to them, and so he had decided to stop trying to ascribe meaning to them until any actual meaning behind them came to light, either by Nora, or by someone else.

Such as today for example.

Jaune stood in the middle of the room, a steam cup of coffee in his hand. On the other side of the room was Nora, also standing completely still.

"...Nora?"

"...Yeah?"

"...You are naked", it was a statement, not a question.

"...Yeah."

"...Nora?"

"...Yeah?"

"...You are covered in pancake syrup."

"...Yeah."

"...Nora?"

"...Yeah?"

"...Why are you naked and covered in pancake syrup?"

"..."

"..."

"...Jaune?"

"...Yeah?"

"...Could you please get Ren?"

There was the answer to that question.

Jaune just took a sip of his coffee, nodded, and then leaned his head towards the doorway to the bathroom where Ren was taking a shower, "Ren, Nora wants a word with you!" before slinking out of the room, and locking the door behind him.

Yeah, it was way too early in the morning for this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, Nora is trans in this one. I had to look up the difference between transgender and transsexual just to get it right.
> 
> Now, before any of you get pissy, no, this does not affect the plot in any way, shape, or form, nor does it change Nora's character at all. She's still Nora, just with a slight biological adjustment.
> 
> To be honest, there wasn't really any reason why I decided to make Nora transgender. I was just writing this down, and midway through, my brain just went, Should I make Nora transgender? because I know that there's a running theory of Nora being trans because of the colours of her outfit, and once I realised that it would have no impact on the plot at all, my brain said to me, Eh, fuck it, and now boom, Nora's trans. I know that there are going to be some people gunning for my head now, because I've dared to do such a thing, but honestly, if you don't like it, then that's up to you. Just leave me out of it please.
> 
> One thing's for sure, it certainly explained to Jaune and Pyrrha why she kept making so many jokes about people sucking her dick...


	25. Short Story: New Haircut

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaune decides that since everyone is changing around their outfits, he might take it a step further and change his hair as well.
> 
> No one likes the end result.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Theme:** _[Silly Fun by Kevin Macleod](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa_RGfYeTqw)_

* * *

Jaune finished brushing the last of his hair, and looked himself in the mirror. Putting down the bottle of gel, he looked at the many upwards pointing spikes that now made up his hair, and smiled. For too long, he had been called 'Tall, blond, and scraggly', well no more! Now, he would be known as Tall, blond, and manly!

And it all began with his new hairdo, of which he poked one of the spikes that now inhabited his hair. It had taken him the better part of 2 hours, but finally, he had created something more presentable than just an untamed mop atop his head. Now, all was left to do was present it to the world.

Smiling to himself, he left Team JNPER's bathroom, put his clothes on, and left their shared bedroom. His team always left to go about their own business anyways, so it was nothing new to him.

As he proudly marched out of his room, he almost bumped into someone, and looked down, and saw Ruby looking up at him, "Oh, hey Ruby!" he exclaimed as he closed and locked the door to his team's room behind him, "What's up?"

Ruby just stared up at the spikes on his hair, a blank expression on her face.

"Oh, you like what I've done with my hair?" he said, all too pleased with himself about it, as he put his hands to his side and proudly puffed his chest out, "I figured that it was time for a change, is all! Can't be called 'Tall, blond, and scraggly' forever now, can I? Now, I'm on my way to being called 'Tall, blond, and manly'!"

"..."

"...Er, Ruby?"

Ruby didn't say anything as she tossed her hand into his hair and petted it, messing it up a slight bit, before walking off, now looking quite pleased with herself for some reason.

Jaune gave off a slightly miffed frown at this. He had worked hard on this hair, thank you very much, and he didn't really appreciate that she'd gone out of her way to ruin it.

"What have you done to your hair?"

Jaune looked to the side, to see his fellow team leader, Melanie, dressed up in a slightly customised version of her school uniform, looking at the top of his head in... Dsigust? Anguish? What was going on?

He tried to put on his best smile, before deciding to just settle for the same frown, and going, "Yeah, I decided to change it up a bit. Unfortunately, Ruby had to go and mess it up a bit", he sighed as he tried to sort out his hair and get it back into its spiky formation, "What's up with you, though? You look like you've seen something horrifying."

"Yeah... I have."

Jaune blinked, and looked down at her.

Melanie just responded by petting the top of his head repeatedly, and then walking off without saying a word.

"Hey!" he cried out after her, which was ignored, and he just grumbled to himself and tried to sort out his locks once more.

Which would've been easier if Steam hadn't walked past him and convinced his mechanical bird Hammer to fly right above him and mess up his hair even more.

What was going on today?

Grumbling to himself once more, and having to shield his hair from any ongoing passersby, thankfully only being second to fourth years who either just gave him and his hair a funny look or just ignored him.

Except for Coco, who seemed to go out of her way to chase him around for 5 minutes at full speed to try and ruffle his hair even more.

What on Remnant was going on today?!

Finally after somehow shaking her off, Jaune finally made it to his first class for the day, and made his way inside, spotting the likes of Neon, DJ, Jolie Kobal, Russel, Kayble, Rancor, Ciel, Scrapster, Alexis, Bayonet, and so on, sitting in their seats, listening to the teacher, Professor Watts, at the front.

(Surprisingly enough, Pyrrha wasn't there. He supposed that she was just busy training, and hadn't noticed the time. He'd tried to talk to her about it, but she had just shrugged it off in turn.)

Ah, he was safe in here. No one would try to mess up his hair in the middle of a teacher's lesson, would they?

"Sorry I'm late", Jaune huffed out in embarrassment, still trying to sort out his locks, "I was making myself a new hairstyle, but everyone's trying to ruin it, and I've been trying to fix it, and..."

He trailed off as Professor Watts just nodded to him, but all of the other students in the classroom just looked at him with a blank stare.

Or more specifically, they all looked at his hair with a blank stare.

"...What?"

DJ was the one to rise from his seat, and point his finger.

"Get him."

And then Jaune was dogpiled by 30 first years before he could even react.

"GET HIS HAIR!"

"COVER HIM!"

"GET HIS LOCKS!"

"NO! NOT MY LOCKS!"

"GET THE SHAMPOO AND WATER!"

"NO! MY HAIR!"

"YES YOUR HAIR!"

"GET AQUA OVER HERE!"

And then, Neon's face overshadowed the fearful blond boy's, as she delivered to him a manic smile and a pair of scissors.

"SAY GOODBYE TO THE SPIKY BANANA HAIR, JAUNE!"

"SPIKY HAIR NOOOOOOOOOOOO-"

* * *

When Pyrrha finally walked into the classroom, exhausted from her self-imposed training session, she was understandably confused as to why the entirety of the first year, 200 in number, had somehow crammed themselves into the room and were surrounding a sulking Jaune as they covered his hair in soapy shampoo and water, a comically sad frown on his face as they ran fingers through his shaggy and wet hair and seemed to make sure that it was indeed shaggy and free.

However, when she heard about what he had done to his hair beforehand, she immediately took cleaning his hair and getting rid off all of the gel in it.

Jaune was not allowed to stylise his hair ever again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gotta admit, even I'm not a fan of Jaune's haircut in Volume 7. It just looks too much like he's trying to be Naruto. It just looks silly.
> 
> This little short story was inspired by a BNHA piece on Archive Of Our Own called Curly Green Hair by Annyruok, in which our good friend Deku tries to sort out his hair, much to the disapproval of his other classmates, and I decided to do the same, but with Jaune's hair, and the first years, of course, being extra about it.
> 
> There was also a bit of inspiration from Brooklyn 99 with the ending, but I only realised that when I was writing it, so go figure.
> 
> Anyways, not too long ago, I got a review from a Guest, who said that there were more side story chapters than main ones, and had asked whenever the plot was going to continue.
> 
> This is a good question, so allow me to clarify something:
> 
> These short stories are good for 2 things: 1, they allow me to add in side bits and details without having to stuff them all into a single chapter where they wouldn't fit, and 2: They help me to get into the mood of writing.
> 
> Recently, I was feeling a bit not in the mood for writing, but now that I've finished writing this, I feel much more in the mood once again to do this. So these stories are for my sake as well as yours.
> 
> And, I also think that they help to set the mood a bit. And I just like writing them. I think they're fun, and, of course, isn't that the point of writing?
> 
> Now, to that guest that had asked that, don't worry, we'll be getting back to the main plot soon. I might post a few more of these short stories up though before I do so, or I might just head back to the main plot without much preamble, though I am definitely leaning more towards the former than the latter.
> 
> Anyways, with all of that said and done, stay safe, stay awesome, and I'll see you all next time.
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	26. Jaunedice part 1: Chains of Commanding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The teams leaders of Beacon Academy don't have it easy, but they try to manage.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Arc Theme:** _[Through The Valley by Shawn James (The Last Of Us 2 trailer edition)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xunZys4VDMQ)  
_ **Theme:**[ _Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream I Ever Dreamed Before by Simon & Garfunkel_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQEve-69r6I)

* * *

_It is the hardest task of all to face the lack of cosmic support for what we care about._   
**Allan Bloom**

* * *

As the first weeks of the Second Great War settled into the first month and beyond, the now cold, horribly new air of the world around us washed all over our beings, and we, as a people, finally came to realise the reality of the new world that we had walked into, and the incredible burden upon our shoulders.

We were awash with doubt, concern, and guilt. How could we not be filled with the dread that we had survived while others had not? It was a guilt that gnawed at us further, as we tuned into the radio and the TV and learnt that others were suffering and loosing everything beyond the walls of the city, whilst we sat behind our giant walls and towers at Beacon, safe and tucked away from the violence and the horror and the soul shredding reality of war.

We were children, and yet, we were burdened with the responsibility of adults, expected to throw away our youth and innocence for a cause that, at the time, threatened to overwhelm us.

Many of our wounds, both mentally, and physically from the Initiation Massacre, were still raw and deep and bloody. We were fragile, and broken. Some of us more so than we had been before.

And so, to cope with our sadness and gnawing madness, we played games. We danced and sang the pain away. We behave like military men- Like soldiers, not Hunters- On the job, but when we were off of it, we played like we were but younglings again, so naïve and unknowing of the brave new world that we had unwittingly and unwantingly marched into. We danced and played and made games and drink and song and love and laughter, messing around in the halls and making merry jokes and teases, some of us trying to move on, others trying to forget all together.

And still, we looked to our leaders for guidance, for comfort, for solace, and the promise of a better tomorrow. They were our leaders, surely they would have a plan to win this war? A plan to avenge our brothers and sisters fallen all around the world and bring merriment and joy back to our lonely Remnant once more, for now and forever?

But, as we all were so determined to forget, our leaders were people too.

We had forgotten how fragile they were as well.

_**Extract from Entry 4 of the Hunters Tale, written by Cipher (First draft)** _

* * *

The Battle of Wire was significant, but not for the reasons that one might think.

From a tactical standpoint, the Battle of Wire was utterly unimportant. It was a relatively big settlement, but not big enough for it to be of any major importance. It did not sit on any major trade zones or supply lines. It did not hold any major agricultural input or output. It simply existed.

As such, even though it did fall in the end, it would not have mattered at all if it had. There wasn't any significance to it at all, it was in a strategically bad location, and was just a useless slab of rock amidst a useless slab of land. That the Grimm had targeted it was purely because they just happened to have existed, and nothing else. That they held out for just a few hours after a failed evacuation effort was nothing compared to everyone else.

It was a battle that would be unrecorded, and soon, forgotten entirely. The people who died there would join the ranks of the many who had died forgotten, unknown, and uncared for, one of thousands across the world.

And yet, if people had been paying attention to this battle, then they would've noticed something... Wrong. Different. Odd. Not with the people of Wire, but with their enemies.

The Grimm.

Now, the governments and military experts had been doing their best to try and document these new Grimm types as they emerged, from the big to the small, and they took notice of how much they acted like a unified military force. They had clear ranks and structures, made tactical decisions not unlike that of humans, regularly harassed and raided the kingdoms' supply lines and trade centres outside of the city walls, and were developing supply lines of their own as they slowly grew in numbers and began to set up their own bases along the coasts of the continents.

And yet, they couldn't see everywhere, and not all at once, and if they had been paying attention to the small settlement of Wire, they would've noticed how much like Hunters they were acting.

Not like modern day Hunters, but in the traditional sense: Big game chasers and freebooters. These Grimm would regularly gather up any humans that they found, especially the survivors of Wire, strip them naked, and toss them out into the wild, so that they could hunt them down for sport. Now, this wasn't uncommon amongst the Grimm either: Regularly, they would toss the worst human criminals that they found out and chased them down as a leisurely past time, bantering to each other as they did.

However, these Grimm treated the art of hunting almost religiously, dedicating and devoting themselves to it. Once more, whilst these new Grimm had regularly shown themselves to be bloodthirsty and violent, these Grimm were something more, twitching and spastic, almost eager to drown themselves in blood. Regularly, they caught any humans that they could find and forced them to fight to the death, either against themselves or each other, all for their amusement.

And what more, they were led not by a Grimm, but by a person. 2 persons. 2 people.

At that was when they began to pray.

Pray to gods with eyes of silver.

They were the Choir of Silver, a splinter faction off of what could be considered a unified whole, and a remnant of the old court.

And now, they were on their way home.

* * *

_Late October_   
_One and a half months after the Initiation Massacre..._

* * *

Death.

"Ms Malachite?"

It was not happy. It was not pleasant. It was not good.

Death.

She never really understood how some people could be so... Blasé about it. So calm and cool about death, about dying, about leaving this mortal world, "Death is a natural thing", they would say, "It's the natural process of life. It's not something to be afraid of."

"Ms Malachite..."

Yeah, well, she was afraid of death, of dying, and she had no shame of being so. Death was just so... So... Terrifying. How could it not be? The idea of just being in this world for one minute, and then the next minute, just not, it didn't... Death was not merciful, it was not comforting, it just was, and that terrified her.

"Ms Malachite."

Melanie took her gaze off the window and the straight-lined rays of light that poured through them and flooded the room, and rolled herself over on the sofa to look right at the woman with the clipboard and the suit and the black and purple cape, jotting down pointless notes and drafts as they sat in silence. The room around them was sterile and lifeless (Almost like someone she knew), And almost alien in nature, so oppressive and cruel.

The therapist- Miss Goodwitch, though they both knew that it was not a role best suited for her- Sighed, and motioned her clipboard, as well as her pen, down onto her lap, and then saying, "Ms. Malachite, I know you are in mourning-"

 _You couldn't know_ , Melanie thought to herself, not bothering to hide the distained expression on her face, _You could never understand, so don't start acting like you do._

"-But we cannot just sit here in silence forever. We do have to get somewhere."

 _Why the hell do you care?_ Melanie wondered, _Why the hell should you care? I see you with my uncle and with Ozpin and everybody else, talking about payments and prescriptions and trying to sum up everything into pie charts and diagrams. Why the hell would you care if all of this to you is nothing more than just another job? Just another unfortunate part of the teacher's course?_

Not even 2 months ago, Miltia had died.

Melanie didn't know how else to say it. Her twin sister, one of the greatest constants in her life, and someone who had been with her for so long that to think of her as an absent presence would be impossible... Had just died.

"It's okay", the doctors and the soldiers and everyone else had said in a collective attempt and failure at comfort, "These things just happen."

How? How could... How could things like this 'Just happen'? That didn't make sense. It wasn't fair...

It wasn't fair...

She hated it at the offensively short funeral that had been held for her. She didn't want to go in the first place. Funerals were horrid and heartbreaking and reminded her too much of death, which, she supposed, was the point.

She remembered utterly despising watching the casket being lowered into the ground, the earth readying to swallow her whole. She hated the symbolism. It was like they were lowering her down to hell, doing the devil's job for it in delivering the damned to it, instead of raising her body up to the sky, to her rightful place in the kingdom of heaven, where the angels were waiting to receive her sinless soul.

Once the funeral was over, and she had returned home for a short while, back into their once shared room in the Lightbright, she... Well, suffice to say, she snapped. She cried out in anger and grief and sorrow, at the world, and at everything else, and then, she snapped. Uncle Hei were still repairing the damage to her room.

And then... And then... All of them... They committed the ultimate betrayal...

They sent her to therapy.

How could they? How could they?! What was wrong with them? Weren't they suffering as well? Who the hell were those bastards- Ozpin and Goodwitch and even Hei!- To send her away to a fucking therapist?! Like she was the wrong with the problem? She could see them, shoving all her sister's belongings and hiding them away, never to see the light of day again! She could see everyone around her- Her teammates and everyone else- Trying to forget the past and pretend that it never happened! Why the hell was everyone so eager to be rid of it all and forget about her like she never even existed? And why the hell did they think that she was the one with the problem?!

She refocused her gaze. Miss Goodwitch had asked her something, but she hadn't heard her. Or bothered enough to care.

Melanie restated her question, asking her to begin, well, anywhere.

Melanie kept her gaze on her, and said nothing.

Just like every other therapy session, she would say nothing at all.

* * *

Life at Beacon was... Strange.

Yeah, strange was the right word.

Jaune Arc found himself musing over this as he and the rest of the team leaders sat together in the classroom, looking over their teacher, Professor Hazel Rainart, as he, along with their teaching assistant, Coco Adel, taught and discussed the finer points of leadership with everyone in the room. On any other Saturday, teenagers their age would be sleeping in or playing video games or whatever they did to pass the time, but here they were, at just passed 9 in the morning, debating on what to do when, well, he'd let Professor Rainart explain it.

"Now, there are some situations that you and your team will find themselves in, in which there is no clear path to victory", he began with, typing something onto his scrollpad and turning on the projector on the ceiling, a bright screen of light coming over the whiteboard, and then showing a diagram of a medium sized settlement from a bird's eye view, "Obviously, they exist, but they will not be easily shown to you..."

He drifted off for a second, as if speaking from past experience. Having met his sister before, Gretchen, Jaune mused that it had something to do with that, but decided not to press the point.

Professor Rainart then continued on, "And then, there will be some situations where there is no path to victory at all. Where you will find yourselves in a lose-lose situation from which there is no victory."

"A Catch-22 situation, you mean sir?" one team leader, the Techion called Bayonet asked out loud.

"I would appreciate it if you did not call out whilst I am speaking in the future, please", Hazel sternly replied, which got a nod from Bayonet, before he continued, "But yes, a Catch-22 situation indeed. Now", he directed their attention to the white board, "Here is a diagram of a relatively sized settlement, populated by 200 people, and currently, it is surrounded by Grimm. Now, obviously, this simulation is running on old information about the Grimm that, thanks to the happenings of the Initiation Massacre-"

Several people grew visibly uncomfortable at the reminded, Jaune included.

"-But the nature of the simulation itself is still relevant", he waited for everyone to regain their focus, "Now, inside the settlement, there is no working CCT tower, having been destroyed in a previous attack, but there is only one working Bullhead waiting to evacuate anyone, with space for only 4 people. And only a single team- Being one of you and your team- Are there to defend the settlement?" he paused for emphasis, "So, what do you do?"

This was something that brought up a lot of memories for everyone, and Jaune knew it. A lot of uncomfortable memories, of being trapped around a dead airship and being stabbed in the gut. He looked around, and saw that everyone was as discomforted as he was. Even Coco had winced for a second at it, but quickly recovered herself as she gazed around the room, possibly to lend a hand towards anyone who was suffering.

Professor Rainart seemed to understand what was going on, as he then said, "I know that this is potentially triggering for some of you, and I am sorry for it, but as a Hunter, you will come across these situations and be forced to make decisions based on them. When you are placed into these Catch-22 scenarios, or any scenario as a Hunter, you must be read to put aside what happened in the past, and make every decision that you can that might guarantee the slightest chance of victory."

Many of the team leaders steeled themselves at his words. He was right, unfortunately, and they all knew this. Next to him, Ruby took a little bit longer to regain her focus, but a touch on the shoulder from Jaune was enough to get her started again.

Once Professor Rainart said to them, "You may begin", all of the team leaders stared hard at the picture on the wall, and from what Jaune could see, they were pondering over every different angle, every different advantage and disadvantage, everything and everyone possibly at their disposal, going over their strengths, and their weaknesses, and then doing the same for themselves.

Jaune was doing the exact same thing, pondering over the different aspects that would need to go into a defence like this, and then thinking over himself and his own team.

His team... Wasn't very functional as a team. He had no idea how to work with the others, seeing as they never had a chance to even work together, most of the time not even by his own choice, but by the others.

Nora seemed to have a habit of just going off and doing whatever reckless thing came into her mind, possibly because she got bored too easily and constantly needed something to do. This seemed to lead her to do whatever reckless and irresponsible thing that ever came to mind (Shadestep's teammate Voltage didn't exactly help out at all, constantly getting involved in her antics). Perhaps, in another life, he would've found such a thing, and such a personality like Nora's, endearing in its own way, but now, he was just constantly getting frustrated by it, due to her refusal to listen to him and her inability to stay calm at all and follow the most basic of orders.

Seeing as how he was the only one that Nora ever seemed to listen to, Jaune would've thought that Ren would at least help him out a bit, but he was hardly any better, seemingly putting a half assed effort into anything and acting way too passive to any of Nora's antics. It was almost like he never did anything to try and reign her in and Jaune was growing just as frustrated with it.

And then there was Pyrrha... Many people had told him over the last month and a half that Jaune was extremely lucky to have the Pyrrha Nikos on his team, but Jaune wouldn't know, because he hardly ever saw Pyrrha at all. Outside of their classes, she would just disappear with Eri to who know's where and train. Nothing but train, from day in to day out. She would never appear for any team sessions that he (Tried to) Set up, and when she did show up again, late at night and covered in sweat, she would just give a tired wave and a fake smile that even he could tell was strained was worn out and hardly ever say a word, before disappearing off and instantly going to sleep.

The only one that Jaune could seemingly count on was Eri, Pyrrha's drone, who, despite not being able to talk outside of electronic bleeps and whirls, at least put in the effort of trying to act like a team with the rest of them whenever they had a spar with another team, which always descended into an uncontrollable chaos that neither he or the leader on the opposite team could predict.

He sighed. He was failing at this. At being a team leader. It wasn't even Hallow's Night yet and he was already failing as a team leader. Why on the god's good Remnant had Ozpin even made him a leader in the first place? It wasn't exactly a position that he was comfortable with, not was it a position that he even wanted in the first place.

He looked over Ruby next to him, and towards Melanie next to her, who was staring at the whiteboard intently, and remembered her saying that she was having problems with her team as well, with her own teammates scattering off to do their own things as well, so at least they had that in common.

He then looked down at Ruby, and saw that she looked even more conflicted than either of them did. She hadn't gone into detail about her own team troubles, but Jaune and Melanie had both suspected that there was something more going on, considering her heightened state of anxiety and continued dismissal by Weiss whenever they saw her and tried to ask her about Ruby. Blake had just shrugged them off and moved on, whilst Leadpipe looked like he wanted to talk about whatever was going on, but couldn't.

He then blinked, and realised that a lot of the team leaders were looking at him. Truthfully, he began with, "I don't know what to do here", and at the worry of the others, he then continued with, "I mean, er... Well, there's a town centre in the middle of the settlement, right? A town hall? Just get all of the civilians to shelter themselves inside of the hall, and then scatter our teams- Or, team, in this case- To each side of the settlement and have them hold off the Grimm there."

"No offense, sir, but that's a terrible use of your Hunters", Shadestep quickly shot in with, referring to Jaune as if he was his boss (Which the boy in question hated), "It's a big settlement, and there're only 4 of us in a team. We can't defend every side of the settlement by ourselves individually or as a single team. I say, grab anyone and everyone who can fight, give them a weapon and put them on the wall. No use in them hiding away in the centre of the town when they could be aiding in the settlement's defence."

"Except that the people whom you're referring to might not actually want to fight in the first place", Melanie shot out with in turn, "It might not seem important, but these people might not want to leave their families behind, and if they do get sent up to the front lines unwillingly, then they'll just cower in the face of the Grimm and start giving off negative emotions, which will in turn attract even more Grimm to the battle and worsen the situation and state of the settlement."

"The fight's already going to give off negative emotions anyway."

"True, but not as much if they were willing to fight, rather than unwilling. And besides, a barely armed civilian can hardly do as much harm to the Grimm as a fully trained Hunter, much less a Hunter in training. The most that a few poorly trained militiamen could do is spontaneously combust in their presence. We should be thinking about who to evacuate on the Bullhead first, before working on managing a defence of the settlement."

As always, Jaune found himself agreeing with Melanie's points. While Shadestep made a good point, he felt that Melanie had made a better one, as always.

Jaune wasn't entirely ashamed of saying that he was envious of Melanie. For the past month and more that he had known her, she was always so much... Just, better, at everything that he tired to do and be. She was a better leader, had infinitely more charisma, had an extremely powerful semblance to boot, despite its fairly obvious drawback, was incredibly intelligent, a much better fighter (Just like everyone else in this school), And was just better at everything that he did, and more.

The same could and would be said for every other team leader in this school, much less this year. The likes of Skipjack and Razor were just filled to the brim with charisma and charm, DJ and Shadestep were incredibly intelligent and practical in their leadership styles and tactics, Bayonet and Tusks were incredible fighters with their own respective combat styles, and Ruby and Melanie seemed to just be better at everything all around, and that's not even getting into Coco by herself.

He internally sighed. Even if he had fake transcripts, many of his peers had as well. Even Melanie had faked her way in, and she was one of the best leaders in their year. His fake transcripts were no excuse for his lack of ability in anything. He needed to get better, for his team's sake. Maybe then, they'd be a proper team instead of just a bunch of people who happened to share a room together.

"Well, who do we evacuate first?" Tusks asked, breaking Jaune out of his thoughts as he then continued with, "There'd be a lot of people in that settlement alone, and like Professor Rainart just said, it'll only have room for 4 people. We'd need to think wisely about this."

"'Think wisely'? The answer's obvious, ain't it?" Skipjack in another seat above them said, gesticulating one of his crab like claws and going, "We evacuate the kids first, obviously! Cram them all into the Bullhead like sardines, and let the Bullhead take them to safety! Shouldn't be that hard."

"Again, the Bullhead would only have room for 4 people."

"Exactly, people, and children are about half the size of normal people, not including full bulk Techions! And besides, Bullheads usually always have room for more than 4 people anyways! Just shove 'em all in, and if they say that there isn't enough room, then tell them to make room!" he put his claws behind his head with a smile, "Problem solved."

"Yeah, Skippy's right", Razor affirmed, "And so is Shady-"

"Never call me that ever again."

"-Once all of the kids are out, then people will be more willing to fight back. Plus, with all of the kids hurried away to safety, they can get a message out to anyone listening about the settlement's plight, and bring reinforcements back in no time at all, and it'll rouse the civilians from fear, knowing that their kids are safe, and convince them to fight on the front."

There was a murmuring of agreements within the room, most notably in the little circle of team leaders that had been made in the middle of it, but Melanie then quickly pointed out, "That's not going to work. Most Grimm hordes usually come with a lot of Nevermores or Griffons, at least in Vale. That Bullhead would be shot down before it could even get anywhere close to another settlement. And even then, that settlement itself is quite large. Not all of its children will be able to fit on that Bullhead, no matter how much room they make. If we try to pack them all in like that, then we'll most likely be burying many of them under each other. They'll either be crushed or suffocate to death. And besides, even if we do give everyone in the settlement a gun, an untrained militiaman with a sword or a gun as more of a danger to themselves and anyone else around them than they are the enemy."

Skipjack frowned, "Well what's your plan then, boss lady, 'cause I've got nothing else in the hatch."

"Okay, er, if I could make another suggestion", Razor went, "I'm just saying, that a team of 4 Hunters can be more useful on another battlefront than in-"

He was cut off by a chorus of protests and jeers from the fellow team leaders. It was clear that none of them were going to abandon the village to its fate. Not alone, at least. They wouldn't have that on their conscience. Tusks made a point of saying that he was beginning to sound like Esper, whatever that meant.

"Oh, well, then what's you guy's brilliant plan, then, huh? What's you guy's magnificent solution?"

"Save everyone", Jaune was surprised to find that it was his own voice, and looked around to see everyone looking at him expectantly, slight surprise in their eyes as well. He stammered and did his best to continue on, "Er, well, I mean, if there are no other options than to stay, then we should- We should fight off the Grimm. Hold them off and force them back. Save everyone, and beat back the Grimm."

"Easier said than done", one team leader called out.

"Only unless you want it to be", Jaune didn't know where this rush of confidence was coming from. He only knew that he was getting it.

Coco stepped forward this time, a cool, yet firm look on her face as she then said, "That's good ideal to live by, Arc-"

"It's Jaune", he did know why he was being snappy, all of a sudden, as memories of a burning warehouse and an older Schnee looking down at him with distain came back to him, "Sorry, didn't mean to get snappy, it's just- Please, just call me Jaune."

Coco seemed to take it in stride, though, not looking affected by it at all, before then continuing with, "It's a good ideal to live by, Jaune, trying to save everyone, but unfortunately, real life doesn't work that way. The only thing that we can hope to do, kid, is save everyone that we can."

The stare that he gave her was pointed in its disapproval, "With all due respect, Coco, that's just- That just sounds lazy. That just sounds so cynical and pretentious. It's like when people try to sprout that 'Necessary evil' bullcrap, where they try to justify themselves and their shitty actions."

Coco seemed to be intrigued more than offended, "Really? Well what would you do then?"

"Stay and save everyone. Or at least try to", he replied with, "I won't abandon the people that I'm supposed to defend, nor will I destroy their home. You don't destroy a village in order to save it. You save it, the people, and everyone else."

He paused, and took a moment to catch his breath and his trail of thought.

"I know that it sounds unrealistic, and maybe it is", he shrugged, "It probably is, and the more cynical and pragmatic of us will probably think that its a childish ideal to live by. But here's the thing: It is an ideal, and it's a good one. If you live by 'Saving as many people as you can', then that's tantamount to just rolling over and giving up. But, if you wake up everyday and promise to yourself to save everyone- Not just as many people as you can, but everyone- If you wake up every morning and say to yourself, 'No one dies. Not today, not this day, and not any day, not on my watch', then you'll fight harder, and push yourselves further into doing it, into seeing that ideal brought to life."

He leaned back against his chair.

"And maybe, on our last days on this world, we'll wake up, and find that, for all the good that we've done, the world that we leave behind, maybe, just maybe, will be good enough."

He sucked in a breath.

"'Save as many people as you can', is a surrender to cynicism. 'Save everyone', is a prayer to hope."

He paused, and then finally realised the trail of words that he had just gone on. He looked around, and saw many of the team leaders around him were looking at him, with those with visible faces wide eyed and parted lips, and in the case of the Techions, with tilted heads and firmed shoulders.

(He didn't know what to think of Ruby's reaction, though. He didn't actually know what the emotion on her face was, or what it was meant to mean.)

He blinked again, and stammered out, "Oh, er, I mean, er, I mean, that's what I- Er, that's what I think we should, er...", he resorted to just scratching the back of his head awkwardly, "Sorry..."

"Don't be", Coco reached over and patted him on the shoulder with, "It was well said."

He blinked thricely, "Oh, er, thanks... I think."

Coco just rolled her eyes under her aviators, and moved back to the side, whilst Professor Rainart nodded to her, and then said, "It is a good ideal to live by, Mr Arc, but as you said yourself, it is unrealistic. There will be times where you will need to make these kinds of decisions, in a situation where no good decision can be made, hence the meaning of this lesson. At times, you must be the one to judge what is right, and to make the right call, and wherever it is the right call in the end, will be decided by your actions and your actions alone."

It was DJ who raised his hand this time, "So, what was the right answer to this one, sir? What was the right call to make?"

The professor shook his head, "The truth is, there was no right call to make. This was a situation based on unfavourable conditions, where every single decision would lead to undesirable outcomes. The Catch-22 scenario. Once- Maybe only once- In your lifetimes, you will find yourself in these situations, where each and every decision that you make will be the wrong one. All that you can hope to do is try to mitigate the damage, and make the less destructive choices, for yourselves, your teams, and for the people that you are supposed to protect."

He put his hands together, and looked over every team leader in the room.

"So, when these situations arise, make sure that you make the right decisions, even when there is none. I have seen entire teams fall and die because they made the wrong choice, and I have seen team leader be the only ones that survive because of the poor decisions that they made."

Everyone looked at the sides or down to their lap. It wasn't a nice subject, and it wasn't something that they had wanted forced upon them.

In truth, none of these students- None at all- Had wanted the position of leadership on their teams. None of them had ever desired to even step foot near the role. Ironically, other students had bragged about wanting the leadership position all to themselves, but it had been all of the students in the room at that moment that had had some inkling of the truth that would come with the role, and had promised themselves to steer clear of it.

Being a leader didn't mean just telling people what to do. They had to be able to defend their positions, and they had to be able to make the right calls and be confident in it. They had to gain the trust and respect of their teammates to convince them to follow their orders, they had to be the ones to work on the strategies and tactics, making sure that their team was a well oiled machine, somehow navigate 3 other different personalities into working with each other, try to create something out of 4 uniquely different fighting styles, and somehow leave them able to properly work together and function as a unit. And at the same time, they had to be the ones to sort out all of the team's finances, had to pay for any damages that they made, had to manage all of their likes and dislikes, had to try and get along with them and tolerate the worst aspects of their personalities, had to act as the mediator if any arguments broke out, had to be the one to resolve any conflicts, make sure that they were all healthy, and... And...

And had to be the ones to make the right calls.

Because if they didn't...

Then they all would die.

Everyone would die, and it would be their fault.

And none of them wanted that on their conscience.

None of them had wanted to be team leader, Jaune especially. None of them had wanted that responsibility, or that risk, or that burden.

But they had been given it anyway. An unwanted gift, unjustly, and undeservingly.

There was a growing suspicion that they had been selected because of their uncanny awareness of the traumas of leadership.

"So, when you have to make a call, make sure that it is the right one", Professor Rainart began to finish off with, "Your teammates rely on you more than anyone else to make a decision, and if you make the wrong one, then that's it", he made a gesture with his hand, "They're gone. So make sure that you make the right decision, pick the right call, and make sure that you have looked at every single possible angle of a situation, in order to find the best path forward", he looked up at the clock, "And that's time. Head on over to your other class now, before you miss it."

With the class now in a sombre mood, the collection of team leaders all got up, and moved to the door. On his scroll, Jaune took a cursory glance at the combat scoreboards of the entire first year, for no reason other than something to distract him from his hurting thoughts.

There he was, at 200th place, right at the bottom.

But then, he blinked.

Right above him, at 199th place, was Melanie Malachite.

* * *

"How are you so far down on the scoreboards? I mean, I know why I'm down there, but you're like, the best in the year! I've heard about your semblance! I've heard about it's power! Shouldn't that place you all the way at the top of the board?"

As all of the team leaders walked, Melanie looked up at Jaune with a raised eyebrow and a 'Are you serious' look on her face, "Are you seriously asking me that question when you just go ahead and pull an entire motivational speech out of your noggin? Like, like-"

The both of them stopped in place as Melanie firmly pressed her knuckles against the sides of his head and twisted them.

"-Like how many inspirational speeches do you have up there? Are they pre-prepared or do you just make them up as you go along?"

"Ow, ow, ow! I just- It just came off of the top of my mind! I was just making it up as I went along!"

"So you do- Oh you cad!"

"I don't even know what that means!" she let go of the sides of his head, and let him rub them to try and sooth the dull ache, "Ow... Seriously, how do you even know these words? How do you know all of this stuff?"

"I had a lot of time on the streets, and a lot of catching up to do with...", she quietened down, and then said, "I'll explain it to you later, okay?" with a nod from Jaune, she then continued with, "Anyways, if you're that good with speeches, then at least you've got the charisma down."

Jaune laughed at that, "Me? Charismatic? I probably couldn't motivate a fly, much less my own teammates."

"Oh, don't sell yourself so short, Jaune", it was then that Ruby finally decided to make herself known once again as she patted the side of Jaune's head as well, "I think that what you said was really inspirational."

Jaune smiled, even though he didn't really believe it himself, "Thanks, Ruby", before turning back to Melanie and going, "Seriously, though, I've heard about your semblance from people who were around the Grimm Tidings. It's one of the most, well, OP powers that I've ever heard about. Why would anyone rank you down at the bottom of the combat board?"

"Not completely at the bottom", she raised a hand, "Joke. Not funny. Sorry."

"Nah, it's fine, I get it."

She bit her lip at that, but then continued on with, "Yeah, I'm ranked at the bottom, but that's only because 1. How self-destructive and unrefined my semblance is, and 2. Pure combat capability alone. Aside from yourself, I'm the weakest and least combat capable people in our year. All I've had in terms of training and fighting style was 2 or 3 years under a few different underground trainers, and another few years experience as a bouncer. I mean, freaking hell, I even lost to that blonde girl, Yang Xiao Long, of all people! Ugh, humiliating..."

She then turned to Ruby with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, Ruby, do you know that Yang girl, by any chance, because I remember her calling out to you on the day before the-"

"Oh, yeah, I do", Ruby interrupted with, "She's my sister."

"Sister?" Melanie asked, "Really? Because the 2 of you look completely different- Er, no offense, I mean."

"That's alright, people say that a lot", she smiled with, "And we actually have 2 different mothers, but the same dad..."

Then, she froze, and her face went still.

"Y-Yeah... Dad..."

Her hands began to tremble, as did her feet, and her mouth started to quiver.

The both of them opposite her immediately noticed what was going on, and Jaune clasped one of her hands, whilst Melanie clasped the other, "Ruby?" Melanie soothed, "Ruby, it's okay..."

"Yeah", Jaune added in quietly, "We're here, we're here for you... You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to..."

The trembling slowly stopped, and Ruby's hands became more relaxed as she breathed out a sigh, and looked at the both of them, "Thanks, guys."

Jaune nodded, "No problem, Ruby", and then the both of them slowly let go, before he then asked, "How are those therapy lessons that you guys are going to, anyways? Mine are kinda... Dull..."

Dull as in he never spoke at all. All that he did in those sessions was either state at the floor or the wall, and do nothing but think. He had other things to worry about anyways, like trying to corral his own teammates, figuring out what the Daughter had wanted from him, how to stop the Ascendant Court from getting whatever it wanted, stopping them from bringing about the downfall of all of mankind, figure out what the hell had been going on with Miltia, who these 2 things, Ozma and Salem had been about, what was so important about the Cataclysm, what she had been talking about when it came to destiny, and how she knew so much that she actually did, without him or her ever meeting up before they met the day before the Initiation Massacre...

You know, regular teenage stuff.

"Same here, if I'm being honest", Melanie said with a sullen expression on her face, "Of course, that might just be because I've got Miss Goodwitch as a therapist, but... Well, she's not exactly approachable, is she?"

"Same here", Ruby said, trying her best at a smile, "Can't say I feel all that open around her. She's not the most... What the word for friendly?"

"Amiable? Affable?"

"Those are the ones, yeah. Thanks Melanie."

"Yeah, it's the same with me", Jaune said nervously, "Most of the time, I just- I just sit in there and think. That's pretty much all that I can do. I don't want to bother Miss Goodwitch with my problems, she's already always stressed out as she is."

"Same", said Melanie, with a nod from Ruby, "I just sit there and think as well. It's the same with my session not too long ago. I've just... I've got a lot of stuff to think about, is all."

And doesn't he know it? Don't they all know it?

"Hey, you 3!" they looked up the hallway, to see DJ waving at them in the distance, and realised that the other team leaders had gone ahead without them, "C'mon, Miss Goodwitch is going to blow a fuse if you're late."

The 3 of them blinked, and then realised that they had paused in order to talk. Already feeling somewhat stressed out from Professor Rainart's lesson, they then groaned, and broke off into a run, sprinting down the hallway, and then down another one, and then down another one to the left, before finally arriving outside of Miss Goodwitch's classroom door, and opening it up to reveal that they were indeed the last ones in, DJ having gone through just a few moments earlier.

"Good, you've arrived", Miss Goodwitch said to them, before making a show of looking at the clock on the wall, "Barely on time, however. Please, do try to make sure that you arrive punctually next time, instead of barely skimming by."

The 3 of them just nodded in turn.

Miss Goodwitch arched an eyebrow. She wanted a verbal answer, "Are we clear?"

"Yes, Miss Goodwitch."

"Yes, Miss Goodwitch!"

"Yes, Miss Goodwitch..."

"Better", she said, "Now please take your seats", when they did, she then started the lesson with, "Well then, now that you're all here, we can begin."

* * *

_Whoever came up with the idea of paperwork as part of a Huntress' career should be shot..._

That was Melanie's thoughts as she looked over another fake report for a supposed member of one of her teammates, and began to go over all of the spelling errors and mistakes, whilst also looking over the other 3 reports at the same time to make sure that they matched up.

_In fact, whoever came up with the idea of paperwork should be shot twice. Also, whoever came up with the idea of school on a Saturday should be triple shot: One in the head, one in the heart, and one in the junk, just to be on the safe side._

Right now, their current assignment was to look over a grouping of reports that had been filed by each member of their team- Which, of course for this lesson, were about a false situation and with falsified names- Note down each conflicting account, record and change any spelling errors and typos, and work out how much was exaggerated and reality, and so on, so forth.

Miss Goodwitch had said it best, "As team leaders, it is your responsibility to make sure that the accounts given by your teammates are accurate, and that they are grammatically correct and readable. These reports are taken extremely seriously by the faculty and authorities, and therefore, should be taken seriously by all of you. If they are subpar, then that will reflect poorly on yourself, your teammates, and your entire team."

Melanie would've liked nothing better than to insult her for it. If her teammates made subpar reports, then that was their fault. If they were subpar, then that was their fault. It wasn't her responsibility to pick up the slack of her idiots for teammates.

She'd probably think nicer of them if they ever made an effort to do anything other than slack off and do nothing at all. Flynt always disappeared to go join that group of first year musicians that he had found, one of them being DJ (Of course), And another one of them being that Jolie Kobal girl from team MSKK, and sometimes he would take Neon along with him, whilst other times the disco cat-girl would disappear off to find whatever club or group was amusing her that day, just to pass up the time and amuse herself, less she get even the slightest bit bored. Meanwhile, Ciel, for all of her supposed reliability, just disappeared off wherever and whenever she liked, all just to hang around that brat Weiss Schnee as she tried to flirt with Pyrrha or whatever it was that she was doing, which was another topic all together.

She looked to the side for a brief moment, to see Jaune looking over his own set of papers. She wondered if she should get him to open up about his own teammates, because it was clear that he was having more problems with them than he would let on. She buried away the self-awareness at her own hypocrisy, and looked to Mil- Ruby as well. No matter how much she tried to hide it, the Little Red Riding Hood girl had been, and still was, hiding something from them. Something important no doubt, and Melanie was determined to find out about it, if at most to help her, or at least to sate her own curiosity.

She looked forwards at Miss Goodwitch, and wondered why the hell she of all people was the school psychiatrist. She wasn't exactly the most approachable person on the planet, and she hardly gave off an inviting presence. She was just so demanding in the classroom, and so adamant about them being perfect and the best team leaders and working them on and on about this and that, whilst also being an absolute hardass in combat classes and everything else, and just being really hard to please, it made it seem like she didn't care at all. Like she was only interested in them being Hunters and not people.

Was showing these weaknesses to her the wrong thing to do? Was it a weakness in of itself? Was that what Miss Goodwitch thought about it all? Melanie thought so, and she suspected that a lot of other people thought so too.

A Huntress, or a Huntsman, or just a Hunter in general, wasn't meant to be weak. A Hunter was meant to be strong, dependable, and a reliable foundation from which people can rely upon. To have a problem, or something in need of counselling, was a sign of weakness, a sign of a mental injury, which was more threatening than a physical one. At least then, most of the time, a Hunter had their head on straight. But with mental injuries that needed intervention, that was a sign that a Hunter couldn't be there to make the right choices, it meant that they couldn't be the ones to be called upon for important decisions, and it meant that they couldn't be relied upon. This was most damaging to team leaders especially.

Counselling was a sign of weakness, and none of the team leaders wanted to show signs of weakness, especially in front of the teachers, and even their teammates.

Melanie sometimes thought of talking to Alexis Kennedy, one of DJs teammates in Team DRAL. The crab Faunus had lost her twin sister, Reid, in the Initiation Massacre, much like her, so perhaps they could have some common ground from which to open up on.

The thought shrivelled up and died before it could even take root. She couldn't just talk to other people about that kind of thing. It was too embarrassing, too easy to mock. Jaune was the only one who knew how she was feeling (She didn't want to bother Ruby. The poor girl was dealing with her own problems to begin with), Having been her sister's partner back in the Emerald Forest, and even then, since their talk when he had returned more than a month ago, they had never talked about that.

The door to the room opened up, and everyone looked to the side, to see one Neon Katt (Speak of the devil) About to enter with a guitar in hand, but stopped at the doorway and looked around, before smiling and going, "Aw, hey, is this where you guys always disappear to on Saturdays? I'm jealous, you guys are having a club meeting and you didn't even invite me?"

"Miss Katt, this is a extra skills lesson for team leaders only", Miss Goodwitch sternly said to her, "I told those same leaders to explain this to their teammates to avoid confusion", that last part was aimed towards Melanie as she threw a pointed glance at her.

Melanie bristled on the inside, but she tried not to let it show, "Tried to tell her, didn't listen", and that was all that she said about it. None of her teammates had listened, of course, but what could she do?

Miss Goodwitch evidently didn't like that answer, but kept herself paused, as she then turned back to Neon in the doorway, and said, "Miss Katt, please leave, this lesson isn't for you."

"Aw, c'mon, can't we just, I don't know, stay in the corner or something", she asked, gesturing a thumb out of the door, and then to the side of the room, "This place has got the perfect spot for us to practice our music, and the best lighting, and-"

Well, time now rather than later to try and practice her leadership skills, "Neon, just go, this place isn't for you", Melanie ordered from her seat in her firmest voice, trying to summon the charisma needed to even tell someone what to do.

Evidently, it didn't stick, as Neon then shot her a smile that she thought was just a bit too condescending for her liking, and said, "Hey, come on now, Mel, we can still hang around, like-"

Her hand slammed against her desk. It didn't hurt, but it got the point across.

"Neon, go."

That was all that needed to be said.

For a split second, Neon shot her a look- One of distain- But it was only for a second, as she then, with a disappointed look, said to whoever was on the other side of the doorway, "C'mon, guys", and then left, closing the door behind them.

Melanie only now just noticed one of the team leader nearby clutching one of their wrists as it shook, and the 2 next to him trying to comfort and calm him, and she instantly felt guilty for possibly triggering him. That he was able to calm down from just looking at her and noticing the sudden sadness on her face didn't help her to stomach this guilt.

She looked up again, and saw that Miss Goodwitch was also looking down at her, disapprovingly, "Miss Malachite, see me after class", and then she went off to continue her lesson.

Melanie just bit her tongue and held her silence. She was really starting to hate her.

Soon, the lesson ended, and everyone was on their way. Jaune and Ruby, as well as the likes of Skipjack, DJ, Tusks, Bayonet, and Shadestep, offered to stay behind and wait for her, but she told them to go ahead without her. No sense in them wasting their time on her. This shouldn't take long anyways.

At least, she had hoped that it wouldn't take long, but she was starting to think that it would, as she stood before Miss Goodwitch's desk as she sat down, put her hands together, and asked, "Now, Miss Malachite, what was that back there?"

Melanie knew better than to get sassy with a teacher, even the ones that she didn't like, so she just spoke honestly, "She was refusing to leave, so I forced the issue. As a team leader, it's my job to make sure that my teammates follow my orders."

"Miss Malachite, a firm hand is needed for leadership, not a rash one", Miss Goodwitch said, looking at her as if expecting to ask her what it meant.

Instead, Melanie just stayed silent. Gods, she was beginning to hate the silence. This all reminded her too much of her therapy sessions with this woman.

"One cannot use threats of violence to lead their peers into battle", Miss Goodwitch continued on with, "And one must show patience when dealing with their subordinates. If you cannot show that to your teammates, than it leads to the team itself falling apart."

 _You make it sound so easy when it's not_ , Melanie wanted to spit at her, but didn't, None of them respect me, _none of them trust me. Any comradery that we built up around the_ Grimm Tidings is gone, to what the hell do you want me to do? How the hell am I supposed to show them respect when they won't show me the same?

"Miss Malachite, if you are experiencing problems with your team, then it is considered protocol to inform a member of faculty about it, or even the headmaster, in order to make sure that your teams are as effective and efficient as possible."

_"It showed me Ozma, and Salem, and the Cataclysm, and all that will and may come soon."_

Ozma.

Ozpin.

Melanie wasn't stupid. She might put up that façade sometimes, what with that fake country drawl accent, but she wasn't an idiot. Ruby (Her sweet little sister that wasn't her sister) Was hiding something, and Ozpin had something to do with it, same as Miss Goodwitch, she reckoned. Something had happened in the Cataclysm, and Ozpin knew something about it. Miltia had mentioned something, or someone, known as Salem, and with how secretive and cagey Ozpin had been acting recently, know doubt he knew something about it. Of course, it could be said that he was just acting that way because of the sudden eve of the Second Great War, but Melanie did not want to drop it.

She had lived long enough on the streets to known when people were hiding secrets, and Ozpin was setting off all sorts of blaring alarms.

"Miss Malachite, as much as it might surprise you", the teacher's words broke Melanie's concentration on her thoughts (Something that she would have to work on), "We teachers at Beacon Academy care about our students, and-"

"Do you think that you're my friend?" Melanie finally broke out with. If Miss Goodwitch was surprised by the outburst, then she didn't show it. A mere blink was all that was shown on her face, "You're not, so don't start acting like you are."

They stayed in silence for what felt like hours upon hours, as if the whole day had paused just for the 2 of them to stare at each other and refuse to blink.

"Can I please go now?" the 'Please' was an afterthought, but it was still there. Melanie would've dropped it completely if she wasn't talking to a teacher.

Surprisingly enough, Miss Goodwitch had paused, before then saying, "Yes, you may go now", and gesturing to the door.

Melanie had blinked at this, surprised, but didn't give it anymore thought than it was worth. For a moment, she had been tempted to ask her about Ozma and Salem, but decided against it. She needed to talk about it with someone that she could trust, and Miss Goodwitch was not one of them.

Without a second thought, she turned around and walked out of the doorway, leaving Miss Goodwitch to herself. Outside, she found Jaune, Skipjack, DJ, Shadestep, Tusks, and Bayonet waiting for her, even though she had said for them not to. She couldn't help but smile. She didn't deserve these guys, really, she-

In the distance, she could see Ruby Rose being dragged off by an impatient Weiss Schnee. She looked to Jaune, and saw that he was wearing a guilty expression on his face. Evidently the Schnee girl had given him a tongue lashing before dragging her team leader away. Ruby had always said that it was fine, and that there was no need to worry when these things happened, but that didn't exactly stop them from worrying a bit.

Melanie bit the insides of her lip, and then looked back to Jaune. It was clear that both of them knew that something was up with Ruby.

But whatever it was, they didn't know.

Neither were even sure if it was their place to know.

(That was a lie. Melanie, at least, knew that it was her place to know.

Ruby was her little sister after all.

At least, she would be in Miltia's place.)

* * *

"Okay Ruby, who were the founders of the 4 kingdoms?"

Ruby paused, and then internally floundered. She really didn't know these questions. At least, she didn't know half of the stuff that Weiss had been adamant about stuffing into her head. It wasn't her fault that she hadn't had about 2 years worth of education, and another 2 years of skipped school years on top of that! 4 years of skipped school! Patch burning to the ground, having to live in an orphanage, and then being selected personally by the headmaster of one of the most prestigious schools on Remnant to come to it early, free of charge, would do that to oneself.

With a stutter, she then got out, "Erm, M-Malik the Sunderer?"

"Wrong!"

Weiss slapped her on her right hand- Her good hand, seeing as the other one was red and burnt- And she retracted it away and began to rub it tenderly. Maybe for any other team leader, having them and all of their teammates sitting at a table together and studying would've been a dream come true-

Maybe, maybe...

-But for Ruby, this was just becoming a nightmare.

"For goodness sake, Ruby", Weiss began to scold her as she tweezed her eyebrows and almost growled, "How are you unable to know these basic facts? How much must I force it into your head! Malik the Sunderer was not the founder of one of the kingdoms! He was the first king of Vacuo! Now, try again: Who were the founders of the 4 kingdoms?"

"Erm... Er..."

Weiss groaned, "It was Vale, Vacuo, Mantle, and Mistral! Those were the names of the founders of the 4 kingdoms. They were the ones who explored and charted the 4 continents, and as such, their kingdoms were named after them. Now, write it down!"

Ruby did as such, and began to frantically write it down on the notebook in front of her. When she had first encountered Weiss back before the... The day... She had found her to be presumptuous, bossy, and a just plain rude, stuck-up, and spoiled princess.

And now, the truth had finally come out to her, about how deep of a person Weiss really was:

She was all of those things, and also a perfectionist and a demanding control freak who was angry because she hadn't been chosen for a position that Ruby never wanted in the first place.

Woopy for her...

Thanks to Ozpin pointing out to her the importance of her silver eyes, and how they were absolutely important and something that will be needed to save the world from this evil Grimm queen known as Salem, and had said the same things about her to her teammates as well, Weiss had seemingly gotten the idea that Ruby needed to be filled in on every single possible teaching subject, and taught about everything that she could possibly think of, and then some.

Now, almost always in their free time, Whenever she wasn't hanging out with Jaune, Melanie, and the other team leaders, Weiss was always dragging her and the rest of the team out to train in different forms of combat, or study and study and study about every single topic imaginable, or just rail on in her ear about how she was a child and an ineffectual leader and how she needed to be perfect in order to fight anything that Salem could throw at them.

Again, woopy for her...

"Why would they name their own kingdoms after themselves?" she asked innocently enough, trying to nurse her growing headache, "Isn't that just egotistical of them to name a whole land after themselves?"

"No, the kingdoms were named after them by their supporters!" Weiss slapped her hand again and continued on with, "Honestly, why can't you get this in that tiny little head of yours? Is this too difficult for you? Is this too much for our esteemed team leader who, I might add, is supposed to be the one who has to save the world?!"

Ruby winced at that. Ozpin treated her like she was the bees knees, but she wasn't...

She was supposed to have just normal knees.

She was supposed to just be normal.

Yet instead, here she was, with the fate of the world on her shoulders, all because of her eyes, and something about destiny that Ozpin had been talking about.

'Destiny'.

Was it bad that she was both happy and sad when she heard that word? She didn't know. She wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to know either.

On the one hand, the entire concept of destiny, it... It filled her with a strange sense of... Comfort? She had always felt like being a Huntress- Going out and slaying monsters and saving people- Was something that she was predetermined to do, that it was her ultimate end goal. Being a Huntress and nothing else, it felt like she was destined to do it, like it was her fate. If she was destined to be a Huntress, then she would walk happily into it.

However, if this was her destiny... To battle against an evil that was so ancient, so powerful, and so consuming, a literal queen of the Grimm, with the entire fate of the world on her shoulders, all because of a biological trait that she had no control over, and would be hunted and hounded for it for years to come... She wasn't sure if she liked it. She wanted to save the world. Really, she did-

She liked the thought of saving the world, especially now, what with the rise of the Daughter and the Ascendant Court, 2 variables that Ozpin had said himself were completely new pieces on the chessboard, and something that he had no idea what their origins were-

-She just... She just didn't know if she could do it, especially now... Especially alone...

She felt alone. Oh, she felt so alone. Even amongst her teammates, they didn't treat her like their leader, or even their equal. Just a tool, a mindless thing to be filled up with whatever they wanted. Nothing more than a child playing at the adults' world.

That Ozpin had sworn her and her teammates to secrecy about it didn't help.

She wanted to tell Jaune and the others about all of this. She really just... She needed someone to vent to.

She needed someone that she could trust.

Because she didn't feel like she could trust her teammates.

Not at all.

"Maybe we should go easy on her, Weiss? I mean, she did miss 2 years worth of education, right? You can't just cram all of that knowledge into her so quickly and expect it all to stick. We need to treat this like a proper school and not a cram one: Nice and slowly, and help them understand it all. At least, I think so. I'm not sure."

Well, maybe except Leadpipe. He still treated her like a child, sure, but at least he was more considerate than the other 2 on the team.

Ruby shot him a quick smile, hidden from Weiss, which he returned with a quicker nod, but then the Techion at the table was cowed by a squawk from Weiss as she then called out, "Oh, don't give me that, you buffoon! Sitting down with us is supposedly the girl who is supposed to save the world-"

At that, Blake finally took her eyes off of the book that she had been reading and looked up for a second, before seemingly mentally shrugging and going back to her reading material.

"-And she is nothing more than a know-nothing child, and you expect me to just take these topics slowly with her? We are war! Ozpin had entrusted us with this information about the truth of the world, and you are saying that we should take things 'Nice and slowly' when our leader is nothing but a bumpkin! We are all now future agents of Ozpin, and we can't-"

"-Just leave!"

Weiss, Ruby, and Leadpipe jumped in their seat, whilst Blake just blinked in surprise behind her book, and the first 3 turned their attention to the doorway of the Lounge, and saw the first year team leader of Team MSKK- A girl dressed in a red and yellow shirt and shorts with a metal symbol of the Brother Gods attached to a necklace resting between her breasts, and going by the name of Yamana Morai- Stopping by the doorframe in the corridor and looking frantically at a pair of her own teammates, 2 boys by the name of Kevin Red and Terra-Terra Steel.

"I mean, are you for real?" Yamana asked frantically, waving her arms at the 2 of them as she then said, "Guys, we need to stick together! We can't just- We can't just split up now! We've already got too many problems out there in the world to deal with alone!"

"Well, yeah, sure, but...", the one called Terra-Terra seemed to hesitate, before going, "We just think that we can do more good out there than cooped up in here."

"But the Exodus Troop!?" Yamana replied with, "You're really going to throw your lot in with them?"

"Well, yeah", it was Kevin this time who replied, "They're heading out of the city walls, and they'll be taking supplies with them as they go. It'll be a good start for us before we splinter off."

"B-But... But guys...", Yamana stammered out, "We're a team, aren't we? Team MSKK; We have to stick together, don't we?"

"...Er, sure", Kevin was unconvinced, it seemed, and just gestured to Terra-Terra that it was time for them to go, "See you around, Yamana", and with that, they were off, leaving Yamana behind as she looked on, confused and shocked, before trying to steel herself and nervously running after them.

Weiss just scoffed at the display, "Utterly appalling", she sneered, leaning back on her seat and crossing her arms, "If their team is so quick to fall apart, then they don't deserve to be a team at all. They don't deserve to be here at all. If their team acts like that in private, then how on Remnant do they expect to perform in the field?"

Ruby bit her tongue and didn't say anything. She didn't actually know what she wanted to say, but there was definitely something.

She felt her scroll vibrate in her pocket. Whilst Weiss was distracted by her own speech about the finer points of being a team leader, she looked down to it to see a familiar message on the team leaders' group chat:

You know what time it is, everyone. Meet us up at the landing pads in an hour.

Ruby smiled. Their pastime on a Saturday was growing to be one of her favourites.

Before Weiss could continue on with anything, Ruby had quickly shot out of her seat, and said, "Sorry, I gotta go. You know what it's like on a Saturday."

"Ruby! We are not done-"

But they were, as Ruby used her semblance to burst out of the Lounge and towards the landing pads. If anyone had tried to chase after her, she didn't notice.

* * *

"Do you want me to be their friend, or their teacher?"

Ozpin looked up from his desk, and put his mug of hot chocolate down. In front of his desk was Glynda Goodwitch, with her hands crossed in front of her.

"I'm serious, Ozpin", she said with a stern, but still concerned look on her face, "I can't be both."

Ozpin didn't show any outwards hesitation. He had mastered this over the course of his many years of life, "Miss Goodwitch-"

"You want me to be this school's psychiatrist, Ozpin? Fine, but I can't be their teacher at the same time", she cut him off with that statement, "On the other hand, if you want me to be their teacher? Then fine too, but I can't be their psychiatrist."

"Is there a reason for that, Miss Goodwitch?" there was no hidden meaning behind that question, but no doubt she had taken it as such. Ozpin, however, knew that she usually had little patience for theatrics or pleasantries of any kind, "I know that you-"

"That I care a lot about our students- About my students, then yes, I do, but I can also see when they have potential, and as their teacher, it is my job to be impartial, and sometimes harsh to them, in order to help them unlock that potential", she continued on with, "But in order to do so, I can't be their friend, I have to be their teacher. Hell, I have to be a drill instructor to them in order to do so."

It was rare for Glynda to use any kind of foul language like that, even if it was a relatively minor use. Whenever she did, it only helped to speak to the severity of the situation.

"To be their teacher, I need to be ruthless and impartial- I need to be firm and logical, and if they hate me for it, fine- But if you want me to be their psychiatrist, then I need to be the opposite of myself- I need to be compassionate and inviting, the last of which I have been told that I am not as a teacher- And if I act that way in front of them, then it will seem 2 sided and fake."

"Glynda-"

"They don't trust me, Ozpin. Our students don't trust me as a psychiatrist, and if that is the case, then I, in my own good judgement, cannot trust myself to be the same either. These children-"

"Not children anymore."

"Fine, then these people- They need someone closer to their age to be able to give them an honest to god judgement and analysis of themselves. They need someone that they can trust, and that person isn't me. If they see someone like me- Their teacher- Trying to empathise with them, then they'll see it as a sign of weakness on their part, because I'm always trying to improve on their weaknesses. You need to hire someone that they can trust, Ozpin, someone that they can turn to and actually talk to, because I'm sorry, but that person is not me."

Glynda finally ceased her rant, and sighed, taking a seat on one of the chairs in front of her, and nursing her forehead. From the looks of it, she had been thinking about this issue for a long time. Possibly even before the Initiation Massacre and the recent start of the Second Great War.

Ozpin took the time to lean back against his chair, and scoot his hot chocolate mug to the side, "May I ask what prompted this, Glynda?"

"Miss Malachite."

Ah, Miss Malachite. She was someone to watch out for, especially with that destructive semblance of hers, and her sharper mind.

If he were to be honest, he had only let her and her sister into Beacon when they had applied their fake transcripts, because it had given him an easier way to access Hei Xiong's underground network of informants, and would make it easier for him to expand his own intelligence network and monitor all of Vale for any traces of Salem and her agents, but now, with her semblance now awakened and revealed, if refined, he could have an incredibly powerful tool on his side.

(He remembered monitoring the grounds of Beacon Academy on the day before initiation through the security cameras, and had found himself perturbed by her sister, Miltia Malachite (A rare thing for him to feel). The way in which she moved, she spoke, she did everything and anything, it was just so... Off. Not off like his old ally, Templar, had been when he had gone on his rants about the silver eyes, but still... There was something just incredibly off with her.

It was almost concerning how much of himself he saw in her.)

"She had asked me if I thought I was her friend", Glynda continued, "And then had said that I wasn't, so I should stop acting like I am", she sighed again, and said, "I'm not the right person to do this, Ozpin, to talk to these people, and you know it. That was Professor Peach's job, and now, she's... She's gone."

The passing of Professor Peach had been a great loss to the faculty of Beacon. The mouse Faunus had been the school's resident psychiatrist, as well as a plant scientist, and while she was much more shy and timid than all of the other teachers in the school, she had also been one of the most approachable, and had been one of the most popular teachers in the school (Much to her own horror). Her death had been a great loss to the students and graduated Hunters who had remembered her fondly, and many flowers and exotic plans had been placed in her former office and classrooms in remembrance of her.

"Have you talked to the council about hiring a new therapist?" Glynda asked, to which it was Ozpin's turn to sigh. The council had always made it a habit of trying to butt into his own business, but with the events of the Initiation Massacre and the global declaration of a Second Great War against this Ascendant Court and the Grimm, the council had extended their power over Beacon Academy to be able to veto any suggestions for new faculty members and any changes to staff that Ozpin might have. It was a gross misconduct of power, but Ozpin, for once, found himself not in a position of power to be able to object against it.

"I have brokered the idea of hiring a new therapist to the council, in between when they are constantly arguing with the Atlesian council about anything that can come to mind", if that had elicited a smile of any kind on Glynda's face, he didn't see it, "But when I have, they have always declined it."

"What?! But these are children, and incredibly traumatised! They can't just write it off like that!"

"I'm afraid that they can, Glynda", Ozpin said to her in return, putting his hands together on his desk and massaging them in hidden vexation, "The council are too scared of the unknown factors of our enemies to bring themselves to pull even just one Huntsman and Huntress from their ranks- Or at least someone skilled enough to be able to emphasise with the problems that our students have, and according to them, we are all Huntsmen and Huntresses ourselves, and should have more than enough experience to know what to do with them", another sigh, and a look over to the spare picture on his desk, of him and a nervous Emerald Sustrai, back when she had been adopted into Beacon when she was still alive, "I'm afraid that we're going to have to make due."

The only response that Glynda could muster was a sigh for the thrice time and a frown, followed by her collapsing into her own chair and groaning. They both knew that something like this was akin to child neglect, but at the moment, for now, their hands were tied.

"How is Miss Rose doing, by the way?" Ozpin asked, eager to know how the daughter of Summer Rose was doing, "Has she been doing well? And her team as well?"

"Team RSBL is not working, Ozpin", Glynda said matter of factly, "Miss Rose is too timid to be able to take control, not helped by all of the burdens that we have placed upon them, Miss Schnee is continually trying to take control and impose her own authority, but the method that she is using to do so is extremely bratty and abhorrent as a future Huntress, in my expert opinion, Miss Belladonna is doing nothing to help the situation, and seems to actively enjoy it, and that Leadpipe fellow is at least trying to maintain peaceful relations with the rest of the team, though he is too timid and frightful himself to do anything about it."

That was... Disappointing to hear. That, and despairing as well.

"That goes for the other teams as well", she continued, "The team leaders aren't able to properly exercise their own authority over their teammates, which means that they've collapsed in on themselves and formed their own social circle instead of trying to get along with their teams and their teammates are too busy trying to get over their own traumas from the Initiation Massacre to care about them, and as such, teams have broken down, like they never even existed in the first place", she paused for effect, and then said, "Ozpin, these teams don't work. They need to be treated with care, with time, and with patience. They're not ready to work together yet. Not the way that they are, and I doubt that they will be if we attempt to do anything about it, like reshuffling the teams, or something along those lines."

"Glynda, I appreciate and understand that, but I'm afraid that we don't have the time. Salem is making her moves, and we need them to be ready to face her."

"Ozpin, they may never be ready! Trauma isn't overcome in a single day. I've tried to talk to some of our first years, and I've seen some of them go into mental breakdowns in the corridors! What happened in the Emerald Forest and around the Grimm Tidings: That wasn't just some mission against a pack of Grimm where they had underestimated them, or a search and destroy mission gone wrong: It was akin to physical and psychological torture! I've already seen things like survivor's guilt, PTSD, clinical depression, and so on! In fact-"

Their conversation was broken when the sound of a series of Bullheads lifting up from the landing pads and soaring off into Vale dully echoed through the glass and into Ozpin's office, "Ah, is it that time of day again?" Ozpin said as he got out of his chair walked towards the window, and looked out, thereby changing the topic. Anything to stop the criticism that added onto the already gnawing guilt that had accumulated and built up within him for thousands of years, "I must say, that the team leaders are certainly making this a wonderful habit?"

"Ozpin", Glynda was desperate not to change the conversation go, "These children- Our students... They aren't ready. You and I both know this."

"...I know... But, I'm afraid, none of us have a choice in the matter-"

He gazed sadly at the city below, and to the ruins of the Emerald Forest, reminded of all of the lives that he should've saved.

"-Not anymore..."

* * *

_Last night I had the strangest dream_   
_I ever dreamed before_   
_I dreamed the world had all agreed_   
_To put an end to war_

DJ was glad that Melanie had convinced Jaune to bring his guitar with them down into the slums of Vale. Their musical work together was definitely something that he could listen to as he worked.

Melanie wasn't the best singer- Her voice cracked every now and then, and sometimes she was off-key on a few notes- And Jaune wasn't that good of a guitarist- He sometimes missed a chord or a note, or would play the wrong one- But it showed that they were both passionate about it, and they were slowly improving as they sung and played, so it was nice to listen too.

The children gathered around them certainly agreed, as they sat in semicircles around the 2 of them, themselves sitting on 2 wooden stalls, and listened with bated breath, open eyes, dopey smiles and wide eyes. The 2 Hunters-In-Training seemed to appreciate their smiles as well, as they sang and played more passionately, drawing their attention, and earning the smiles of the parents and adults that watched on around them.

Some would think that singing an anti-war song in the middle of a group of people that have lost so much to the Grimm- The people that they were currently at war with- Would make them angry, would stir up their patriotic fervour and make them angrily reject the 2 of them, but instead, everyone just looked so tired, and scared, and confused- The children especially, with their wide eyes and naivety and confusion as to why they had to leave their homes behind- So perhaps these tunes and songs gave them a fledgling feeling of hope, and light-heartedness in a bleak and depressing world.

Or perhaps they just liked hearing it. Either way, the 2 of them looked like they were lifting up everyone's spirits, and that was all that they could ask for.

_I dreamed I saw a mighty room_   
_The room was filled with men_   
_And the paper they were signing said_   
_They'd never fight again_

The team leaders had made it a habit now, of going down to the recently established Valerian Slums, and just helping out wherever they could, either by helping at food stands and workshops, working to put up new areas and shacks, entertaining people, from children to the elderly, to comforting and reassuring others, to just talking to them, and reminding them that they weren't alone.

It was a good reminder of what they were fighting for. Of who they were fighting for.

It was also a selfish exercise on their part, in trying to selfishly get away from Beacon and escape from all of their problems and frustrations, pushing them away for later, but no one was complaining, so what was the point in worrying?

_And when the papers all were signed_   
_And a million copies made_   
_They all joined hands and bowed their heads_   
_And grateful prayers were prayed_

Right now, DJ was using his semblance, Telegraph, to hone in on the different radio and television frequencies that lit up his view around him in the city of Vale, and then readjust the series of old radios and TVs to be able to pick up and broadcast these signals, writing down the names and numbers of these frequencies on a piece of paper, and then handing them off to whoever wanted to know, listen, or watch them.

Hey, the people of Vale still wanted to be caught up on the news and stuff, and besides, he was helping out, so who was there to complain about it?

His own teammates, probably. Russel Thrush on his team had identified himself as a racist punk, and had made it his mission to harass and belittle his other teammate, Alexis Kennedy, leading to argument after argument after argument between them, whilst all that their last teammate, Sky Lark did, was sit on the side-lines and awkwardly do nothing. DJ would like to try and figure out what the hell was going on, but he just didn't know how.

At the very least, here, he could be useful. Before he had been transformed into a Techion, his mother and father (He had long since forgotten their names and their faces) Had encouraged him to try out in the Atlesian military as a communication's specialist and analysist, seeing as his semblance was practically perfect for that job. However, when he had been almost killed when his house had been burnt to the ground by a Manticore Grimm, with him inside, and his parents and the rest of his settlement destroyed by that swarm of Sulfur Fish Grimm, he knew that he had to be a Hunter- He had to be a Huntsman- To make sure that something like that never happened to anyone else ever again.

And yet now, he was floundering, He had been placed in charge of a team of strangers that he knew nothing about by Ozpin for god knows what reason, and he was floundering at it.

At least here, he could do just a little bit of good.

_And the people in the streets below_   
_Were dancing round and round_   
_And guns and swords and uniforms_   
_Were scattered on the ground_

Nearby, he could see Shadestep (He and Bayonet were the only ones in charge of actually successful teams, and that was only because every single one of them was already in the same unit together. He figured that they'd all stick together no matter what team that they were on) Helping a group of refugees hold up a series of metal sheet walls for a new hut whilst Skipjack welded it all together, whilst nearby, Ruby entertained their children by letting them play with Zwei, a corgi dog, and Beacon's resident mascot.

If DJ had the parts to be able to smile, he would. She seemed happy, now, like she knew that she was doing good, and it made her happy. He didn't miss how Melanie and Jaune would sometimes sneak approving looks down at her as she played with Zwei and the lost children.

She had good friends backing her up, and he knew it. He only hoped that she...

Wait a minute...

Something was leaving Beacon.

A signal, from all the way down, deep into the cliff face of the mountain that it stood upon.

He looked up, and narrowed his eyes at the errant transmission. It was coloured red, from his perspective, and tasted... Encrypted.

_Last night I had the strangest dream_   
_I ever dreamed before_   
_I dreamed the world had all agreed_   
_To put an end to war_

He filed it away for later. Somethings take precedence, and these TVs weren't going to fix themselves.

He failed to notice how far to the North West the transmission went.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not too long ago, a reviewer asked me when I was ever going to get back to the main storyline.
> 
> Well, to that guest reviewer, here we are! The beginning of the Jaunedice arc (Heheh, puns. Heheh, play on words. Heheh, I still have no idea as to what 'Jaunedice' even means... Heheh).
> 
> Now, what will this arc be about itself? Er... Can't really say much. It'll mostly deal with trauma, the burdens of leadership, and will hopefully be a little deconstructive as well.
> 
> (I do like a good deconstruction. In fact, there are many elements of RWBY and certain tropes that I am hoping to deconstruct through this story itself, but as for how effective I am, well, I'll let you be the judge of that.)
> 
> Now, thanks for sticking around for so long to deal with my dumb ass, and sorry for keeping you all waiting for so long. I've been working on a bunch of other stories like To Be Able To Move On, and I've even had to delete a few of them in order to lessen the load on myself.
> 
> So, for now, sit back, enjoy, and watch as I show you just how dysfunctional these traumatised idiots really are.
> 
> And, as always, leave a review, favourite and follow, and I shall see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	27. Jaunedice part 2: Pretty Little Lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's hard living with strangers. It's harder living with friends that don't believe in you.
> 
> Or believe you, for that matter.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Arc Theme:** _[Through The Valley by Shawn James (The Last Of Us 2 trailer edition)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xunZys4VDMQ)  
_ **Theme:**[ _I Am by Jorja Smith_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkkmFXfA3Xg) _  
_

* * *

My team leader is laying in the GVMC, comatose. A vegetable.

He got on my nerves, you know. Always telling me what to do. It wasn't that I was a lone wolf kind of person, I just didn't like it. I went along with his orders, sure, but I didn't have to like it.

If I had known what was going to happen, I would've shown my appreciation of him more.

It was shortly after the Initiation Massacre, at least a day, where we were doing sweeps of the burnt out Emerald Forest. He had told us to be cautious of these new Grimm, but, of course, we didn't listen.

We didn't see that surviving Grimm aim its gun up and shoot him in the head.

Somehow, it didn't kill him. It might've well have, because now, he's just laying in a bed, in a dusty corner of the GVMC, unresponsive, and kept on life support.

I have considered turning it off. The doctors have said that there is no way that the brain damage that has been done to him can be reversed or repaired. His mind is broken and shattered, unable to even compile a thought. Surely death would be much more preferable.

This is how I know that I am a coward.

Because I cannot bring myself to do so.

_**Journal extract from an unknown Hunter** _

* * *

Sunday had been the same as always for them.

Jaune had attempted to keep his team together, to no avail (As always).

Melanie had tried to keep her team together, to no avail (As always).

Ruby had been dragged away by Weiss to do god knows what for god knows why (As always).

Monday would be no different as any other Monday.

{BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP}

Melanie lifted her head off of her pillow as she yawned, and shut off her beeping alarm as it rang out. Nearby, Neon and Flynt groaned in their beds, and, as always, Ciel let out a quick yawn and rose up from her bed.

Melanie looked up at the time on her alarm. 5:30AM. Good. Time for her to get up and get ready.

"Get up", ordered Melanie as she fluttered out of her bed like a butterfly, pulled the quilt off in order to air it out, and then opened the blinds, letting the still dark, but ever so slowly brightening morning light enter into the room, "I'm getting showered and washed, then I'll be out of here by 7. Classes start at 9, so I expect all of you to be here when I get back at 8, unless you want to join me."

A groan from both Neon and Flynt was all that she got in response.

She kicked the side of Flynt's bed, "Get up", she ordered, more sternly this time, even though she knew that it wouldn't work. They had been through this enough times to know what would happen. Perhaps one day the 2 of them would actually listen to her. Perhaps one day Ciel would listen to her as well.

Perhaps one day they could be a proper team instead of a bunch of acquaintances who happened to share the same room.

"We're going to finally be doing team exercises when I get back at 8, all the way up until 9, so I expect you all to be washed and fed and ready by the time I get back", Melanie spoke like a drill instructor as she collected her towel that she kept near the side of her bed, and grabbed a neatly folded workout uniform from that same side and said, "Understand?"

Silence was her answer.

"I said, do you understand?"

Ciel didn't say anything, and all that Neon and Flynt responded with was a sleepy groan.

Melanie just rolled her eyes and made her way to their bathroom. Her teammates were as useless as ever. One would think that they would've learnt to follow orders by now, but no: A month and a half in and they still held no respect for her at all.

By the time that she had gotten out of the shower, gone on her morning exercises, eaten her breakfast, and returned at 8:00AM, her team's room was empty.

As always. Flynt and Neon had buggered off to who knows where, and Ciel was standing outside of Team RSBL's room, no doubt waiting for her employer, "Ciel-"

The door to Team RSBL's room opened up, and out stepped Weiss Schnee, looking as affluent and regal as ever. A quick nod of the head, "Let us go, Ciel"-

"Of course, ma'am."

-And they were off down the corridor.

Melanie snarled, "Ciel, don't you dare-"

But it was too late, and they both disappeared down the corner at the end of the hallway.

Melanie's eye twitched, and she just slumped onto the wall and let out a frustrated groan. How the hell was she supposed to lead a team if they didn't even listen to her in the first place? It was an utter shitshow, and she wasn't afraid to say it. She had a right mind to go up to Ozpin's office and tear him a new one just because of it.

Verbally, of course.

She gritted her teeth. No, Ozpin was cleverer than that. Much smarter than that. And more condescending and arrogant too. He'd just sit there and twiddle with his stupid mug and smile and subtly mock her for not being able to control her team and act like a smug condescending prick who liked to pretend that he had all the cards and lorded himself over all of the other plebeians underneath him like he was their god.

Ahem.

Melanie didn't trust him. She wanted to, but she just didn't trust him.

She looked over to the door to Team RSBL's room.

She had a good reason as to why.

* * *

Jaune's mornings started out the same as usual.

"Wake up, Renny!" cried out Nora as she jumped off of Jaunes bed and onto Rens, waking them both up as Nora pulled Ren out of bed and chirped, "We've gotta hurry up before the cafeteria runs out of pancakes!"

Ren, being dragged out by his hand, sighed and looked like he had resigned himself to his fate, but Jaune, in a tired voice, pulled himself out of his bed and went, "Nora-"

"Can't talk, Fearless Leader, need pancakes!"

"But Nora-"

"Pancakes pancakes pancakes~"

And like that, she was gone, taking Ren along with her.

All Jaune could do was just sigh, and look to the bed of their 'Team's' 4th member.

As always was the case with every morning, Pyrrha Nikos was gone, having disappeared with Eri to do whatever the hell it was that they did. He assumed that it was training.

Groaning to himself, he saw that there was no point in keeping himself in bed anymore, and got himself up, taking off his sleeping wear, and moving to change into his school uniform. However, before he did that, he looked down over his abdomen, and remembered that he had physical therapy after his regular lessons, just like every other weekday.

He traced a hand over the spiderweb patterns and traces of scars and rugged pale skin that stood out against his more naturally shaded white skin. It had been more than a month since he had had his side ripped out by the Daughter, and a full month since he had been stabbed in that exact spot by that Neopolitan Butcher girl. Both of the wounds, thanks to that nifty little thing called aura, had pretty much healed now, and, thanks to the blood packs that he had been receiving from the GVMC and Beacon infirmary, he was running at optimum blood power.

Still though, there were the aches, and there were the occasional pains. Velvet Scarletina and Lavender Nera, and the lead nurse Medico, all 3 of them working in the infirmary had been a massive help, as had Melanie as they went through physical therapy together, as well as a few other people, but still, there was the occasional blunt pain in his-

Ouch, there it was again. He rubbed his side, and felt the dull pain, like a blunt bat being pressed into his waist, simmer and still. Walking into the bathroom, he took out a paracetamol tablet and swallowed it.

Curiosity got the better of him, and he ghosted a hand over his arm. He was slowly beginning to build up his muscle mass once more, and his skin was finally returning to its natural colour instead of its previous pale shade. The pressure ulcers that had covered his back were now on the verge of completely healing, possibly thanks to his aura, leaving only a few purple bumps now, and the bags under his eyes were wearing away. He didn't look like the walking dead anymore, at least.

He traced his hand over his face, and realised how lucky he was that he hadn't had any scars on his face. A lot of people weren't as lucky as him because of that.

A lot of people were dead as well.

Jaune swallowed a lump in his throat, and made a move to put his uniform on, the dull pain in his side fading away thanks to the paracetamol. He looked over his team's dorm room and sighed. Every single day for the last month, it had been like this. For the first few days as a team, they had woken up and seemed to act like such, but soon, Pyrrha would disappear more and more to train, and Nora would drag Ren out to wherever she wanted to do whatever she wanted, and they would begin to leave Jaune on his own more and more, until a month ago, where they had entered the same pattern of him being left alone by the time that they had woken up, with Pyrrha leaving first before anyone could say anything, to Nora dragging Ren away, to Ren just letting it happen, to now Jaune on his own, with not even Eri to keep him company.

He sighed to himself. He had no idea how to corral his teammates. He really didn't.

This is why he had never wanted to be a team leader in the first place: Too much added on stress and work, especially with teammates. He already had enough of that as it was.

He really was considering just hopping it over to Haven like Reese had said. At least then, he might find a way to escape all of this stress.

No, that's too selfish. He had a duty at Beacon now, and he'd be damned if he didn't see it fulfilled.

Supressing a groan, he finished putting his uniform on, and picked up his scroll, still on the page where he had been researching about the Cataclysm (He didn't know why Melanie had told him to use incognito mode when looking it up), Pocketing it, he then walked out of his dorm room, and locked it behind him as he entered into the hallway.

Nearby, he spotted Melanie leaning against the wall with a tired expression on her face, and he nodded to her, "Hey."

She nodded back, "Hey."

"Still having problems with your team?"

It was her turn to sigh, "They won't listen to me."

He nodded once more, "Same here. It's like they don't even know that I exist. Not anymore."

"Mm", Melanie grunted in turn, and the 2 of them went to leaning against the wall next to each other, the both of them looking as exasperated at their teammates as the other, "We should split off."

Jaune shot her a questioning look, "What's that?"

"We should split off from our teammates and make our own team, our own crew", Melanie explained, moving her hands through the air like a rainbow as she then said, "The 'Malachites', or the 'Jaunesquad', or whatever-"

"Please don't call it the second one."

"-Right, then the 'Malachites' then. You, me, Ruby, and all of the other team leaders with idiot teammates. We'll form our own crew, and we'll actually do stuff like a team. Y'know, like, working together, and stuff, and not acting like total asshats all of the time to our leaders", she pressed her hands together and pointed them both at her, "It'll be amazing, trust me."

"You really think that?"

"We already trust each other, don't we? I'm not afraid to say that I trust you and Ruby more than my own teammates. The same can be said for our fellows with incompetent teammates as well."

Jaune paused, tapping his chin with 2 fingers, before going, "Isn't it a little egotistical to name a group after yourself, though?"

"Can't a girl be self-confident?"

"I thought you admitted on Saturday that you were one of the weakest fighters here?"

"I am, but I'm self-confident enough to know that I can improve."

"You really believe in that?"

She smiled, "More than you do, Lover Boy."

The 2 of them shared a smile and a laugh, leaning against the wall in fresh mirth, before narrowing their eyes on the front door opposite them, and letting a sad frown occupy their faces.

"Do you know why she's been acting so... Cagey?"

"So secretive, you mean?" Jaune asked, getting a nod from Melanie, "I don't know. I mean, I would put it down to trauma, but... But her entire team's been acting that way, haven't they?"

"Secretive, yeah", Melanie responded with, "They're hiding something, and I'm confidant that our dear old headmaster has something to do with it?"

Jaune quirked an eyebrow at that, "You think that Ozpin's given them something to hide?"

"Quick question: Do you trust Ozpin?"

He was caught off guard by the question for a moment, but then gave a proper thought to it, and said, "I don't know. Not really. I mean, I used to trust him a bit, since he's, you know, our headmaster, but after, er-"

"After you and Winter had a falling out after sending that Bree Huntress to prison?" Melanie asked. The council had been gracious enough that they hadn't put his name out on the news when Harriet Bree had been exposed as a serial killer, but it hadn't taken Melanie long to figure out that Jaune and Ruby had had something to do with it.

"Well, yeah", he paused, and his tick of scratching the back of his head returned, "I mean, after all of that, it turns out that trust is a lot more... Well, it's, I don't know, expensive, or something... I need a better analogy, but whatever, you get my point", he gestured a thumb down the corridor, as if Ozpin was standing right there, "The point is that Ozpin hasn't given me a reason to trust him, not to mention whatever he's said to Ruby makes it look like he's trying to give her a nervous breakdown, and so I don't. What about you?"

"Same as you, I guess", she shrugged, "I don't like him. He's just kinda a condescending prick, in my eyes, you know", she shrugged again, and then looked to him, "You did that research yesterday, right?" she whispered that last part to him now, "On your personal scroll?"

"In incognito mode, yeah", Jaune responded, trying to ignore how dirty what they were whispering about sounded right now, especially now that they were whispering.

"And?"

"Nothing", Jaune shrugged, "Nothing about what happened to my ancestor, Joan of Arc. Nothing about the Cataclysm, other than what we already know. Nothing about King Ozymandias or Ozma. Nothing about Salem... Nothing", he looked to her, worried, "It's like... It's like someone's scrubbed history of anything relating to them."

When Miltia had told them the names 'Ozma' and 'Salem', and had mentioned the Cataclysm, it had sent both Melanie and Jaune into a research frenzy. Soon, almost every section of the library had been scoured by them, almost every book read and researched themselves, every name beginning with O and S cross-referenced and fact checked, every reference to the Cataclysm in the First Great War looked up on the internet, and so on, so forth. The both of them were determined to find out and understand what Miltia had been talking about before she had taken part in her assisted suicide, and understand why she had allowed herself to die.

And so far, after more than a month of research ever since Jaune had woken up from his coma, they had nothing to show for it. There was no reference to anyone called Ozma or Salem, and there was no further information that they could access anywhere relating to anything else about the Cataclysm, outside of what was regularly taught in the schools and available on the internet, being only the intended facts. It was as if someone had completely written over history, cutting away anything other than the intended narrative, and leaving everything else under lock and key.

"We know that Ozpin and King Ozymandias are related", Melanie smacked her fist into her open palm, "It's obvious. What we don't know is how Ozma is related to all of this... Could it be a nickname for the King, back when he was in charge of Vale?"

"I doubt it", said Jaune, "Seems like a bit of a strange nickname."

"True", Melanie nodded, reminding him to keep his voice down, before going, "And you're sure that there's no mention of Joan of Arc? She's been completely scrubbed like you said?"

"Almost completely. Her name is only mentioned a few times in passing. It's the same of when I called my family about it. All they know is that she existed and passed Crocea Mors down to my great-great grandfather, Michael Arc."

"I knew it", she muttered to herself, "I knew it, they had to be connected. They have to be connected. Why else would whoever's been wiping the history of the Cataclysm target her as well?"

"But how, though?" Jaune asked rhetorically, "Joan, Ozma, Salem, the Cataclysm... How are they all connected?"

"Ozpin's got something to do with it", Melanie responded with, "He's got something to do with it, I swear. His family lineage must be focused on wiping away the truth, whatever that truth is."

Jaune nodded, "Just need to figure out what, though."

"Mm", Melanie hummed along.

"Are you sure that there are no other books in the library that we can look through?"

"Only a few that we haven't reviewed yet, and they're in my bag. The Myths and Fables of Old Remnant, and all that."

"Hm."

"Yeah, hm."

"Well, it's better than nowhere."

"Yeah, because if we don't find anything in there, then that's it. We'll have no new leads at all. Salem and Ozma will forever be lost to us."

Jaune bit the insides of his lip.

"I know."

* * *

Ruby had long since gotten used to nightmares.

When Patch had fallen and she had been pulled away from a burning wooden house into a red and black portal by a woman wearing a Grimm mask as their father was dragged far far away right before her eyes, she got used to the nightmares.

When a pair of hands slivered across her body and did things to her that she still could not speak about, she got used to the nightmares.

When a Faunus died right in front of her, and half of her skin melted and boiled red, she got used to the nightmares.

And when flesh uncurled from the arm of a smiling killer and a thin blade stabbed at her in a burning warehouse, she got used to the nightmares.

So, when she had woken up from another nightmare about the Brother of Light ranting about how it had tortured and killed her mother, all she did was sigh, and lay in her bed in silence, looking up at the ceiling with open, unblinking eyes. She didn't need to look around to know that none of her teammates were here with her, nor had they offered her the curtesy of waking her up earlier.

After finally finding an excuse to get out of bed ( _You've got classes today, ya dingus_ , she'd thought to herself), She got out of bed, yawned, and got herself into the bathroom, combing her bedhead and brushing her teeth. She'd find an excuse to shower later.

She paused after washing out her mouth, and looked into the mirror, past her strapped pyjama top with a heart shaped Beowolf's head printed on it, and onto the left side of her body, down her arm and the left side of her face, where she had her hair combed over.

Still red. Still completely red from the heavy scarring that had been inflicted on her by the Blind Worm's acid rivers around the _Grimm Tidings_ back in the Initiation Massacre. She swept the hair that covered the left side of her face aside, and looked to her now usually hidden eye. The dull, pure milk white pearl looked back at her, such a contrast to her right eye, still its pure silver. Thank goodness she had been pulled out of the acid quick enough that the most damage that had been done to her eye was simply the loss of colour and not her sight, otherwise she would've been in big trouble.

(She sometimes wondered what would've happened if the same damage had been done to her other eye. Maybe then she would be free from all of this responsibility that had been given to her all because of a genetic trait that had appeared as the colour of her eyes.

She sometimes hated her mum for that.)

Biting down a cry of frustration, she changed out of her pyjamas and into her school uniform. She wished that she still had her cape with her, and it wasn't just reduced to a sash on her combat outfit, but she would have to make due as she grabbed her new hoodie, coloured silver, almost white (Ozpin seemed to almost have a panic attack when she had come into his office wearing it once, so she didn't wear it like that around him anymore), And tied it around her waist, before taking her necklace with a cross pendant attached to it (In remembrance), And laying it around her neck and over her uniform.

Outside her dorm room, through the door, she could hear hushed voices. What they were saying eluded her, but the sounds of the voices (One more than the other, but only slightly) Were very familiar.

She smiled. Another reason to get out of bed had presented itself.

Pocketing her scroll, she walked over to the door with a fresh spring in her step. Opening it up, she spotted her 2 current favourite people in the word. Were they waiting for her? They shouldn't have. They must've had much better things to do with their time than just stick around here for her. She felt like such a waste of space now-

"Heya, Ruby", Jaune smiled and waved gently to her, seemingly in a poor mood before, but had now been flushed away. The same as Melanie as she delivered her hellos as well with a smile and a pair of crossed arms.

"Hi guys!" Ruby chirped as she skipped over to them, adjusting the black gloves on her hands as she then asked, "Were you guys waiting for me? You really shouldn't have."

"Hey, don't sell yourself so short, Rubes", Jaune went as he playfully ruffled her hair, "Of course we'd wait for you. Friends care about each other, right?"

Ruby blinked, thinking back to her partner and the rest of her teammates, and then back to Kay Nin and Yang, and then nodded, "Yeah, that's what friends do..."

"Exactly, so don't worry about it, okay?" he then asked, "You had a good night sleep, Rubes?"

She paused, and then said, "Yeah, it's been... It's been alright. I had an alright sleep", not a lie, it had been alright, nightmares aside.

Melanie looked at her and frowned, "Ruby, if there's something bothering you, you can talk to us about it. We're here for you, after all", the way she spoke, it reminded her of a mother addressing her child. Ruby found that she liked it.

Ruby wished to tell them. Oh gods, she wanted to just air out her worries and concerns to the 2 closest people to her in this entire school, and tell them of her fears and the pressure and all of the truths that she had learnt from Ozpin about Salem and the maidens and the relics and the Grimm because goddammit she didn't want to be alone and she wanted these guys there with her.

But she couldn't. Ozpin had sworn her to secrecy about all of it, and she had promised him not to tell anyone at all. Whatever had convinced Salem and this new Ascendant Court to attack the Emerald Forest during Initiation had completely thrown him for a loop, and now, secrecy was more important than ever. No one else could know about these truths. No one at all.

(Nobody still knew why the Ascendant Court had chosen to attack the initiates, all those weeks ago. Melanie had aired out what she thought the reasoning was to Ruby during one of their team leader meetings, being the very same theories that she had told Jaune, but Ruby had remained unconvinced. She just felt that there was something... More, that the Ascendant Court had wanted during the Initiation Massacre.

Ruby had seen on the Dropship away from the Grimm Tidings, before it crashed, that the Daughter seemed to be fixated on Jaune, but he had played it off as just happenstance, and surely not something that would necessitate a Grimm invasion of the entire Emerald Forest, but Ruby hadn't been sure.

There was something else going on, and she just didn't believe that it was as simple as an act of destroying faith in the kingdoms like Melanie had explained.)

And so, she kept herself quiet, and kept them in the dark. It was for the best, of course, but that didn't mean that she didn't regret it as she smiled and said to them, "No, no, everything's good! Everything's fine! It's just- It's just team leader stresses, you know! Teething problems! It's really nothing to worry about."

Melanie and Jaune looked to each other, and Ruby knew that the 2 of them didn't believe her, and Melanie responded with, "You sure?"

"...Yeah. I'm sure."

"...Alright then", Jaune came out with, placing a hand on Ruby's shoulder as he then said, "Just let us know if you need anything, okay. We'll be there for you if you do."

Ruby smiled, and placed her hand on his, "And I you..."

The 2 stayed connected like that for a while, enjoying the sensation of each other's company.

Melanie took a step to the side, letting the 2 of them enjoy their moment with a smile on her face.

The 2 of them then looked over to her, almost expectantly.

"..."

"..."

Melanie looked at the both of them in confusion.

"What?"

"..."

"..."

"Oh, right, I was- Sorry, I'll be there for you guys as well, it's just..."

"..."

"..."

"...You guys were having a moment, and I didn't want to...", she waved her pointer finger between them, "Didn't want to interrupt."

The 2 of them hummed in confusion, before looking at each other and realising that they were both still connected to each other. They both yelped in surprise, Ruby retching her hand away from Jaune and Jaune releasing Ruby's shoulder, and they both began to babble apologies to each other.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable-"

"No no no, it's my fault! I should've been paying attention and not latching onto you like that-"

"-No no, you're my friend, and I shouldn't have touched you like that-"

"-Yes but you're my friend as well and I shouldn't have done that-"

"-I should've been more aware of what I was doing and-"

"-I should've known not to try and do something like that and-"

"Oh my god you guys are such dorks and I somehow both love it and hate it at the same time", Melanie smiled at the 2 of them as they gave her a weak glare, but she shut it off as she patted them on the back, and said, "Let's get moving, shall we? We've got classes soon."

* * *

As Pyrrha pelted another AK-130 training droid (The Poser variant instead of the Maya) With her double bladed spear, she scanned her eyes underneath her helmet towards the screen nearby, towards her aura count, seeing that hardly a scratch had been taken out of her.

_Not good enough._

Up above, her little drone known as Eri was trying to whistle something to her, but she couldn't hear it as she buried one side of her spear into the head of the Poser AK-130, and cartwheeled to the side as a pair of Maya AK-130s opened fire on her, spraying dud bullets across the training room's walls and ground.

With no sign of hesitation, Pyrrha called for Eri with a tap to the side of her helmet, and, somehow reluctantly, the drone complied, and clipped onto her back, allowing Pyrrha to dash right between the 2 Maya AK-130s, twirl her double bladed spear, and cut off both of their heads at the same time.

Using the momentum that she had acquired from her drone enabled dash, she leapt up into the air and sliced her way through another Maya AK-130 that was aiming up at her, pushing her aura into the tip of her blade and strengthening it tenfold as it sliced the robot in half, not blunting at all as she then threw it into another Poser AK-130, square in the head, and then grabbed it and twisted it out, ripping apart the head of the droid in the process. Black oil wept out and Pyrrha tried not to think about fire and forests and failures.

She wheeled around, and saw an AK-135, armed with a riot shield, converting its single arm into a cannon, and Pyrrha pulled up her rounded shield as it formed from a single triangle on her arm into a fully round shield, extending out even further as she used it to block the blast, before folding up her double bladed spear, putting it on her belt, and pulling out one of the 2 pistols on her hip.

They were custom heavy pistols, coloured in red and gold. A rare sort that she had asked from her father after the destruction of her old weapons, Miló and Akoúo̱, back during the Initiation Massacre. Her father hadn't like it (Father did not like many things now more than ever), But he had obliged to do so anyways.

He had already named them for her. Indominable and Indestructible. Not anything to do with their Mandarin heritage.

Pyrrha hadn't said anything about it.

Pulling the trigger, the heavy pistol roared and let out a stray shot into the shield of the AK-135, but all that it did was spark against the thick metal of its shield and embed itself there. Seeing as how her current tactics were-

_Not good enough._

-She decided to use Eri to jump high into the air and launch herself right over the AK-135, letting her shield disassemble on her arm and pulling out her other pistol from its magnetic holster, shooting down at the robot as it began to splutter and its joints wheeze, before she landed on her feet and emptied the last few rounds of her pistols into the back of the AK-135, its lights going out as it collapsed to the floor.

Pyrrha scanned her pistols across the training ground, and found no more AK-130s or 135, Posers or Mayas, coming towards her. The room was empty.

She didn't like it. She needed more practice, "Computer", she called out to the Dumb A.I. that controlled the robots and the training arena, "Activate more training droids."

 _"NO MORE TRAINING DROIDS AVALIABLE AT THIS TIME"_ , the computer rang out with.

"Explain."

_"ALL 50 CURRENT COMBAT UNITS ARE NO LONGER FUNCTIONING."_

Ah, right.

She looked around, and scanned her eyes over the dozens of AK drones that littered the floor, all of them in various states of disassembly, wires and black oil and stray shards of metal scattered everywhere that reminded Pyrrha too much of the Emerald Forest yet again.

Pyrrha bit her bottom lip in shame. Robots didn't come cheap for anyone, this she knew. Even poor quality models like these ones were expensive things to own, especially in times like these, and here she was, wasting them by the dozens. Or at least, the ones available for this combat arena.

"Computer, end combat simulation", no point in keeping it up and running as the combat lighting around her faded and was replaced by proper illumination, sweeper bots rolling in and beginning their process of cleaning up the mess that she had left behind, as she then asked the computer, "What is my level of improvement?"

"ANALYSIS INDICATES THAT YOU HAVE IMPROVED BY 1.18% SINCE YOUR LAST SESSION YESTERDAY. A REMARKABLE IMPROVEMENT."

Not good enough.

Pyrrha grimaced, but sighed away the annoyance and reattached her heavy pistols to the magnetic holsters on her hip. Thinking about sending a quick prayer to the Mandarin god, she decided to save it until she visited the school's shrine for them in a moment, as she began to walk out of the training room, making sure to not trip up on any of the stray thousands of shards that covered the floor as she entered the women's changing room.

She hadn't noticed Eri clipping herself off of her back until she had went to take off her helmet and noticed her floating right next to her, as she pinged a message to her helmet's HUD.

_ಠ_ಠ_

"Eri", Pyrrha began, "You know I don't like it when you send me those icons", Eri then flipped over in the air and let out a long string of whistles in what she assumed to be frustration, "...You know I also don't understand you when you start whistling like that as well."

_┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ) (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻_

"...Okay, you're frustrated, I can tell that much", she sighed as she kept her helmet on, whilst also putting away her weapons and clipping off the armour around her waist into the locker in front of her, "If you're annoyed at something, then just say it. Don't waste time making gestures like that."

_(＃°Д°) ┗|｀O′|┛_

Pyrrha rolled her eyes, "Alright then, what is it?" she felt the urge to apologise for her snappiness, but decided against it. The Grimm wouldn't be waiting for her to apologise for anything, this she had harshly learnt in the Emerald Forest and around the _Grimm Tidings_ , so neither should her opponents.

_(⊙_(⊙_⊙)_⊙)_

"...What?" she asked in confusion. Thanks to all of the time over the last month and a half ever since she had been given Eri from Nora, she had slowly been getting used to all of the emoticons that she used instead of speech, due to learning of the exact intentions behind them whenever they were used, but still, there were some times, like now, where the little drone's usages of them completely stumped her, "What does that mean?"

_(⊙_(⊙_⊙)_⊙) - （⊙_⊙）= (⊙_(⊙_⊙)_

"What does that even mean?" Pyrrha was just getting even more confused now, "Does that mean my fans? I'm becoming too detached from my fans? Is that what you're saying?"

_(´ｰ ∀ｰ `) (´ ｰ∀ ｰ`)_

"Is that a no? Is that meant to be you shaking your head, I mean...", she paused, and then restated, "What do you even mean?"

_(⊙_(⊙_⊙)_⊙) - （⊙_⊙）= (⊙_(⊙_⊙)_

"...You mean my teammates, don't you?"

_\\( ^0^ )/ d=====(￣▽￣*)b_

Pyrrha sighed as she slipped the armour on her arms and legs off, "Eri, you know why I can't hang out with them more. Why I can't hang out with them at all. Not now, at least."

_?_

"Don't play coy, Eri."

( •̀ ω •́ )✧ the emoticon popped up on her screen as soon as Eri did a cute little whirl in the air.

Pyrrha was beginning to lose her patience, "Eri, please, I can't just... I'm not good enough for them."

_(⊙_(⊙_⊙)_⊙) - （⊙_⊙）= (⊙_(⊙_⊙)_

"Stop it Eri. I mean it. I'm not-"

_(⊙_(⊙_⊙) + （⊙_⊙）= ＼(((￣(￣(￣▽￣)￣)￣)))／_

"I'm not strong enough for them, Eri!"

Pyrrha ripped her helmet off of her face, and stared right into the single glowing green optic of the drone. With a growl, she pointed a finger at the drone, and began to rant.

"Do you know what happened in the Emerald Forest, Eri? Around the Grimm Tidings, before you were built? I was beaten. More than that, I was humiliated. Me, the Invincible Girl, the 4 time winner of the Mistral Regional Tournaments and paragon for young Huntresses out there, was beaten and bloodied and humiliated. And more than that, I was mocked for it. The Daughter of the Ascendant Court, straight to my face, whilst she was- Whilst she was trouncing me, mocked me for my inability to beat her. If I had been stronger, if I had been better- If I had been more!- Than what I already am now, then maybe I could've beaten her, maybe I could've stopped her! Maybe I could've killed her and stopped the Ascendant Court and this entire war from happening in the first place!"

She finally noticed that Eri had hovered a few feet away from her when she realised that she had been subconsciously using her semblance to bend all of the metal around her, twisting it into alien and broken positions, the metal on Eri bending just a little bit as the little drone whined in discomfort, something that it shouldn't even be able to do in the first place. Nora built it- Her too well. Better than she ever could.

She growled at that, and hated herself for growling at it.

"That's why I have to keep training, Eri. That is why I have to keep getting better. I won't have Jaune and Nora and Ren and everyone else who looks up to me have a weak paragon- A weak teammate."

Inside of her, something whispered, _Is that what you believe, or is that what your father believes?_

Pyrrha knew. She knew a lot.

She had more than just that for being here.

Her scroll vibrated in her locker, and she pulled it out to see a text from Eri on it.

Attached to the text was a picture from their group chat that Nora had taken just after they had been made a team.

It was what Nora called a 'Selfie', of all of Team JNPER's heads pressed together into a single frame, Nora making a silly face, whilst the rest of them looked on in sudden confusion at being pulled together for said selfie.

It was a heart warming image, and once, when they had just been made a team, Pyrrha had smiled at it.

But now, all she could do was grimace at it.

Before the Initiation Massacre, she had come to Beacon for something as simple as a friend, a way out of the image of the Invincible Girl.

Now, she had finally realised how pathetic that was.

She couldn't have friendships. Not anymore.

All they would do was hold her back.

"Drop it, Eri", Pyrrha glowered at the drone, "I mean it", and she continued to get changed, dressing into her school uniform as Eri whined in sadness, but she ignored this as she walked out of the changing rooms, into the main hallway, and found Weiss Schnee and Ciel Soleli waiting for her, as always.

Internally, also as always, Pyrrha sighed, but she didn't let this show as she put on her best smile and said to Weiss, "Good day, Weiss. How was your sleep?"

"And a good morning to you as well, Pyrrha. I must admit, for once, it was quite pleasant", Weiss smiled back to her, whilst Ciel stood off to the side with her hands behind her back, her face as impassive as ever. Weiss continued, "Though my team is still as rambunctious as ever. I swear, it's like I'm living with a bunch of children."

Pyrrha wanted to say something about that, but deigned not to, on the grounds of being called a hypocrite.

"I mean, seriously, Blake obviously hates me and everyone else for some reason, Leadpipe is the only one she likes and that's only because he's too passive and needy to do anything against her, and my team leader is an actual child!" she threw her arms in the air as emphasis for her annoyance.

"Well", Pyrrha hid the awkwardness in her voice as they began to walk, "She is only 2 years younger than us-"

"Exactly, a child!" Weiss said as if she was reinforcing her point and not trying to contradict it, "And she acts even younger than it as well, is completely unable to even try to stand up for herself, and she's obviously has mental damage, and yet Ozpin decided to put her in charge of an entire team! Ugh, I know that Ozpin is wise, and has been the headmaster of Beacon for years longer than anyone else, but I cannot help but feel like this has been a major jump in his logic!"

Pyrrha could tell that Weiss was holding out on a few things, but decided not to press it as she then said, "Well, perhaps you're being a bit too harsh on Ruby."

"Pyrrha, being harsh is the only way I can treat her! It's tough love!" she spitted out in an exacerbated manner, "Excessively angry love, if that! I need to be harsh on her, because she's got so much going for her, and... Ugh!"

Weiss finished off her short-lived rant with a grunt of annoyance, which still sounded as ladylike as she put herself out to be. Pyrrha felt like there was something more to it than just that, seeing as how she had said that Ruby had a lot going for her.

From what she had learnt of the Schnee heiress in the short time that she had known her, for her to say that about someone else, especially someone whom she considered to be inferior, was extremely out of character. For her to even give the briefest hint that there was someone out there who should be her lesser and yet was somehow, in some category, more than her, was rather startling.

"Weiss", Pyrrha began, "What do you mean by that?" above her, Eri looked down in equal confusion, though it was harder to tell considering that she had no face, and thereby no facial features to express it.

Weiss immediately caught onto what she was asking, and waved it off, "Never mind about that Pyrrha, we have classes soon", she looked at her with an earnest smile, something that she had never given anyone else in this school, not even Ciel, "That reminds me, after classes, I was wondering if we could have a little study group between us. I know that we were unable to become partners in the Emerald Forest and are stuck with our... Respective partners", she said those last 2 words like they were an insult to said partners. They probably were, "So I would very much like to make up for it as best as I can."

Pyrrha was unsure of what to think of Weiss and her continuous offers and attempts at an impossible partnership. On the one hand, Weiss had seemed to grow attached to her and genuinely enjoyed her company, so it would be rude just to shrug her off. On the other hand, Pyrrha couldn't say that she was particularly fond of the girl, since she clung to her like an overly attached fan with a crush.

(Perhaps Weiss did have some sort of a crush on her. She wouldn't have been the first fan to get attached to her in such a way. And surprisingly enough, she wouldn't have been the pushiest of them.)

"Well, that sounds lovely, Weiss", she lied, and then spoke the truth, "But unfortunately, I have to continue my training, so I must decline", above her, Eri seemed to throw something of a fit, but she ignored it.

"Ah, of course", Weiss said, flattered at the supposed complement, "I completely understand. Our paragon for young Huntresses everywhere can't be nothing sort of perfect now, can she?"

Pyrrha winced at the chosen words used and wondered if it was some kind of dig at her, but remembered that this was Weiss, so she banished the thought, "Well, thank you, Weiss", they found themselves to the door into the school's Mandarin God shrine, and Pyrrha turned to Weiss and said, "Now, if you'll excuse me-"

"Ah, of course, by all means", Weiss said unctuously, sending her off with a wave, "Go, do what you must. I'll be out here", her smile wobbled, "Faith is an important thing after all..."

Pyrrha paused at that for just a moment, but then figured that it was more things that she didn't need to know about, and wondered into the shrine, silently hoping that Weiss would leave with her bodyguard/peer whilst she was in here, but knew that it wouldn't happen, so shuffled it away.

The shrine itself was a bronze coloured room, with a red carpeted floor and a brilliant white light that shone in the centre of the ceiling (Pyrrha suspected that either her fame or her father had something to do with the colouring). The sides of the room were filled with stone pillars that only served as decoration, each one with a stone carving of an ancient Mandarin warrior, whilst in the middle of the room, on a bronze coloured pedestal, stood a small statue of Azama, the god of justice and war, and the central Mandarin god, flanked by smaller statues of the lesser gods known as Ishtar and Inanna. the God of Love and the Goddess of Peace respectively.

(Many people believed that the similarity between the names of Azama and the Faunus god of Azul Primus wasn't coincidental. Pyrrha believed otherwise.)

Lighting the few candles that surrounded the 3 statues, Pyrrha fell to her knees and began to hum her prayers. She had never been particularly devout before the Initiation Massacre, but, of course, things changed, and she had a lot of catching up to do.

As she almost spoke in old Mandarin, "Dóso ta dékata tis kalís týchis kai tis dóxas mou sti thélisi ton Azama, Inanna kai Ishtar. Eíthe to lampró sou fos na deíxei ton drómo mou, kai i dýnamí sou na efthygrammísei ti lepída mou, kathós ékopsa tous antipálous mou kai na epidióxo veltíosi gia ton eaftó mou sto ónoma sou, oiménoi theoí tis dóxas", her mind wandered back to the subject of her team...

And back to the subject of Jaune.

She knew that Jaune was failing as a leader. She knew that Jaune wasn't cut out for all of this. She knew that he wasn't doing well at this whole leadership thing.

A problem of which was partly her fault, seeing as how she constantly flaked out of him for her own training, and...

Well, for giving him the leadership position in the first place.

Pyrrha had promised his elder sister, Viola, that she would tell Jaune about her talk with Ozpin and how she had flaked off leadership to him once he had woken up.

But she had not. She still had not told him.

It was better that way. Better for her than for him.

It was selfish, yes, but it was also another possible failure avoided.

And Pyrrha hated failure. It was a hatred that her father had taught her.

She finished her prayers, got up, and blew the candles out. With a brush of her skirt and stockings, she blew out the candles on the desk, and made her way out of the shrine, seeing that Weiss and her bodyguard, of course, had not let her be, and that Eri as well had been waiting outside for them, possibly annoying Weiss by just being there and hovering near her.

If Pyrrha was a lesser person, she would've laughed at that, but she was not, so she brushed it aside, and, with Weiss and her bodyguard following, as well as Eri above them, she made her way down the hallways once more.

For once, her training wouldn't make her late for classes.

* * *

Nora Valkyrie had decided that Professor Peter Port was her favourite teacher.

The other Professors were all kinda just butts. Professor Ozpin was cool and old and wise and all, but now he was a lot more skittish and paranoid than what she'd thought that he'd be. Professor Goodwitch was strict and mean. Professor Rainart was grumpy and moody all of the time. Professor Oobleck was so fast that even she could barely keep up with him (And that was saying something. Or maybe it was just because history was boring). Professor Mulberry was too focused on flowers to be of any interest to anyone at all, despite being the person who was supposed to be in charge of weapon's crafting and upkeep. Professor Greene was too sneaky for her own good. Professor Heliotrope was too obsessed with 'Rules and regulations' down in the Forge to be of any fun. And Professor Watts was just creepy.

Professor Port, though? Now that man knew how to spin a tale!

"-Monsters! Demons! Prowlers of the night! These monsters may change their form, but the ugliness of the inside will never change! And I should know! Why, in my younger days, when I was but a sprite young boy, I once cut open an Alpha Megoliath with nothing but a brave trio of utensils in the shape of a spoon, a fork, and a spork, just to see what was on the inside! It was a fair day in the lonely tundra of Solitas, where the cold would freeze a weaker man! But I was far from a weak man, as I covered myself in fire dust and lit myself on fire, just to keep the cold from taking me-"

Best.

Story.

Ever.

If only everyone else could feel the same.

Around her, she could see almost all of her peers in the exact opposite state as her. To her one side, she could see the members of the all girl Team VAKY, or Valkyrie (Led by Vi Maru, and made up of Akuma Nile, Leo Keith, and Mini Yukari (Excellent naming choice of the team, by the way. That was why she liked them so much)), Resting their heads against their desks and dozing away in la la land, except for the ever emotionless Akuma, who had put her hands together and was staring off at the professor in avid concentration. To her other side, she saw Ren jotting down notes on any snippets of information that he could get from Port's story-

Ah, ever dependable Lie Ren, as always!

-And around her, from up to down, almost every other student had either nodded off to sleep or was in the process of nodding off to sleep. Boo! So unappreciative! The man was giving them some of the best stories that she had ever heard, free of charge! They should at least be grateful of that!

At least Jaune-Jaune and Melanie were paying attention. Well, sort of paying attention. Actually, no, they weren't paying attention at all. They only looked like they were listening into what Professor Port was saying as they wrote down note after note into their books and notepads, constantly sharpening pencils and refilling multicoloured pens as they filled their pages with highlights and words and all sorts of mumbo jumbo that Nora couldn't even begin to understand.

Not that she particularly wanted to either, seeing as she had much better things to be thinking about. Like how long it would take her to gorge all of the pancakes in the cafeteria, or how long it would take her and Renny to climb up the side of the school, or how many new electro combinations she and Voltage could make together (Near her, she exchanged giddy waves with the doozy Techion in question before he drifted off to sleep as well. Okay, she was probably going to have to deduct friendship points for not paying attention in story time classes as well! Ungrateful, he was. Ungrateful all of them were!), Or how many new songs she could make with Neon and Flynt and the rest of their band.

(Anything to stop the nightmares...)

Still, the only other people who were (Trying) To pay attention were Weiss and Ruby. Blake had retreated to reading her book under the table-

Blake was always kind of a jerk, to be honest. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she was a Faunus and was terrible at hiding her ears under that bow, but she was just so mean to everyone that wasn't Leadpipe, always disregarding their opinions and acting aggressively when anyone disagreed with her. She didn't know why she had made an exception for Leadpipe, but Nora suspected that she thought that he couldn't take care of herself and wanted to mould him into something controllable, or something like that. And considering how passive and docile the Techion was, she wouldn't doubt it as a valid reason.

-Whilst Leadpipe had dropped his pencil and pressed his hands against the side of his head, whining in frustration as he couldn't understand anything that the Professor was saying and had given up on trying to figure it out on his own by taking down messy notes.

Weiss was at least paying some attention, but was more focused on getting Ruby to pay attention, as she continuously scolded the younger girl for not paying attention for even a fraction of a second, spitting hushed, barbed words at her for not giving it her all at every single moment. Occasionally, Melanie and Jaune-Jaune would look to this and frown, but Ruby would wave them off and go back to being scolded harshly by Weiss.

Nora frowned at this as well. Ruby's team was a toxic one. Weiss was bossy and had seemed to have usurped leadership from Ruby, the poor thing was too timid and anxiety ridden to do anything about it, Blake was too confrontational and mean, and seemed to take pleasure from other people's arguments- She noticed how the girl in question turned her eyes up to Weiss and Ruby every now and then, and offered them the slight smile of pleasure at their disagreements- And Leadpipe was also too timid and shy to do anything about it, or want to do anything about it.

She looked over to the side, to see a mane of blonde hair glaring down at Weiss with red eyes.

Ah, Yang. She had completely forgotten about her.

There was Yang, glaring daggers at the Schnee Heiress, her teeth grinding together, and her blood boiling as whispers of flame and ember flickered off of her once young now short, flayed out hair, her eyes a blood red instead of their normal lilac, the metal in her back, shoulders, and arms heating up as the glowing lines that covered her body changed from purple to red, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the desk beneath her-

{CRACK}

-As she broke the desk beneath her, sorry.

Next to Yang, Razor tried to calm her down, but the brawler shook it off. The 2 of them exchanged quiet swear words with each other as Yang continued to try and master a laser eye semblance so that she could burn a literal hole into the back of Weiss' head.

Not that she blamed her for it.

She blinked, and then realised that she had been zoning out, and had missed Professor Port's story. Dang it! She was really looking forward to it as well. Black mark on her book. Oh well, at least she could catch the tale end of his story...

"-And in the end, the Wyvern was no match for my sheer tenacity, as well as a cold dip in that entire lake of frozen melon juice that I had freshly prepared, and I made my return to the city of Vacuo as a celebrated hero of legend!"

Awesome!...

Professor Port pumped a closed fist against his chest as he then waxed poetically with, "The moral of this story? A true Hunter must be honourable! A true Hunter must be dependable! A true Hunter must be strategic, well-educated, and wise! So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"

Weiss and Yang looked like they were about to jump out to their seats, Weiss to make a show to Ruby about being a proper Huntress, and Yang to prove a point to Weiss, but before they could do anything at all, Professor Port turned his gaze downwards and said-

"Ms Malachite! Mr Arc! Perhaps you could give show us what it means to be a Hunter?"

The 2 team leaders in the bottom pew of seats were broken out of their thoughts and their notes as they looked up in confusion, blinking as Melanie then said, "Er, wha'? Sorry, what was the question?"

"I said, perhaps one of you could show us about what it means to be a Hunter?"

The 2 of them blinked once again, before Melanie coughed and asked, "Um, er, what do you... What do you mean by that?... Er, sir? Professor? Whatever..."

Professor Port didn't catch the last dismissive word as he then pointed to-

Oh look, there was a cage in the middle of the room.

Cool.

"Woah, is that a cage?"

"Has that thing got a Grimm in it?"

"What the what?!"

"Is that safe? Is that legal? Hell, is that ethical?"

"How did we not notice that before?"

Now, the students were beginning to wake up again at the sight of Professor Port gesturing singlehandedly to the cage whilst also talking to Jaune-Jaune, Melanie, and the rest of the class as well, "Inside this cage is... Well, not a Grimm, seeing as how we don't have our good old fashioned beasts readily available now anymore-"

Around her, Nora could hear a lot of her peers let out sighs of relief. The wounds of the Emerald Forest were still raw. Too raw for Nora's liking.

"-So instead, we have a dastardly training droid cooped up in this fine old cage, created by me! Why, I remember when I made that cage, on a hot summer's day in the settlement of Sumire against an evil swarm of Sulfer Fish Grimm-"

Everyone else groaned. Nora was ecstatic. More story time!

"-But, alas, that is a tory for another day."

Everyone else was ecstatic. Nora Groaned. No more story time?!

"So, in this cage is a coiled AK-BX combat droid, ready to spring out and attack any would be Huntsman and Huntress who would dare come near it! All for training purposes of course."

One student- Steam, she remembered his new nickname being, with his pet robot bird Hammer perched on his arm- Raised his other arm and asked, "Wait, sir, you have a robot trapped in a cage?" a nod from the professor answered that, "But... Why not just keep it out and not waste the time or space in the room by cramming it into that cage and shoving it into the middle of the room?"

"Why, for dramatic entrances of course!"

"...I'm not sure what else I expected."

"Anyhow!" Professor Port said as he looked back down to Jaune-Jaune and Melanie, "Now then, would either of you like to show us what it means to be a Hunter?"

Nora's eyes widened as he realised what he was doing. He was calling them out for not paying attention. Worse yet, he was calling them out for them because they were showing that they actively weren't planning on paying any attention at all and were too focused on their own work. Now they were put on the spot, and everyone was looking at them expectantly, and it wasn't like they could go against a teacher's orders.

Melanie looked on now with an annoyed look when she realised that she would be unable to continue her work, closing the book that she had on her lap- Before the Dawn, a follow up to the novel After the Fall- And then moving to get up and accept Professor Port's challenge, when Fearless Leader Jaune-Jaune put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Melanie, don't. I'll take the die."

"You sure?"

A nod from Jaune-Jaune was his answer to her.

"...Alright then", and with that, she was back in her seat.

Nora blinked at this. Melanie didn't seem like the type of person to back down from a challenge like that, and she didn't seem like the kind of person to just hand over a challenge to another person, so to see her do something like that was strange indeed.

Maybe she trusted Jaune-Jaune enough to handle it on his own.

If that was the case, then why didn't she trust her team?"

Jaune-Jaune left, and then soon after returned, dressed up in his awesome looking white, black, and golden armour, and with all of his weapons attached to them. Even with his helmet on, Nora could tell that he wasn't really up for this, not in attitude, but in strength. Nora didn't hold anything against him, but he was the weakest person in their year, after Melanie herself. She wasn't really sure what kind of a fight this would be, but she imagined that this one would be in the lose section than the other.

She reached down and stroked her little drone known as Eri, whom was resting on her lap, a cable attached to a rechargeable battery pack connected to her as her lights were reduced to a single blinking red light in her singular optic.

Nora liked Jaune-Jaune. She liked him a lot. Not like-like, of course, but still, he was nice. He was funny. And he also put up with her attempts at being fun. Well, he'd never said anything about it before, had he? And he never looked like he held anything against her when she got up to her more... Destructive hijinks, or when she left and took Renny with her to pass the time and have fun, so he was great in her books.

He wasn't a good fighter for a reason, though. She could tell that he'd never had any sort of advanced training or lessons in how to be a Huntsman, or even a fighter on top of that. He had a good eye for tactics and decision making, that was true, he wouldn't have been able to lead them through the Initiation Massacre without them, but he definitely wasn't a fighter, and the webs of scars and cuts of old, yet still fresh injuries didn't help. No doubt that he was still getting aches from it all, if the paracetamol bottles that they had in their bathroom were any indication.

Still though, it would be a good fight at least, and she still had faith in Jaune-Jaune to come out on top. She poked Renny on the side next to her, and whispered, "Look, Renny, Jaune-Jaune's going to do Team JNPER a proud!"

Renny hummed, "I'm sure that he will", but it was clear that he didn't quite believe it himself. She knew that like her, he liked Jaune-Jaune as well, and had faith in him, but knew about his poor combat abilities and didn't have that much faith in him in a fight. Silly Renny! Have a little more faith, will you?

"Right", Jaune-Jaune said out loud as he stood to the side of the open part of the classroom below, "I'm ready", he was lax, but then looked over himself and realised that he wasn't in a battle stance, "Wait, hold on", he shifted around his legs, and held out one of his arms, electrostaff broken into 2 and held as electrobatons in both of his hands, purple electricity dancing along them as he folded out the shield on his arm and moved it over his body, "Alright, now I'm ready."

If there was one compliment that Nora could throw at Jaune-Jaune's fighting skills, it was that he was quick to learn new skills and areas of battle. Not quick enough to be on par with everyone else, but still, he was hungry to learn, seeing as he had been quickly picking up more Hunter skills at a faster rate than anyone else, so maybe he really would surprise them.

"Excellent!" Professor Port called out, walking to the side of the cage with his weapon, Blowhard, in hand as he prepared to open it, "Allllright! Time to show everyone what a true Huntsman is made of!" he raised his blunderbuss axe as he then cheered, "Let the games... Being!"

He swung it down and broke the lock on the cage. The door opened and the AK-BX combat droid within uncurled itself and sprung out, leaping high into the air and lunging down.

Dramatic entrances indeed. She loved it!

Flying down, the AK-BX slammed its fists into the ground, and forced Jaune to bounce to the side as he swung one of his electrobatons down and hit the AK-BX square in the head, shocking the droid with purple electricity and leaving it twitching and spluttering for a second, but it was only for a second, and too quick for Jaune-Jaune to take advantage of as it wheeled back a fist and slammed it into his helmet, knocking his head back before sending an open palmed strike into his chest and launching him backwards, almost onto the floor.

Both blows were easily avoidable, and could be counter by a bit of manoeuvring and grappling from Jaune-Jaune, but, again, since he didn't have the proper training to be able to counter it, he was left vulnerable to the droid's attacks.

He was adapting quickly, though, as he brought his shield up and blocked a blow from the AK-BX, before coupling both of his batons to his side and pulling out his sword, sending a swipe to the head of the droid, missing it, before he took another swipe at the chest of the robot, this time hitting it and sending it back a step, before jabbing at it with his sword yet again and throwing a swipe at its neck, obviously trying to cut its head off.

Nora was concerned at first at the fact that he hadn't just shot the robot. He had never said how he had lost almost all of his guns after those team leader internships a week after he had woken up, but he had gotten them all replaced now, and had a spanking new shotgun folded up on the back of his waist now, which was something that she was just so eager to see him use. And yet still, he wasn't.

Then, Nora remembered all of the sighs of relief that had gone off when Professor Port had said that there was no Grimm in the cage, and looked around. A few people were getting jittery, obviously not comfortable to the loud noises, but from the looks of it, were sucking it up and powering through it.

That's when she realised: He was being considerate. A gun going off would create a louder noise than was necessary, and it might trigger a few people, and Jaune-Jaune didn't want to hurt anybody so he resolved to do it the old fashioned way.

Nora smiled. That was why he was their Fearless Leader.

However, it seemed like that kindness was going to be the death of him (Not literally, of course), As the AK-BX lunged forward, almost ripping the shield off of his arm and forcing him onto the ground, grabbing him by the neck with both of its arms and seemingly throttling him.

And that was the match, she guessed. Jaune-Jaune lost. A damn shame, in her opinion. He looked like he was doing really well, and he probably could've surprised them with some incredible new tactic or skill or something. Professor Port guffawed in a jovial manner, and was about to call the match, before-

Jaune-Jaune twitched. From the looks of it, something inside of him snapped.

He slammed his shield into the side of the robot's head, knocking it off of him, he seemed to growl under his helmet as he delivered a kick into the head of the downed AK-BX, and left it lying down on its front.

Nora's smile went wide. He was back for round 2!

Sheathing his blade in his shield, and letting it folding into its sheath, he clipped it to his waist, and brought his 2 electrobatons out and pressed them together, letting them form together into his electrohammer. Nora smiled even more at the sight of another hammer buddy, and then her eyes went wide as she watched it dance with purple electricity.

Shut up, she was just asking for her to be his best friend!

He swung it down, and let it slam against the chest of the droid with a satisfying {THUNK}, purple electricity dancing over and shocking the AK-BX into submission. A few people around her shivered, but she didn't notice as she watched Professor Port laughed again, and went, "Amazing recovery, Mr Arc! Whilst I must say that-"

Jaune-Jaune didn't pay him any attention though, as he swung his hammer down again- {THUNK}- Into the droid, this time drawing droplets of oil to splatter out from its chest, like black blood from a wound.

"Um, Mr Arc. The battle is-"

{THUNK}

He was ignored again as Jaune-Jaune slammed his hammer down for a 3rd time onto the droid, this time an ugly growl leaving his lips underneath his domed helmet as he did.

He then swung his hammer down again.

And again.

And again.

And again-

_Holy shit he's having a fucking flashback!_

Around her, students began to quiver and shake. A few curled up on themselves and began to rock in their seats. Some began to cry. Nora's side started to itch, as did her back, but she ignored it as she jumped up from her seat- Almost knocking Eri off of her lap as she put her on the table- At the same time as Ren, Pyrrha, and Melanie, followed by a few others, and Professor Port made a move to him first to calm him down-

A flutter of rose petals lifted themselves up from a seat below and slowly faded away, like they never existed in the first place.

-But it was the intervention of Ruby Rose wrapping her arms around his stomach and pulling him into a tight hug that cooled him down, "Shh, Jaune, it's okay, it's okay, it's dead... It's dead."

He began to lower his hammer gently, letting it tap on the floor as its purple glow faded away, and his other arm swung uselessly to his side.

"We're not in the Emerald Forest anymore", Ruby half-whispered to him, "We're not around the _Grimm Tidings_ anymore... We're not in the dropship, and we're... And we're not in the warehouse-"

Warehouse? What the hell happened in a warehouse?

"-We're safe... We're safe... We're safe and sound, back in Beacon..."

Jaune's hands began to twitch, his breathing still erratic, "We won?" left his mouth, and through his helmet, in an almost pathetic whimper.

"...Yeah", Ruby breathed out, her voice now just as shaky and broken, "We won..."

Jaune's hammer slipped from his grasp and cluttered against the floor, and he looked around, now back in reality. In the rows of seats, many students had been listening into Ruby's words and had calmed themselves down as well, though some still stayed curled up on themselves.

Beneath them, the AK-BX laid in a crumpled mess, black oil weeping from it and pooling on the ground below it like blood. It's chest was shattered into pieces and caved in, revealing wiring and motors that looked too much like guts and gore for anyone's liking. It's head had been destroyed in a hammer strike, and it's internals and wiring had been scattered on the floor. The thing that used to be a fully functioning robot made one last series of twitches, before it let out a pathetic whine and went limp, the lights in its body going off as it was reduced to nothing more than spare parts.

He must've blinked repeatedly at the sight of the dead droid beneath him, as he then turned to Professor Port and said, "I-I really caused a mess, didn't I?" he paused, then rubbed his armoured side as he then said, "I'm sorry, can I- Can I go, please?"

He left before Professor Port could answer, grabbing his hammer off of the floor and clipping it to his back as he speed-walked out of the classroom. Nobody questioned Melanie when she packed up her notes and quickly followed after him.

The rest of Team JNPER didn't share the same curtesy.

Professor Port held his hands together and looked to the rest of the class apologetically, "Children, I am... Sorry about that. I had forgotten that the wounds of the Emerald Forest are still raw, and... I let myself get carried away with such a pointless gesture."

The students grimaced. At least he was apologising for it.

He looked around, and then said, "Perhaps it would be best if we... Ended the lesson here."

He didn't need to say another word, as the students got up and began to tend to those that were still curled up, soothing them and helping them out of the room, those same students still shaken up themselves. Weiss squawked as Yang practically dragged Ruby out of the room, and squawked again as Blake left, utterly disinterested in the world around her, Leadpipe awkwardly and hesitantly following along behind her.

Up in the rows of seats, Nora took Eri into hand and began to stroke the inactive red and bronze drone, before tugging on Ren's sleeve and gently began to pull him out of the room. Jaune could take care of himself. He was their fearless leader after all. He could take care of anything. She just needed to worry about herself and Ren.

So, she gently pulled him out of the classroom, Eri in hand, and decided to go and see what Voltage was doing.

No one noticed Pyrrha looking on with a sad, scrutinising gaze.

* * *

Yang missed her mane of hair.

She was angry that her hair had been cut. When she had woken up, the doctors had said that they had needed to cut it in order to get to her injuries, like her pierced spinal column, as well as check for head injuries from the crash that she didn't even remember, and then the surgery that allowed her to still walk and control her motor functions.

It didn't stop her from punching out the lead doctor's lights out, though.

Or, at least trying to. Her new cybernetics were still fresh and finicky, meaning that she couldn't properly control her own motor functions that well, leaving her in the care of the doctors at the GVMC.

(She was even angrier after that when they revealed that she would've needed to cut her hair anyways, as when they had performed surgery on her, they had had to remove her entire spinal column just to replace it with a metal one, as well as the metal joints now in her arms and legs that were connected to her new spine, and since her semblance turned her hair violently hot, that would've melted and damaged her metal spine, leaving her limp on the floor and unable to do anything.)

That was when she realised that there was truly something that she really hated. The feeling of powerlessness.

It was a powerlessness that she continued to feel even to this day, this moment. Her 'Teammates' of Team RXOR treated her like glass, like she was fragile, like she wasn't capable of kicking their collective asses on a good day. Razor was always condescending about it in his own way, but Omega and Rancor were a very different kind of beast. They meant well, but fuck, they coddled her. They stifled her, always pampering her and making sure that everything in their room was soft with no sharp edges, always trying to make sure that there was nothing that she could possibly get angry about, always trying to make sure that she was stress free, always putting her on the backburner for fights and telling her to not get too involved in pulling her own weight and shit because they were worried that she might break in 2 or some shit.

It was fucking annoying.

She clenched her fist, and imagined the gears and cybernetic joints in her body shifting at the motion as the purple lights that lined her body glowed a steady lilac shade, the same as the irises in her eyes.

She wondered if the cybernetics in her body made her a Techion now. Probably. She was technically a cyborg now, considering that her spine had been replaced with a mechanical one, and that the metal joints running down her arms and legs and side, and even into her cheeks, had been keeping her nervous system and motor functions alive. She would still be a quadriplegic without these things, in a hospital bed, just wasting away and waiting to die.

She wouldn't be able to move, or even feel, without these things.

Like how she could feel Ruby, her younger half-sister, worm her way out of her tight grasp as they entered into a disused classroom, Yang closing the door behind them as she then tried to make a joke and said, "Heh, er, bring's back memories, doesn't it?"

"Don't- Don't even joke about that, Yang", was Ruby's stuttered reply.

She bit the inside of her lip, and sighed, "Sorry, I- Sorry", she responded with as she folded her arms together and looked at the floor, "Just- Just trying to make light of the situation, is all."

Ruby paused in turn, and then said, "What's up, Yang?"

Yang grimaced internally. Their relationship... Wasn't the best. It was a far cry from the bond that they had had before the fall of Patch, but then, of course, that had happened, and they had been thrown into some half disused orphanage together with the occasional visit from Uncle Qrow, and then that... Mess, that had happened with Iris Marilla happened, and that had destroyed their bond even more, and now...

Now she didn't know what was left of their relationship.

Time to see if there was anything left to salvage.

"Quit your team."

Ruby blinked, "What?"

Yang grimaced for real this time, "Quit your team, Ruby, they don't deserve you. I can try to get you on my team, but, fair warning, Omega and Rancor can be a little coddling but that's not anything that you can't get used to."

She had suspected that Ruby might comment on the double negative, but she didn't, as she then said, 'I-I can't just- I can't quit my team, Yang. I'm a team leader, now. I have-"

"Ruby, your teammates have done nothing but treat you like shit ever since we started!" Yang almost yelled out, "That princess bitch has been abusing you for every little thing-"

"She's not abusing me..."

"She's been hitting you for every little thing that you do! That's abuse!"

Ruby winced, and Yang felt a pang of guilt, but she swallowed it down. She needed to hear this.

"And I know for a fact that that Techion guy had done nothing to stop it, which makes him a bully by association as well, and I've seen that Blake girl even smiling when you get hit by Weiss! SMILING! Like she enjoys it or something!"

Ruby winced again, "They- They're fine, Yang. I just- I just need to be a better team leader, is all. I just need to be a better teammate for them-"

'Ruby, they are abusing you!" she pointed dramatically to the door as if they were there, "They have been doing nothing but taking advantage of you and treating you like a piece of shit for weeks! There's team teething problems, and then there's this!" she rubbed her forehead, and sighed, "I've already made a complaint about it to the headmaster-"

"Yang!"

"Don't pretend like I'm the only one! I know for a fact that 30 other people have made the same complaints to Ozpin, but for some reason, the old fart isn't doing anything about it! Come tomorrow, when we've got our first team exercises, they will abandon you! Those teammates of yours will leave you behind! I know this for a fact!"

"Yang, I don't need you coddling me all of the time!"

"I'm not trying to coddle you! I'm trying to look out for you!"

"I'm not quitting my team!"

"Why not?!"

"You wouldn't- You wouldn't understand..."

"If it's concerning my sister being bullied and beaten down by her own teammates, then I think that it'll be damn well easy to understand!"

"It's too important!"

"What's too important?!"

Ruby paused, and she went still, a look of shock coming over her. It was like she had realised what she was saying. Or possibly, what she was about to reveal, whatever that was.

"...Ruby-"

A split second and a flutter of rose petals later, and her little sister was gone.

"Ruby!" Yang called out as she followed the flurry of fading petals out of the unused classroom, through the suddenly opened door, and into what she thought was an empty hallway, now covered in crimson petals that slowly faded into nothingness.

She winced herself, and tweezed the bridge between her eyes, a tired expression growing across her face as she sighed.

"Dammit..."

She wished Uncle Qrow was still alive. When they had been given the melted remains of his weapon, the Harbinger, Ruby had completely broken down and bawled her eyes out. Yang didn't particularly like Qrow that much, but she knew how much the dusty old crow had meant to her sister, so she wished that he was still alive and kicking, if only for her sister's sake.

That, and he might be able to teach her out to treat and solve these messes.

Behind her, as she leaned against the wall for support, she heard 2 pairs of footsteps approaching her, and, much to her annoyance, she realised that it was Rancor and Omega, as the latter's nasally voice ringing out with, "Hey, we heard an argument. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Omega."

"You sure, because if you're hurt or anything, then we can get you like a neck brace, or a pillow, or-"

"I'm. Fine."

But she really wasn't fine.

* * *

_"Was that really necessary?"_

_"Was what really_ _necessary?"_

_"All of that back there."_

_"The training room."_

_"Yeah. I don't- I don't know much about your style of fighting, but all of that was- It was too much. You're meant to be defeating your opponents, Blake, not humiliating and trying to mutilate them."_

_"Miss Goodwitch told me to fight them, and I did. And I won. What does it matter as to how I did it?"_

_'Because what you did back there was excessive to the highest order. It's called- Dammit, it's called 'Restraint'."_

_"That's not how I used to do it. Back where I come from, we would've called that 'Weakness'."_

_"Where're you from, Vacuo?"_

_"Something like that."_

_"That kind of mentality can't apply here. This isn't Vacuo. This isn't some 'Survival of the fittest' camp, or- Or whatever. This is Beacon. We're training to be Hunters and soldiers. We need to know-"_

_"Are you saying that I should make myself weak? Are you saying that I should weaken myself?"_

_"N-No, I-"_

_"Are you saying that I should accommodate for lesser people just because they're weaker than me? Are you saying that I should make myself vulnerable just so that I can let a few people get a potshot on me and feel better for themselves about it?"_

_"No, I-"_

_"Yeah, that's what I thought."_

_"..."_

_"Let me make this clear to you, Leadpipe: I will not accommodate myself for other people just to make them feel better about themselves. I'm not here to make friends, so don't start acting like I should."_

_"...If that's the case, then why do you let me hang out with you?"_

_"..."_

_"Blake?"_

_"Simple, really: I need a helper, after all."  
_

_"Is that why you don't like it when I hang out with anyone else?"_

_"..."_

Leadpipe broke himself out of his thoughts as he continued to rub a finger along the little metal scar in his arm, his body rocking back and forth and his legs gently kicking over the side of his bed as he continued to sit upwards, waiting for Jaune's turn to be examined and tested in the shared physical therapy session to be finished, so that they could head on over to the gym down below. It was the evening now, and all of their classes were finished, all of them uneventful now, or at least, not as eventful as Port's had been.

Blake... Confused him.

She was a mystery to him. She seemed like she wanted to be a mysterious girl, and yet she carried herself with a self imposed weight above everyone else. She never talked about her past, especially about why she was so insistent on covering up her Faunus ears all of the time, even in the previous pictures that she had seen of her-

When he had been helping Miss Goodwitch to carry some student documents to her office one time, he had decided to take a look at Blake's profile from before she had come to Beacon, and found that even then, she had been wearing that bow over her head to cover her ears. She must've been incredibly shy about it if she sought to cover it up and pass herself off as a human all of the time.

-And he really didn't know why she didn't like him talking to other people (As incredibly rare as that was), Or what kind of a connection that she saw in him to that 'Ilia' girl that she had mentioned back around the Grimm Tidings, though he figured that there definitely must be one if she was so willing to let him hang out with her all of the time. And he definitely didn't know why she was so aggressive and haughty about everything all of the time. Seriously, bring up human and Faunus relations, and she'll start acting like she's the smartest person in the room, and that only her points matter and no one else's.

And also how she seemed to take enjoyment out of the arguments between Weiss and Ruby... That part about her scared him.

The point was that Blake confused him and he didn't like it. However, he just chalked it up to nerves of the new year, as well as the fact that they were, well, at war now, had just survived one of the biggest battles since the First Great War, and had been told, by Headmaster Ozpin, about the existence of an evil witch queen of the Grimm that had been manipulating everything behind the scenes, and was more than likely the person responsible who had triggered the Initiation Massacre and the beginning of the Second Great War.

Salem... He didn't try to think about that too much.

Suppressing an involuntary shudder, he looked over to Velvet, a notepad and pencil in her had, who was now walking over to Jaune, and gesturing for him to take his shirt off, as she then said, "I heard you had an... Well, an episode in class earlier today."

"Er, yeah, it's nothing to worry about", Jaune said as he took his shirt and stuff off, revealing his bare upper body and all of the webbing and scarring that covered it.

Leadpipe felt queasy looking at it, and turned away, surrendering himself to eavesdropping on their conversation.

"Something like that would definitely be something to worry about", Velvet snarked back as she ran a stethoscope over his chest to hear his heart beat, and then, after nodding to herself and writing something down, before turning to Jaune, with a serious expression on her, and going, "You have been going to your therapy sessions, right?"

"Er, yeah."

"Have they been helping?"

"..."

"Jaune?"

He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly after putting his shirt (And stuff) Back on, a nervous tick that Leadpipe had learnt to associate with the guy, "Miss Goodwitch isn't exactly..."

"She's not the most approachable person, Velvet", Melanie said as she continued to read her book, The Myths and Fables of Old Remnant, before poking her head up, and going, "Sorry, Nurse Scarletina, sorry."

Velvet laughed it off, "That's Nurse-in-training Scarletina, thank you very much", before turning back to Jaune, and going, "Sorry about Miss Goodwitch, she's not meant to be the school's therapist. That role used to be for Professor Peach but she's...", she paused.

'She's dead", Melanie finished off for her, before going, "I've heard good things about her. A lot of people were- Are- Sad to see her go."

Velvet nodded, "Me too...", before shaking it off, and then going, "Anyways, could you please lift your leg up?" he complied, allowing her to note something down, before going, "Right, and the other one", he did, "And lower them", he did, "Right, now lift your left arm up... Good, now your right... Good, and now lower them."

He nodded and did just that, flexing his fingers, wrists, toes, and ankles as well.

"Right, all good across the board", Velvet said as she continued to note things down, "Right, well, there's been no change to reaction times, thankfully, which means that nothing has been slowed down or delayed in any significant way. How about your waist, around the areas where you were stabbed? Have there been any changes or recent pains?"

"Just the dull ones, as usual, though I'm still taking painkillers- Paracetamol for those", Jaune replied as he rubbed the side of his waist subconsciously (Leadpipe presumed it to be subconsciously), And continued on with, "In moderation, of course."

"Right, well, remember to keep it that way", Velvet said as she continued to write stuff down onto her notepad, "It's not as unusual as you think for somebody to overdose on painkillers, just to, you know, kill the pain."

Jaune nodded, "Yeah, I've heard."

The door to the infirmary opened up, and Scrapster walked in, accompanied by the head healer in the school, the white and red Techion with a glowing blue visor called Medico, as he patted the member of the self proclaimed (By Skipjack) Constructors on the wheeled shoulder, and said to him, "Well, you've adjusted fine to your new body, and your internal organs have meshed well with the shell around you, so it's safe to say that your teething troubles are over. However, I would advise keeping to these physical therapy sessions for the time being, at lest until we can be certain, understood?" a nod from Scrapster later, and he then waved him off with, "Well in that case, you're good to go. Just make sure to be back here for next session, yeah?"

"Sure thing, doc", Scrapster nodded, before turning to the door, "Thanks", and with that, he was gone.

Medico then turned to Velvet, and said, "Velvet, what's taking so long? You were supposed to have sent these guys out 5 minutes ago", he swept his arm over Leadpipe, Jaune, and Melanie, "Lavender and I have been waiting for you to catch up."

"Ah, just give me a minute, I'm almost done", Velvet said as she finished noting a few more things down after performing a quick strength test on Jaune's arms by having him lift a heavy stack of papers, and then said, "I was just working on a few things beforehand."

"Uh huh, sure."

"I was!"

"Yes, because writing about Cipher's totally broken elbow is surefire work to be doing in an infirmary."

Velvet blushed and sent her boss an angry flustered glare, whilst Jaune and Melanie's eyes widened as Leadpipe turned to her and asked, "Wait, you're... You're Cipher? As in that guy who always writes those stories about us and posts them online?"

"Those fan fiction things?" Jaune continued on with, "You write those?"

Velvet shook her head and then tweezed her nose, "No, I'm not Cipher. I'm his beta. His editor, if you will. He started sending me these scripts and drafts, and I started editing them", she looked between the 3 of them, "You read those."

Leadpipe nodded, as did Melanie absentmindedly, her head still in her book, as Jaune then, with an annoyed grimace on him, said, "Only the parts without me in it... Which is a lot that I don't read of it, I guess."

"Yeah, you do feature a lot in it. I had to tone down some parts of it just to make sure that it wasn't completely about it... Don't like the sound of your own voice?"

"That, and I don't like how he, and by extension you, portrayed me. Seriously, I've been turned into... What's the term? 'Mary Sue'? Yeah, that. I've been turned into a massive Mary Sue. Or Marty Sue, or whatever", he grumbled to himself in annoyance, "And I don't think I can read another sentence where 'Ruby stammered' or 'Neon grinned wildly' or 'Ciel grimly stated' without vomiting, and I think I might've killed myself when he starts talking about my hair as if it were 'Weaved by angels' or something or whatever. And don't even get me started about that extended dream sequence."

Velvet grinned instead of feeling insulted, "You know, you should be grateful. The language that Cipher used to describe you before I started editing it was much more... Flowery, to say the least, and also, a lot more... Sexually charged..."

Jaune's eye twitched, and then, with a groan, he fell backwards, "I hate my life... Why me..."

"...Oh my god."

Jaune shot up and looked to Melanie, "What is it? Have you found something?"

"No, not that, it's just...", she looked up from her book at him with a wide smile, "Do you know what that means?"

"What?"

'With Cipher?"

"What?"

"You, Jaune Arc... Have a fanboy!"

"...What?"

"You have a fanboy, you- Oh my god, Jaune, you- You have a hero worshipper! That's why Cipher writes about you so much! He's hero worshipping you! Oh my god, what if he has a crush on you!?"

"Oh my god!"

Melanie burst out laughing, "This is great! This is amazing!"

"I hate you."

"Bitch, you love me."

He groaned in response.

Velvet, with a smile on her face, sighed at the madness before her, and muttered, "Azul Primus guide me...", and then said to the 3 of them, "Alright, let's get moving down to the gym. We're already burning nightlight as it is, so-"

She was stopped when she saw the serious- Dead serious, in fact- Look coming over Melanie's features as she stared hard into one page of the book in her hand, and then reached over and grabbed Jaune by the shoulder.

"Jaune, follow me."

"Wha-"

"Now, Jaune. With me, now!" and with a cry of, "We'll join you guys in the gym in a few minutes", they were out of the infirmary, and down the dark hallway.

"...I'll go after them", Leadpipe said as he got up from his infirmary bed, and made his way to the door, "I'll see you 2 down there as well."

"Leadpipe, you don't have to", Medico said to him.

This got Leadpipe to hesitate for a second, before he just shrugged and quietly said, "might's well."

"...Alright then", Medico said as they all left the infirmary and locked it behind them, "But be quick about it. Only a few minutes late, got it?" Leadpipe nodded, "Alright then, see you down there", and with that, Medico and Velvet walked down the hallway, and out of sight.

Heading down the opposite side of the hallway, Leadpipe spotted a slightly opened door, and heard voices on the inside, being Jaune and Melanie's. He went to knock on the door to tell them to hurry up, but then stopped himself once he heard what they were talking about.

"-Oever was editing this must've forgotten to take this part out, or overlooked it, because it's still here, and it clearly mentions her name!" there was a harsh sound of a finger tapping against paper, before Melanie's voice rang out again with, "Look here, there it is! The Salem Witch Trials!"

Leadpipe's body froze. His optics under his visor widened, and his mind began to stammer even more than it usually did. They knew. They knew they knew they knew.

This was bad.

"Look here, see. 'Though most of this information can only be found from half destroyed transcripts and records from thousands of years ago, what can be pieced together, is that after the fall of the supposedly called Dark Empire, said to be when the Grimm ruled humanity after the destruction of the fabled Magier Empire, thousands upon thousands of women were rounded up, tried, and executed for supposed relations to, or even suspicions of being, a witch queen of the Grimm called Salem'!"

He remembered the name of the book that she had been reading. The Myths and Fables of Old Remnant.

"Hm", was Jaune's voice this time, "Remember back in the Emerald Forest, when we were in the bunker, before Miltia died... The Brother of Light had mentioned the Mother Eternal. And during the battle around the _Grimm Tidings_ , the Daughter had said something about their 'Empire'."

"Jaune, that's what this is all about", Melanie said, "That must be what this is all about. This Salem lady is the Mother Eternal, and the Daughter and the Ascendant Court are her lackeys! It must be why they're capturing people outside of the walls and not killing them! This isn't about genocide, this is about restoring their empire! They're trying to make a Second Dark Empire!"

He had to get that book away from them. He needed to tell Ozpin, and Blake, and Weiss, and Ruby, and get that book away from them. They didn't deserve the horrors that would come with knowing the truth. It wasn't worth it.

But first, he wrapped on the door, making the 2 within the old classroom that they were in jump, and said to them, "Hey, we've still gotta head down to the gym! Don't be late!"

"R-Right", was Jaune's reply.

"Yeah, we'll see you there soon. We'll just be a minute after you", was Melanie's response.

Leadpipe nodded, mostly himself than to them, and made his way down the hallway, and away from the dark classroom.

They didn't need to know the truth.

Because the truth always had a tendency to hurt.

For now, though, he pushed it out of his head, and focused on the things to come.

Tomorrow, they would be having their team exercises.

And the day after, they would be going on a field trip.

All the way into the Valley of Giants.

* * *

**So, not too long ago, I got a review on this very story from somebody called The Shadow Monarch.**

**What he had said on his review, essentially, was that I had no idea how to write, and that I should seek help, and also either completely rewrite this story or delete it.**

**I was offended. I was definitely offended. I still am offended.**

**However, I can safely say that, no, I will not be rewriting this story, nor will I be deleting it. I have this entire story planned out in my head from beginning to end, and I will not surrender it to the whims of somebody who has the nerve and the absolute gall to tell me that I don't know how to write when they in fact have not written anything at all.**

**However, I do feel the need to talk about a few things that he, and a few other reviewers, have pointed out, because I feel like these need to be said:**

**'Pointless details that don't relate to the characters': You mean** **world building, right? Because I have to tell you, this entire story is one part war fic, and another part experiment in world building. I am trying to create my own unique version of remnant, hence the new editions to the canon of this story, such as the Techions, Dragons, Faunus houses, Cataclysm, pre-Great War history, Coca Wars, and so on, so forth.**

**'Fodder characters': The reason that I'm putting so many minor characters into this is because I want the world that I'm crafting, and the story itself, to feel lived in. Too many stories focus on just Teams RWBY and JNPR, and not even show how any other teams, OC or not, are doing, and so, I had decided to populate my version of Beacon Academy with actual people, and not just faceless generics and people that are covered in shadow. And when a lot of them died in the Emerald Forest, it was to show the human cost of this conflict, and give more impact to the deaths that are shown. Because, in the end, what is more impactful, even if it is only a little bit: The death of a nameless red shirt, or the death of a minor character with a name and even just a little bit of characterisation?**

**'This war just coming out of nowhere': That's the point. It was meant to come out of nowhere. It was meant to be shocking and impactful. Too many stories have done nothing with Initiation. It's always been about shuffling along the teams, and fighting the Deathstalker and Nevermore. Is it so wrong that I wanted to do something different with it? And even then, it was meant to set the tone of the story, being a war fic. That's kind of the point. Almost everything right now stems from the Initiation Massacre. All of the important events going on right now would not have happened without it, so if that upsets you for whatever reason, then this story isn't for you.**

**'Nothing making sense': I assume that this alludes to the things that I have left ambiguous, like character motivations, situations, and other elements. To that, I say: Isn't that the point? If I just revealed everything to you so that it could all make sense, then what would be the point of building intrigue and keeping you invested at all? If I don't reveal a character's reasoning for doing something, or I don't reveal the specifics of a situation or event, so that not everything will make perfect sense, then that's the point. It's meant to keep you interested and wanting more. Not everything is clear, and not everything makes sense, but that's just because all that I have to reveal are massive revelations in terms of story and motivations. Trust me, all will make sense in time, but now, it must remain ambiguous, all for the sake of story buildup.**

**'You don't know how to write, so get help': I started writing this and on this website since 2017, and I've learnt a lot since then. I've improved thanks to the influence of many other, much better writers on this site, and even then, starting in September of 2019, I started taking a university course in Creative Writing, so I am still learning my trade. However, you'll be pleased to know that I started writing this story before I got into university, and even then, when I submitted my portfolio of creative writing pieces, I got a B grade for it, which I am really proud of. So, while I'm not the best, I am not a terrible writer, thank you very much.**

**Am I an amazing writer? Are my stories the best in the world? Evidently not, because if they were, then I would be pulling in review numbers and favourites and follows like Coeur Al'Aran and ImSoAwesome. There are many other stories out there- Grimm Tales, Tournament Arc, Tomorrow And Never Again, and the recently started Frozen Rosen Maiden, just to name a few- That easily dwaft me, and a lot of other writers out there, in sheer quality, but does that make me a bad writer? Does that make what I've written bad, just because a few people can't understand it?**

**I don't think so, and so I shan't think so. It might sound egotistical of me, but I won't think so lowly of myself that I'm the worst writer out there.**

**So please, criticism and commentary is always welcome, but please, don't tell me to rewrite or delete this just because you don't like it. Criticism is welcome, flaming is not.**

**If I have offended anyone in any way, then I'm sorry, but I felt like it was something that had to be said.**

**Anyways, with all of that said and done, leave a (Long and detailed and constructively written) Review, favourite, follow, and I shall see you all next time!**

**Titanmaster117 out!**


	28. Jaunedice part 3: Non Cooperative

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team training exercises finally come to Beacon, and the tensions within the teams finally reach a boiling point.
> 
> Friendships are made and ruined, bonds are broken, and in the Valley of Giants, a splinter faction of the Grimm grows in power...

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Arc Theme:** _[Through The Valley by Shawn James (The Last Of Us 2 trailer edition)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xunZys4VDMQ)_ **  
** **Theme:**[ _Here Come A Thought cover by Anna Wheeler and Geoff Wheeler_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np-VEMW79fA)

* * *

Not too long ago, I learnt that, at the beginning of my career as a member of the military- Even when I had just started off my training as a Huntress and Specialist- I had been shortlisted as a possible member of Team STRQ.

Yes, that Team STRQ, but also not that Team STRQ at the same time.

Before its final dissolution, Team STRQ had not been a regular Hunter team, but a legacy team. Established in the first days of the Hunter system after the Great War, Team STRQ served as the metaphorical A-Bomb for the headmasters of the 4 main Hunter academies. They would pick out the best suited Huntsmen and Huntresses for their purposes- The best of the best- And send them out against the Grimm, bandits, or other threats that are now unknown to us. That the last members of the team before it was dissolved are- Were- Able to fit the acronym perfectly is purely coincidental.

To be shortlisted onto this team was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it would be a privilege to be added to this team, as it would mean that all 4 headmasters of the highest Hunter academies recognised that you were unique amongst your peers- That you were special, that you were skilled, and just plain better than them- And awarded you a team of likeminded and equally skilled individuals to mesh and work with, in order to perform the greatest missions and tasks that the headmasters needed.

On the other hand, the... High mortality rates of this legacy team was well known. I would've joined the 27th iteration of the team had it not been dissolved. To join Team STRQ was to prove that you were not only willing to die for Remnant, but that you were willing to die spectacularly and horribly and violently for it on top of that.

From what I can tell, the last members of Team STRQ, Summer Rose, Taiyang Xiao Long, and Raven and Qrow Branwen (See what I mean about the coincidental names to the acronym?) Had been pulled from different teams early into their first year by Headmaster Ozpin, and had Summer Rose assigned as their leader. Wherever it was because of some inherent skillset for leadership within her or just because Ozpin was giddy about their names fitting the acronym and wanted it to properly work, I cannot be certain. But, nevertheless, Summer Rose was assigned as leader when she had previously been a support member, and the last version of Team STRQ would go on to serve faithfully against the Grimm and other threats to Remnant.

It still remains unclear as to what specific reasons Ozpin had to allow the team, in its final iteration. I, personally, suspect that it has to do with the fact that Team STRQ had gotten too noisy, and was too well known, to be of any further use, and had been disbanded accordingly. Of course, Ozpin would not say himself as to what those reasons were, and you would be hard pressed to find the true reasons for their fracturing from the original members, what with Raven Branwen leading the Bandit Confederation in Anima now, and the other 3 members of the team now all deceased.

Team STRQ was known for their high casualty rates for a reason.

Joke.

That was a joke.

Not funny.

Still though, to know that I was seen as a viable candidate for a place on Team STRQ- To know that I was good enough, so much more than good enough, to stand above my peers for such an honoured position- Fills me with pride.

If only that... Boy that I had been given had seen that.

_**Excerpt from the journal of Winter Schnee** _

* * *

She turned on her Sportify, and pressed the first song that she could find on her playlist. The playlist shuffled itself around into a random order, and she plugged her headphones into her ears.

As soon as the beat started, she started grooving.

_Personal insanity, they gotta like the ally_   
_Turn it up like it's a rally, you're runnin' in while they're countin'_   
_Keepin' score, I got the tally_   
_Knock 'em off with a finale, go!_

Neon smiled wide as she swung her head and danced to the rapid fire beat of the song, shaking her tail and swinging her arms from side to side as her roller blades allowed her to swing and cartwheel across the floor.

_They don't want it here_   
_They don't want it here_   
_They don't want it here_   
_They don't want it here_

_Yeah, but they really do want it here, sweetheart_ , Neon thought to herself as she imagined an adoring crowd before her, watching her intently and cheering with every swing of her hips and every shake of her head.

Neon was hot, and she knew that she was hot, so what was wrong with wanting to flaunt it a little bit?

So, she swung her butt from side to side, showing off her curves and gyrating to the beat, whilst also moving herself as fast as lightning to the fast electronic beat, never missing a single one, because that was her motto, and she would be damned if she stopped now.

_Yeah, now you know I bring the product_   
_You talk about it, I got it_   
_Got the world in, in a pocket, got it good, paralyzing_

Aw, yeah, back to the beat, and here comes...

_They don't want it here_   
_They don't want it here_   
_They don't want it here_   
_They don't want it here_

Yep, there's the hook.

Then, the drop. She fell down to her knees, and slowly began to build herself back up, swinging her upper body and gyrating her hips as she did, eventually getting back up onto her wheeled feet, before-

_They don't want it here_   
_They don't want it here_   
_They don't want it here_   
_They don't want it here_

-Back to the beat, and she flipped herself around and did a summersault through the air, landing on her hand, and then flipping up and onto her roller bladed feet, arching herself back, and spreading her arms in the air to her adoring crowd.

Imaginary crescendo, applause, end of song.

She threw her arms down, and let the next song on her sportify play.

_Oh, it's a setup, it's a setup, it's a setup, there's a_   
_Oh, it's a setup, it's a setup, it's a setup, there's a_

Oh yeah, she could work with this.

_Oh, it's a setup, it's a setup, it's a setup, there's a_   
_(No, no, we won't—won't fall)_   
_Oh, it's a setup, it's a setup, it's a setup, there's a_   
_(No, no, we won't—won't fall)_   
_Oh, it's a setup, it's a setup, it's a setup, there's a_   
_(No, no, we won't—won't fall)_   
_Oh, it's a setup, it's a setup, it's a setup, there's a_   
_(No, no, we won't—won't fall)_

It was a much calmer and more relaxed beat when compared to the last song, which was hyperactive and full of energy. But that didn't mean that this one wasn't energetic itself in its own way, a more focused melody behind it, with almost a sort of symmetry behind its rhythm, if that was the best way to put it. Since it was a lot more grounded and slower paced than the previous song, then that allowed her to put more thought into her movements, making them slower, more methodical.

A sweep of her right leg, and she imagined it tripping up an opponent in a fight. A cartwheel onto her hand, her legs kicking out, and she daydreamed that she had planted it into the throats of her enemies.

And who said that dancing was a redundant skill? Fighting was a form of dancing, anyways.

_Oh, it's a setup, it's a setup, it's a setup_   
_(No, no, we won't—won't fall)_   
_There's a traitor, there's a mole, it's a peacetime, overdose down_   
_(No, no, we won't—won't fall)_   
_Bound to break you, get you beat_   
_(No, no, we won't)_   
_Won't fall, we got to get-_

"Hey, Neon!"

_-underground_

Neon stopped, and pressed pause on her sportify, looking to the door, to see her friends, Flynt Coal, Jolie Kobal, and the, from the looks of it, recently arrived DJ, judging from the look that Flynt was giving the Techion.

"Oh hey guys!" the resident Faunus waved to them, her tail waggling from side to side as she then asked, "How long were you guys there for?" she went to stroke one of her now recently thinned pigtails, a nervous tick that she had developed after the Initiation Massacre.

"Me and Flynt? About 2 minutes", Jolie said, her axe guitar in hand as she gestured a thumb over to DJ and said, "He's only just joined us though, as of 10 seconds ago."

"Hey, I said I was sorry", DJ through up his hands in defence, "I was working, alright."

"On that special project of yours?" Flynt asked, "You ever going to tell us about what that's all about?"

DJ didn't say anything, which was telling enough.

"Any who~!" Neon went as she twirled around in place, spreading her arms (And tail) Wide as she made a showy gesture to herself, and said, "What'd ya think?"

Jolie raised an eyebrow, "Of what?"

"My dancing! Since you've been here watching me for 2 minutes, you must've obviously been mesmerised by it!"

"...Did it need to be so... Sexually charged?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I'm beautiful. And I know that I'm beautiful. And I see no reason to not let everybody know that I'm beautiful."

"Yes, but... Why so sexually charged?"

"I just said."

"Yeah, but it wasn't really an answer."

Neon pouted, but then waved it off with a smile, "Whatevs", and then chirped, "So, what's on the agenda for today? We going to get a good song practice in before we head off to our lessons?" she looked at the clock on the wall quickly. 7:50AM. Plenty of time.

"Yeah, actually", Jolie nodded, "I was actually thinking about that. I was thinking about... Ballroom Blitz. Does that sound good to you?"

Neon's smile widened, "Ah, a classic! Me likes! Let's do this!"

Behind them, DJ nodded, and the 4 of them began to move into their positions in the music room, before Flynt tapped on Neon's shoulder, and said, "Hey."

"Yeah?"

"You know what today is, right?"

Neon shook her head. No, she didn't.

"It's our first team exercises."

Neon's smile wavered, and then fell. Oh yeah, their teams... Her team... Melanie's team.

"...Well", she began with, "I'm sure that our 'Illustrious' leader will have it all handled", the word 'Illustrious' was said with a form of mocking and anger behind it.

In truth, Neon didn't like Melanie. Not at all. She respected her for the powerful semblance that she had behind her, and for the fact that she had killed a freakin' Grimm god around the _Grimm Tidings_ (Which was really fucking awesome!) Back during the Initiation Massacre.

But like her, as a person? As a team leader?

No, Neon couldn't do it. She was too haughty, too arrogant of herself, too demanding and uncompromising, too uncaring as to the wants and needs of her teammates, and unable to give a damn about anyone but herself. And she didn't even follow up on her orders as much as she did resign herself to failure whenever they weren't obeyed.

So yeah, Neon didn't like her.

"You really sure about that?" Flynt asked, to which Neon shook her head.

"It doesn't matter. She won't look out for us, so why should we look out for her?" Neon asked rhetorically as she adjusted a microphone on a stand in front of her.

Besides her, DJ looked down at her, and then looked away. She didn't notice.

"Once we get into the training rooms, it's just us, okay? It's only us", she sighed, remembering the Emerald Forest, the caves underneath, the Grimm Tidings, and everything that happened afterwards, all of the time that they had spent together, and all of the fun that they had had with their new friends.

And yet, her mind always went back to him and her.

"We can't look out for anyone but ourselves", she said, her grip on the microphone tightening as she then said, "It's just us, okay?... It's just us."

This was a promise that she had made to herself when he had found her after the Initiation Massacre, when they had both arrived back in Beacon. When he had sought her out and not demanded anything but her friendship. When he had promised her nothing and demanded from her nothing. When he had come to her for the sole reason of friendship and friendship alone.

It was then, that she knew that she would be with him, her first friend. She knew that she would protect him, as he would protect her. They would look out for each other, they would cling to each other, and they would survive.

(That familiar feeling in her chest nicked her, as it always did when she thought about stuff like this, but she pushed it away. He would be fine. He would always be fine.)

He would be better than the Wolves. He would be better than the Acolytes.

This she promised.

* * *

"Pancakes, or waffles? Pancakes... Or waffles... Hmmmmmmmmm..."

"Nora?"

"Yes, Renny?"

"Why not just pick both? We're holding up the queue."

"Oh, good idea! You are the best Renny! Hey, Mr. Cafeteria person, can I have all of the pancakes and waffles that you've got, please?"

Ren wanted to say that she couldn't have every pancake or waffle in the cafeteria, but then decided against it. He had seen Nora's gargantuan appetite before, and how much she could pack into herself. To try and deny her that would be to try and change the way in which the world spins on its axis: Damn near impossible.

So, he simply resigned himself to watching as Nora tried to haggle the head chef behind the cafeteria counter for all of the waffles and pancakes in the school, before having to settle, with a dejected sigh, for the 2 gargantuan mountains of the fluffy treats that she carried in her arms, both of them practically drowning in syrup, and then moving over to the new friend that she had made in recent memory.

"Voltage!"

"Hey, Nora!"

Voltage, one of the Vultures, a group of Techions that had been split into 2 teams and established themselves to be more soldiers than Hunters. Whilst most of the first year teams seemed to have major teething troubles and issues with cooperation, the Vultures had established themselves as one of the few teams in their first year that were able to function and work together, and not only that, but work well together.

Still, though, they were pretty individualistic for identically built Techions, all of them roughly sharing the same body shell, but covered in their own markings, colour schemes, and modifications, Voltage himself coloured in blue and grey with glowing blue details covering him, and with a pair of electrical pylons sticking out from his back and over his shoulders. The Techion in question had revealed himself to be-

"VOLTAGE!"

"NORA!"

They high-fived and shocked each other with so much electricity that they both collapsed to the floor in smoking piles, before immediately jumping up, somehow getting rid of all of the ash that covered them, and hugging each other (With Nora still holding her mountains of pancakes and waffles) So tightly that it would take a wrench to pry them apart.

-Yeah, that.

Voltage, as it turned out, was pretty much just as hyper as Nora was, and as such, was as much as a bad influence as Nora was, the 2 of them becoming fast friends as they got up to shenanigan after shenanigan.

"Voltage, Voltage, Voltage!"

"What what what what what?!"

"Guess what I got! Guess guess guess guess!"

"What what what what!"

Nora made a dramatic gesture to the mountains of pancakes and waffles that she slammed down onto the table, "BOOM! Pancakes! Waffles! Pancakes and waffles!"

Voltage slapped his hands to the side of his head, "My god, the holy union!"

"I know!" Nora went as she smiled widely, and then grabbed her knife and fork from the table as she licked her lips and went, "Now, let's eat!"

"YEAH!"

And then, after rearing their heads right back-

{SPLAT}

-They slammed their heads into their piles of goodies.

Before Ren could comment on how Voltage couldn't eat anything since he didn't have a mouth, the Techion lifted his head up, and comically began to sob.

"Oh god, I can't eat anything! I DON'T HAVE A MOUTH!"

Well... Took the words right out of Ren's mouth, he did.

"Ymm cmn'n mmt?!" Nora croaked out through a stuffed mouth of pancakes and waffles, before swallowing it all in one go, and then, also comically, bawling her eyes out as she then cried out at him, "That's so sad! How will you be able to enjoy the sweet delicious taste of syrup covered pancakes and waffles without a mouth!?"

"I don't know! Oh god this is a disaster!" Voltage cried out in distress, before flipping the hatch on his faceplate down and taking a sip, through a curly straw attached to a food processor, from his can of nutrient feed that was flavoured like syrup covered pancakes and waffles.

"Oh come here you poor creature!" Nora cried out as she threw her arms wide and-

Ren's eyes widened, "Nora, no, that's a bad idea-"

-Pulled Voltage into a hug.

{BBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ}

A split second later, they were on the ground and recovering from the electric shock that they had both given themselves.

""Ow...""

Ren just looked down at what the student body referred to as 'Those 2 electric dunces', and sighed, "Why do you 2 do this to yourselves?"

""Training.""

"...Come again?"

Nora jumped up first, "We're training!"

Then was Voltage, "Yeah, our electrical endurance!"

"We need to be able to use as much electricity as we can!"

"For our semblances!"

"So we can use them as long as we want!"

"Without shocking ourselves!"

"High-five!"

"Yeah!"

The 2 of them then high-fived, and were instantly shocked and lying on the floor covered in steam and sot.

"...You 2 are unbelievable", Ren muttered to himself with a faint smile for one of them.

The side of Voltage's wrist began to flash green, and, as he got up immediately, he tapped the flashing indicator, and pressed his hand against the side of his head, "'Sup?... Yeah... Yeah, I'm in the cafeteria. I wanted to meet up with Nora... Oh do we? Crap, I totally forgot. Hey, I'll be down there as quick as I can, just a few minutes, okay?... Alright then, thanks. See you there."

Pulling his hand away from his head and quickly cutting off whomever was calling him with a tap of the same wrist, he looked at both Ren and Nora (Who had just picked herself off of the ground as well), And waved apologetically at them.

"Hey, sorry, but I've gotta go. Me and the rest of the Vultures are doing team drills with Skipjack's Constructors, and I can't miss out", Ren and Nora both blinked at that, but Voltage didn't notice this as he then turned around and looked back at them, "Talk to you after our team exercises with Miss Goodwitch, yeah?" and with that, he was off, running down and out of the cafeteria.

The 2 of them bit their lips at the mention of team exercises, but filed it away. Nora went into eating her assortment of treats, and Ren sat next to her with a small book pulled out of his pocket.

Back in the Valerian plains during the Initiation Massacre, he had once defended Jaune's leadership from Blake, meaning that he had confidence in him.

Now though, he wasn't so sure.

He wasn't so sure if Jaune was the best leader for them.

His eyes wandered over to Nora for a brief moment, and then back down to the book that he was pretending to read as he gathered his thoughts.

He knew how inexperienced Jaune was compared to everyone else, just from looking, and that made him worried for Nora. He had seen his combat capabilities and how lacking they were and that made him worried for Nora. He saw how he had had a mental breakdown in the middle of class against that AK-BX and that made him worry for Nora.

He had seen how weak he was, and that made him worry for Nora.

When he had first met her, back when Kuroyuri hadn't fallen, he had sworn to himself that he would help her, and then, when Kuroyuri did eventually fall, he had sworn that he would protect her.

That hadn't changed.

He had seen her almost die in the Emerald Forest, getting run through by the Daughter and having to watch as she barrelled through the Blind Worm and almost got herself killed for it, and had been on the same dropship as her when it had crashed into the airbus and almost killed them all-

(As well as what had happened to her in her past...)

-And now, with everything that had happened, and everything that was most likely going to happen in this new war, he knew that he had to protect her even more.

And he couldn't have her around weak teammates. Not even Eri. Not even Pyrrha. Not even Jaune.

Especially not Jaune.

In all honesty, there was another reason as to why he wasn't discouraging Nora's behaviour as well. Simply put, he liked her company. He liked it when she acted like this. He liked when she acted like herself, and he would be there to make sure that things didn't get too out of hand, and she would be there to remind him that not everything was so bad and miserable and there was still a reason to keep going no matter what.

Some might call all of this selfish, but he and her had been living on the streets for years, and had, not even 2 months ago, survived the bloody beginnings of a new Great War. At this point, he liked to think that he had earned the right to be a little bit selfish.

And so, he sat down with her, and enjoyed the time that he was sharing with her as she chomped away at her food.

And if the 2 of them shared a look that spoke of their need for the other, and the enjoyment of their companionship, neither of them were going to complain.

* * *

Perfection.

Weiss Schnee wasn't this. Not yet. But she would be damned if she wasn't some day.

"Come on, Ciel", she muttered to her bodyguard as they marched down the hallway, her patience very much thin at this point, thanks to her team leader's incompetence. At the end of the hallway, she spotted both Jaune and Melanie talking to each other, Melanie with that accursed book in her hands. The Myths and Fables of Old Remnant, it was called. Weiss Schnee mentally thanked Leadpipe for pointing it out to her and telling her about what he had found out, and what they had found out, but she would never say it to the snivelling coward.

The road to perfection for Weiss Schnee had begun the very same day that she was born, inducted into the Schnee family by right of the blood in her veins. From what she had gathered by her own estimates, the acts which had made her were not that of love between her parents, but of the production of a proper heir, and act that had only ceased when Whitely had been born.

Before, and even after her brother had been born, as the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company and all of its holdings, she had been taught and tutored by the finest teachers that money could buy. Well, actually, no, that wasn't true at all. Her father was rather obsessed with money, so much so that he would never go out of his way to hire the best tutors at all. So long as they got the job done and taught her everything that she should know, then that was fine by him.

But, as she grew older, the lessons got harsher. The tutors stopped coming in (Thankfully), And her father took a personal interest in furthering her education himself. If she was lucky, she could go a day with only a single slap or beating for getting something wrong and daring to not be absolutely perfect. Winter and their butler Klein (Whom was like the true father that she had never had) Had been a momentous help during this time for reminding her that there was still something worth living for (Her mother and brother had been of no help during this time), and the faint memories and recorded history of her grandfather, Nicholas Schnee, had been something that she had clung and clutched to as she grew up.

So, suffice to say, when she had told father that she was going to train as a Huntress in order to honour the legacy of her grandfather (After more than 2 months of sucking up the courage to do so), her father had been livid at her, for even daring to go against his wishes of staying in the Schnee manor and acting like the good little doll that she was, but she had been able to sell it to him in the end (After all, having a representative in the Hunters community to be able to promote Schnee products to was a good investment to make, no?), And she had been given permission to start training.

Of course, this didn't mean that she couldn't stop her tutoring on how to become a proper heiress and member of high society, and so what little free time that she had somehow scrapped up and acquired over the years was swiped out of her hands in order to make room for training and studying. The concept of friends was always entertained by herself, but also always frowned upon. Friends were a distraction from the road to perfection.

Something that Weiss, begrudgingly, but also eventually, agreed with.

Because she would be perfect.

And she would be damned if she wasn't.

Eventually, after years of work and no play, all of it paid off when she was able to defeat the Arma Gigas Geist Grimm that they had sent to challenge her in her final test, which, by now, was but a few months ago. General Ironwood and Winter had wanted her to go to Atlas Academy and study there, and so had her father.

If it had been just the first 2, she might've considered it.

But no, she had decided to go to Beacon. Of course, that had taken a long time to sell to her father as well, but in the end, her growing skills in diplomacy had won her the day, and she had been allowed to go to Beacon.

On the condition of a bodyguard in the form of Ciel Soleli, though. She loathed her father for thinking that she was, after all this time, too weak to be able to defend herself. She could take care of herself, and she didn't need a bodyguard to baby her.

But, in the end, the presence of Ciel was, at the time, but a mild setback, nothing too drastic, on the road to perfection.

A road that had been battered and cracked by the Initiation Massacre and the beginning of the Second Great War, punctuated by the loss of her treasured weapon, Myrtenaster, the departure of her temporary weapon, Flowers Bloom, and the construction of her brand new weapon, a rapier/bow and arrow mecha-shift weapon called the Edelweiss.

Also punctuated by all of the death that she had been surrounded by. The death of Jay and Ruby's brush with it, as well as the crashing of their dropship came to mind.

She supressed a shiver, and stroked her now shortened hair as she walked, almost reaching Jaune and Melanie as she spotted them talking to that hyperactive inventor from down in the Forge and her pet slapdash robot, catching the end of something that the Arc was saying as he went, "-Ow's that fighter project going anyways, Mei?"

"Ah, you mean Project: Titan?" the pink haired girl covered in dirt and grime and swinging a wrench in her hand asked with a smile on her face, "It's going great! I finally got Ozpin to ask Ironwood for the raw materials that I need to make this shindig happen! Me and the boys downstairs-"

"The boys and I", Melanie corrected.

"-Have got 3 down in the works right now, and I know for a fact that Ozpin's shown Ironwood the blueprints, so hopefully it'll all work out!" she slapped the chest of her pet robot, and didn't even blink or look away from the 2 failures of team leaders as the chest plate for the thing fell off and she bolted it back on, "I've been having Paul here and the Constructors working on overtime just to get it all done."

_"~Oh, the movie never ends~It goes on and on and on and on~"_

"Oh, hush you. You don't even do that much."

"Nice", Jaune muttered, none of them noticing Weiss as she cleared her throat in order to get their attention, "Do you think that we can see it soon?"

"Hey, hey, don't be so forward about it, guy!" Mei waved off Jaune's annoyingly flustered expression with a smile, "Relax, Arc boy, I'm kidding. But no, not yet! Not soon, at least. Give it a couple more months, and it'll be popped up and ready to go! At least, it would be if Professor Heliotrope didn't keep kicking me out due to 'Not getting enough sleep in the last 4 days' or something! Bah!" she scowled and crossed her arms, "S'ridiculous…"

"...You should really go get some sleep", Melanie said, "You know, before your brain melts into goo."

"Wha- Even you guys!" the dirty and poorly dressed inventor swung her arms from side to side in frustration, sending dirt and grime everywhere and accidently letting go of her wrench as it flew to the side and-

{CLANG}

-Embedded itself into the head of her pet robot in an almost comical fashion, "I swear, what is this, gang up on Mei Dei day-"

"Ahem!"

The 4 of them finally noticed Weiss standing near them impatiently, her hands at her side as Jaune looked at her with an awkward expression on his face, and Melanie with a confused, but far less pleased expression on hers.

"Er, I'll just... Let you guys talk or fight or whatever it is that you usually do", Mei muttered, before taking hold of the wrench that was now part of her pet robot's head and dragging it along with her by said wrench, "Come on, Paul, let's get you to the recharging pad."

 _"~I want to get back to my City by the bay~Ooh, ooh~"_ , and with that, they were gone.

Weiss scowled at the retreating form of the filthy inventor and her personal droid, "Finally...", she muttered to herself, before turning to the 2 team leaders (If they could be called that), And, with her politest smile, said, "Good morning to you 2, I was just hoping-"

"What do you want, Weiss?"

Weiss blinked. It had been Melanie that had asked that with a less than favourable look on her face.

"I... Beg your pardon-"

"Cut it with the pleasantries", the green eyed and black haired girl said as she pointed a finger to Weiss, "You've never been pleasant with us before, and the fact that you're doing it now means that you want something from us, so spit it out", Jaune looked like he was about to tell Melanie off for her lack of tact, but the girl in question waved it off before he could.

Weiss grit her teeth ever so slightly, but still grit them, hiding it away behind her smile. She... Hadn't been wrong. Weiss had always shot down any attempts by anyone that shouldn't be bothering her with extreme force. These 2 included. Her sudden change in attitude and tone would've thrown those same people off, these 2 included.

Still though, for Melanie to have figured it out so quickly was.. Surprising for the heiress. There must be some manner of intelligence in the brute that stood before her after all.

Ciel took a step forward, protective of her charge, and Melanie shot her a look, "Ciel, don't", Ciel didn't stop though. At least, not until Weiss waved her down and out of the way. At least that was consistent with the Malachite girl: Being unable to control her own teammates. It was just another lapse in judgement that was shown on the part of the headmaster.

"Manners aside", Weiss sighed out as she rubbed her forehead, letting parts of her actual personality show this time, before she then continued on with, "That being said, there is a matter of importance that I would like to discuss with you. You see, there is a book that you have that I would like to borrow. I believe it is called the Myths and Fables of Old Remnant?"

Melanie had a bag to her side. She clutched it tightly in her grip, most likely subconsciously. Ah, so that's where it was.

"And why do you want it?" Melanie asked with a raised eyebrow, eyeing her with obvious suspicion.

 _Because that books contains knowledge and clues about Salem and you're not supposed to know about it_ , Weiss wanted to say, but didn't. There was no need to blabber her knowledge of the queen of the Grimm that she had been taught by Ozpin all for the sake of these 2 dolts.

The truth about Salem, the queen of the Grimm and as old as Remnant itself since the loss of the Brother Gods and the destruction of the moon... Well, it wasn't a truth that everybody needed to know. Ozpin had said that to them, and it was less of a reminder and more of an instruction. Ciel had been the only one that she had told about this- How was a bodyguard supposed to operate efficiently if they didn't know of the dangers that could harm their charge?- But no one else was to know. She had made sure to hammer that into her incompetent team leader's hollow head as much as often.

( _S-L-B-R... Team SLBR... As in Slumber... That would've been such a better name_ , was the stray thought that entered her head. It was one of many.)

"I need it for a project", Weiss replied with.

"What project? We weren't assigned any projects."

"It's a personal project, much like your own."

Melanie narrowed her eyes, and Jaune took on a more cautious stance, the both of them looking at her warily.

"Why do you need a book about fairy tales?"

"Why do you?"

"How's Ruby doing?"

Weiss blinked again. It was a question that was designed to throw her off her balance. She knew this. She was surprised by the intelligence behind the move.

"Ruby is... Fine", she answered after a moment, knowing very well that it was a lie and that Ruby was not fine. She was not okay. She was not good.

She would never be good.

Never be good enough to be her partner.

Ruby was a child that did not deserve the gifts that had been given to her. The title of leadership alone should belong to Weiss herself. Had she not suffered enough over the course of her life to warrant such a position, not to mention the gifts that she had been gifted thanks to the mere shade of her eyes? She was sorry for what had happened to Ruby over the Initiation Massacre, but as she could tell, the girl was emotionally and mentally unfit to be a leader, and Ozpin had made a mistake in making her leader.

She was aware of how cruel she sounded, but she knew for a fact that there was a massive amount of evidence behind her to back up her claim. Ruby Rose, by all extensions, was a mere child compared to the rest of them, and it had nothing to do with her age. If she was wiser, then it wouldn't be a problem. But the matter of the fact was that she acted less like she was 15, and more like she was 7, or even less on top of that. She had no grasp of the responsibilities of leadership, no emotional stability to be able to make any important decisions with a veritable degree of certainty and confidence, was socially awkward and unable to communicate properly with others, and, not only that, had been kicked up into Beacon by 2 years, and had to catch up on so much research and training that she had missed out on, all because of her silver eyes, of which she still had no control or any idea on how to activate and use.

And, to top it all off, Ruby was... She was...

Unwell. Very mentally unwell.

(Weiss was fairly certain that Ruby had some form of autism, though she wasn't sure. That, and autism was more of a way of life than a serious mental illness, so it didn't really have anything in relation to the subject of her being mentally unwell.)

Weiss Schnee wasn't a psychiatrist by any means, but even she could tell that there was something wrong with the young girl, that she was mentally struggling. With what, she didn't know. Was it PTSD? Was it something else? The heiress didn't know. All she knew was that Ruby was very mentally unwell, and as such, unfit to be a leader, if not by pragmatic measures, than surely by moral ones.

(In all honesty, Ozpin's decision to make her the leader reeked of nepotism, but above all else, it reminded her of the manipulation tactics that her father would employ when working. He would always put younger employees in charge of important decisions, and because they were young and inexperienced, they would come to him for advice, and he would be able to influence them and get them to do his bidding through subtle manipulation tactics...

No, no, that was just horrid thinking. Ozpin was a good man. He wouldn't do something as horrid as that...

Right?)

The correct course of action, in Weiss' mind of course, was to replace Ruby with someone that was mentally and emotionally equipped to be able to lead their team, and let Ruby handle the surely already daunting burdens of having skipped over 2 whole years and having the only powers that could put a dent in whatever Salem was planning, without forcing any more responsibilities onto the girl. Now, obviously Blake and Leadpipe were out as options, seeing as Blake's evident maliciousness towards the Schnee heiress was already apparent enough to block that decision from being made, and Leadpipe was already too emotionally frail and in constant need of guidance, so the only real option for the leadership position was Weiss herself. After all, did she not already have the fine intelligence and integrity, not to mention the best style of combat and leadership, out of her whole team? Was she not already superior to them?

Better than Ruby, that was for sure.

In the past, she had been patient with her, sure.

But now?

Now, inside, she was positively fuming at it all. The stupid girl hadn't been removed from her position as team leader yet, and she was refusing to learn anything and was acting like a spoilt, stupid, selfish little brat because of it, and Weiss was positively beginning to see red because of it.

"You sure?" Melanie said Weiss, "Because last time I saw her, she wasn't doing so hot", Weiss was unsure of what that manner of saying meant, but Melanie continued on, "Looked like she was in tears... You know anything about that?" next to her, Jaune took a protective step forwards.

Weiss had seen the look in their eyes before. It was the look that Winter would get when she came into any sort of danger, be it from Grimm or Wolves or Acolytes. Internally, she rolled her eyes. They needed to stop babying Ruby and treat her like an adult. She was a Huntress-in-training, not a defenceless child.

"She's fine, don't worry", Weiss ended the conversation with, before going, "Now, about that book-"

"You can't have it", Melanie hugged her bag tighter.

"Why not?"

"I'm still using it."

"Well I need it", the heiress said indignantly, growing more and more annoyed at every passing moment. How could this girl just deny her what she wanted, just like that? Did she not know who she was? She was Weiss Schnee of the Schnee Dust Company! She would not do with this indignation.

"And we're still using it", Jaune finally added in. Weiss Schnee glared up at him, but was surprised once more to find that he didn't look away.

"Find another book", Melanie said as she turned to walk away, tugging Jaune on the arm as she went.

Weiss gritted her teeth, still trying to keep her cool, "There aren't any other books like that!"

"Sure there are. A lot of them actually", neither of them bothered to look back as Melanie said, "We've got team exercises in a minute, Ciel, so don't be late", she didn't get a response from the bodyguard, "You hear me, Ciel?"

Still no response. Ciel stood to the side impassively.

"...Whatever", and with that, the 2 team leaders were gone, Jaune sparing a glance back, as if to ask something to one of them, but was pulled along by Melanie as they rounded a corner, and were gone from their sight.

Weiss growled, and then dryly said, "Well, that could've gone better", and then looked to her bodyguard, "Ciel."

"Yes ma'am?"

"Get me that book. I don't care how, just get me that book. They can't know the truth about Salem."

"Of course, ma'am."

Weiss nodded in turn, a graceful smile coming over her as she turned and began to walk down the hallway, Ciel in turn. For all of her qualms about having one, sometimes a bodyguard was very useful indeed. Especially when they were on an opposing team and had more loyalty to their charges than to their teams.

She didn't spare a second thought to what she had just said.

Overhead, the voice of Miss Glynda Goodwitch spoke out over the school speaker system, _"Would all first year students please make their way towards the auditorium? The first team exercises will begin shortly."_

* * *

The Vytal Festival.

Originating as a festival that was celebrated every 2 years, the Vytal Festival was created after the Great War 80 years ago, as a celebration for the unity of Remnant and continuation of peace. Every 2 years, a different kingdom would hold the Vytal Festival, and would be responsible for showing off the crown jewel of Remnant for all to see, and reminding everyone of the continuation of safety and security on the planet, and the hope that their arts and culture and prosperity would be enough to make sure that they all continue on, regardless of the Grimm that were knocking at their door.

Or so the propaganda artists may say.

In truth, all that the Vytal Festival could be summed up as was a giant pissing contest between all 4 kingdoms, a way of flexing their own egos and massaging themselves as if they were somehow better than the others. Whenever one of the festivals was held, the kingdom selected to be in charge would go completely extra in their presentations, showing off everything unique about their kingdoms and exaggerating even the smallest things about them so that they might appear somewhat less terrible than they actually are.

Atlas had its military parades, held in a vain and vein attempt to make the people of Remnant remember how 'Great' and 'Glorious' they were, all the while trying to make people forget about Mantle and to remind said kingdom, whom they considered the lower class, that they lived under the barrel of a gun.

Vacuo had its death metal music and survivalist mantras, showing off its hardened warriors and preaching their doctrine of survival of the fittest, reminding everyone that if you could survive in Vacuo, then you were welcome in Vacuo, disregarding the amount of people who lived in the kingdom that hated and resented the other kingdoms for their ways and wished for all of the newcomers to just forget the past and move on, whilst also forgetting their own hypocrisy in wanting to go back to the old ways of Vacuo, and by that was meant the old old ways.

Mistral had its many arts and crafts and cultural delicacies, showing off its theatres and productions, all the while trying to forget that they had the biggest criminal underworld on Remnant, and if they weren't too careful, then their neighbours on Anima, the Bandit Confederation, would just knock on their doors and tear it all down, just for the sake of it.

And Vale...

Existed.

Not much else to add onto that.

Hell, back in the day, before the Faunus Rights Revolution, most people couldn't celebrate the Vytal Festival. Only the highest classes of Remnant would be allowed that luxury, as they forced their Faunus and human slaves to recite poems and act and dance and run and pleasure them throughout the day, and recite their thanks and sayings of gratitude to their captors, and be rewarded with trinkets and work tools for their efforts. The rest of Remnant would be forced to do nothing throughout the entirety of the day, as to not attract and incite the wrath of the Grimm, as was said, whereas in truth the higher classes got greedy, and wanted all of the arts and culture of Remnant to themselves. It was only after the Colour Revolution and the Faunus Rights Revolution that the Vytal Festival was proclaimed as a widely known holiday, and celebrated by all of Remnant.

However, it wasn't the stands or the parades or the parties of the Vytal Festival that attracted so many people to it like moths to a flame, no.

It was the Hunters' tournament.

A Hunters' tournament that, in light of the recent events of the world, should've been cancelled, along with the rest of the Vytal Festival.

So when, in the middle of the auditorium, Miss Goodwitch announced to the assembled throng of first years, around 200 strong, sitting up in the stands above that the Vytal Festival and tournament would still be taking place, suffice to say there were many people questioning this move.

Next to Leadpipe, Skipjack raised an iron claw in question, "Is that wise, Miss? I mean, isn't the Vytal Festival a huge drain on resources and time? We should be focusing our efforts on fighting the Grimm and the Ascendant Court, not throwing showy parades and performing spectacles", nearby, many of their peers nodded their heads in agreement.

"I am aware", Miss Goodwitch said, and many students blinked in surprise at this, but cooled themselves and allowed her to continue on, "But, in times like these, when we are now at war with an enemy that we don't fully understand, symbols of hope, just like the Vytal Festival, are more important now than ever."

Up in his seat, Leadpipe watched the professor adjust her glasses, and looked around to see many students- Mostly team leaders- Peering thoughtfully down at her, most likely running their own calculations in their heads.

"It is both an inspirational concern and a moral one", Miss Goodwitch continued with, "The Vytal Festival is a symbol of unity between the kingdoms. It is a symbol of shared strength and cooperation. And in these trying times, a symbol of comradery between the people, between man and woman between all 4 kingdoms, is needed now more than ever. The people of Remnant need something to draw inspiration from, to draw hope from, and the Vytal Festival is that."

Leadpipe looked around, gauging everyone else's reactions. There were still many who were sceptical of it all, and those whom were unable to accept Miss Goodwitch's explanation. Luckily, she continued on.

"As for the moral reason, it is also a symbol of familiarity. The world has been thrown into uncertainty thanks to the declaration of the Second Great War by the councils-"

 _A purely political move_ , Leadpipe thought to himself. He didn't follow politics that much, but he knew that the announcement of the Second Great War against the Grimm was mostly politically based. He wasn't sure about why the councils had decided to make such a move, but he imagined that it gave the people of Remnant a proper target to aim their hatred towards, and helped to stir up patriotic fervour of something, as if they were implying that mankind was never at war to begin with for some reason.

"-And the people of Remnant- Those that we protect- Need something familiar to be able to grasp onto. The Vytal Festival is that as well. They need something to help uplift their spirits and remind themselves that not all is lost, for if they feel that it is, then the Grimm have already won."

In both a figurative sense and a literal. Grimm thrived on negativity after all. Leadpipe was starting to see the reasoning behind it, but that still didn't mean that he had to agree with it, and by the looks of it, so did a lot of other people.

Down below, their teacher sighed, "It is not a move that I agree with", that did little to assure the students above, "But it is the council's wishes."

Ah, so it is a political move after all.

Leadpipe hated politics.

"But in order to attend the Vytal Festival, and survive out in the wild against the Grimm, you must be able to work together with your teams", Miss Goodwitch said as she pulled out a scroll, a list of team names appearing on the holographic board above, "Teams are the backbone of a good Hunter. They are the people that you must learn to rely upon and trust in order to live and thrice outside the walls and against the Grimm. This is a more important lesson than ever against the new Grimm that we face."

At the mention of teams, Leadpipe began to rub the metal scar on his arm.

"So now, we must begin our first team exercises", Miss Goodwitch said, "You have all had more than a month to practice and train with each other, so I expect you all to be able to work together properly-"

Most of the people in the room began to look away, rub their arms, or shake their heads in disappointment.

"-That being said", she scanned the room, looking at how almost no one was sitting with their teammates, Leadpipe noticed, "Let us move onto our first match of the day."

The holographic screen flickered, and the first 2 teams to be matched up against each other was shown.

"Team VAKY-"

"Woohoo!" Nora Valkyrie cheered from up in the stands.

"-And Team RXOR", Miss Goodwitch noted on her scroll and on the screen, "Please make your way down here."

From different corners of the room, 8 people began to move down to the entranceway in the corner. Leadpipe looked down and noted how displeased Miss Goodwitch looked about it.

He was not looking forward to this at all. With all of the sudden noises and flashes and bangs and woops and all sorts of stuff, he really wasn't looking forward to this at all. Oh how he would love to be at Beacon's chicken coop right now, letting the chickens eat their feed out of his metal hand, but no, here he was, having to worry about loud noises that might shock him and-

He felt something tap against his shoulder, not too hard but not too softly. He looked to the upper left, where Scrapster was sitting and looking down at him, and would've glared if his visor had allowed him too, "Sorry", Scrapster said, "I forgot how much you didn't like being touched", he crossed his arms together and leaned forward, "Seriously, though, are you going to be alright, dude? You're rocking in your seat."

Leadpipe stopped, and realised that he had been. He gripped the sides of his chair as a response.

"If you need to leave, Leadpipe, then it's fine", next to him, Skipjack nodded in consideration, whilst next to the Constructor leader, Steam nodded as well as he patted his pet robot bird, Hammer, on the head, "I can tell Miss Goodwitch that you need a moment outside, and-"

"It's fine, it's fine", Leadpipe waved away his concerns, "I'll be fine", _I think_ , was left in his head.

"Do your, er... Do your teammates know?" Skipjack began with, "You know, about your autism?"

Leadpipe shook his head quickly as he went back to rocking on his seat, and then looked up in thought, and commented, "I think Blake knows. She's definitely figured it out. The others, I'm not so sure. I haven't told Ruby or Weiss about it. I don't...", he stopped, and looked down to his feet, "Yeah..."

"You know that you've got to tell them one day", Skipjack said, "I mean, whenever you're ready to, of course, but still, you need to tell them one day."

"I know", Leadpipe said as the first 2 teams appeared down below, readying their weapons and moving into battle positions against each other. His response to Skipjack was a lie in that he didn't actually know. At least, he didn't actually know what to say to his teammates. Suffice to say, he trusted Blake more than the others, and even then, Blake wasn't exactly the nicest person out there, what with her refusal to work or trust others in any way, so that kind of hampered things.

Leadpipe resolved to, as always, shove that subject into the back of her mind and promise himself to cross that bridge when he got there. Looking down, he finally noticed that Miss Goodwitch was calling for the match to begin. Who knows, maybe this won't turn into a mindless scrum.

* * *

The fight had turned into a mindless scrum.

On Team RXOR's side, their team leader, Razor Azure, had gone ahead without them, not even bothering to talk to his teammates as he pulled out his rifle and fired on the opposite team, whilst behind them, Yang Xiao Long was too distracted by Weiss harshly reprimanding Ruby in the stands above to notice the bulky armoured bodies of Omega Galahad and Rancor Sierra moving in front of her to shield her from harm, which eventually got her attention and made her angry as she then summersaulted over them and tried to get into the fight, which only got her into an argument with her overprotective teammates as she dodged a wild swing from one of her opponents.

Team VAKY was hardly any better, though. At least their leader, a girl in a pink dress with an umbrella by the name of Vi Maru, was making an effort into trying to get her team organised and working together, but no one else was willing to listen to her. The mute girl dressed in black and red called Akuma Nile had drawn out her red and black sword and gone for an attack against Razor, launching the 2 of them into a chaotic duel, whilst nearby, the lion Faunus, dressed in a black bra and shorts and with lion claws as her Faunus attribute, known as Leo Keith tried to rush Yang, but was blocked by Omega as their argument continued on, and the small Faunus girl with mouse ears called Mini Yukari was reduced to taking pot shots at the Team RXOR's resident juggernauts with her energy daggers.

Miss Goodwitch called off the match before a clear winner could be found.

"Unacceptable", she said as the 2 teams picked themselves up and clumped into a group together, "I expected you all to act like a team. You are in teams, let me remind you, and yet I see you all acting like incompetent children!"

Leadpipe wanted to remind her that they technically were still children, but bit it down.

"You have shown no coordination, no teamwork, not even an attempt to try and work together to defeat your opponents!" she looked down to Razor, "Mr Azure, you showed no attempts to even try and work with your team or even lead them, and you have shown a want to recklessly charge in head first! You were taught better in our leadership classes than that!" Razor, for his part, didn't flinch one iota. She then turned to Vi, "Miss Maru, while I must commend you for your attempts to at least try and coordinate the rest of your team, you showed little confidence in yourself, nor any ability to be able to back up your orders. You are a team leader, now, and you must be able to manage your team, less everyone is lost", she didn't need to add on that part, but she did anyways, and Vi, for her own part, just looked down at the floor and winced.

Miss Goodwitch had a reputation for not mincing her words.

"Let this serve as a lesson for the rest of you", Miss Goodwitch said to the rest of the first years gathered above, the professor not noticing how stereotypically evil what she said just sounded as she continued on with, "As Hunters, you are expected to work as a team, and I do not wish to see such poor conduct on my ring again", she turned to the 2 teams below, "Teams RXOR and VAKY are to serve with me in detention on how to function as a unit", she turned back to the crowds, "Any other team that does not show any sense of unity between them, such as the 2 down here with me, will be joining me as well."

Leadpipe sighed and rubbed his ruby red visor. He didn't have any other plans tonight anyways.

From the sounds of it, neither did everybody else.

"Now then, Teams RXOR and VAKY, go change and sit back upstairs, and see me after class", Miss Goodwitch said, and as the 2 lots of people, shuffling into separates and pairs, moved out of the room, the holographic screen above flickered and changed once again, and she called out, "Next up, Team JNPR and Team TEAL."

On their side of the room, the 4 members of Team TEAL- Lavender Nera, Sora Auburn, Esper Fyre, and their leader, Matera Teale, or Tusks, as was his nickname, all got up, and made their way through the exit on their side of the auditorium stands and towards the changing rooms, Esper throwing fiery glances all around. TEAL hadn't exactly been very stable as a team, finding hard common ground to be able to work together (Mostly because of Esper, though. The girl had a temper the size of the Heaven's Reach before it toppled over during the Great War).

From the looks of it, the same could be said about Team JNPR- Or JNPER, as Nora liked to put it, accommodating for their little drone by the name of Eri- As they slinked their way through the crowds in singles and a pair, and through the door on the opposite side.

Everyone around him was whispering. The one who had led them through the Initiation Massacre was about to show off their prowess. They were all excited to see how he would all surprise them now.

(Somewhere near him, someone had started to furiously scribble down notes. He didn't know who, but he could only hear it.)

leadpipe was less excited.

He was still feeling guilty about telling his team about the book that Jaune and Melanie had the night before.

Had he done the right thing? Could the 2 of them really not know anything about Salem? Would it really hurt for them not too? Would it really be a danger to just let a few more people know about the world ending threat that they faced?

These were questions that Leadpipe had been wondering over ever since he had snitched on them, and even if he truly was in the right about it, he doubted that it would make him feel any less guilty about it.

He leaned forwards in his chair, and like before, he pushed those thoughts out of his head. Down below, he could see the empty aura counts for both teams, and wondered how they would do.

Hopefully better than he could ever hope for.

(Nearby, DJ, now late, finally stumbled into the room, and the 2 Vulture twins, Toil and Trouble, looked at him, with Toil asking, "Where the hell have you been? The lesson's already started."

"I've been working."

"Working on what?" Trouble asked.

"Just- Just working.")

* * *

"Okay guys, we need a plan", Jaune said as he assembled by the exit along with the rest of his team, noticing how Ren, dressed in his new battle gear, had extra armour covering his legs with what looked like micro-thrusters in them, and then continued on, "I've studied alongside Tusks, and I know that he always favours the direct approach to a problem. If we lure him away from his team, we can-"

"Ah, relax, Jaune-Jaune!" to his side, he saw Nora, and...

Holy baloney those were some big stonking cannons on her back.

Indeed, past the glowing pink and blue of her outfit, past all of the metal armour and Viking fur jacket, 2 massive cannons, glowing pink along the side and blue at the tips of the barrels, were attached to her back, rising up above her head and looming over her. She looked more like a walking tank than a Huntress. It was only then that he noticed the arm guns strapped to her lower arms as well, connected right into the armour.

"I alone have got enough firepower to make a horde of Beowolves look like they're made of butter!" Nora continued on as her helmet formed in place, the tiny metal arms around her neck connecting the sides of her faceplate and visor to her face as her helmet formed around her, antenna sticking out from both sides of her head and poking upwards, "Trust me, I'll unload on all of them, and blow them all away!" she threw up her arms up in the air for show, and almost thwacked him in the head with her Magnhild hammer.

"What, no, Nora, he has a- Tusks has a bubble shield semblance, remember? We saw it in action in the Emerald Forest bunker!" Jaune called out to her as she began to walk off ahead of him, Ren in tow, "Guys, he'll just tank everything that you've-"

"Relax, Jaune-Jaune, your Weirdo Club president ain't yet met thing I can't break!" Nora called back, as Ren followed her along, sparing him one last glance before standing by the entrance, and going, "Get up here already! We here to put on a show, and I'd hate to disappoint our audience!"

"Dammit, you guys, we need an actual plan!" Jaune said as he finished hooking on the last of his guns to his armour and sheathed one of the knives into his shoulder plate, "We can't just-", he paused to pick up his sword and shield, folding the latter out and clasping the former in a steady grip, "We can't just rush in and-"

"I'll take them out."

Jaune looked to Pyrrha, "What, on a date or with a sniper rifle?" he deadpanned.

"I'm a tournament fighter. Fights like this are where I'm in my element. I've taken on the equivalent of fourth years and come out on top", she said, Eri floating nearby and shaking her glowing green optic at Pyrrha, but this was ignored by her master as she continued on, "I'll cut them all down. Just stay behind me and I'll keep you safe."

"What?" Jaune said, annoyed at the blatant displays of mutiny from his teammates, before he then shook his head and asked, "Pyrrha, how much sleep have you gotten?"

Pyrrha looked to him and tilted her head in confusion.

"Okay, allow me to rephrase: How much rest have you gotten?"

She blinked, and then shook her head, "I don't need rest."

"Yeah you do."

"I need to get stronger. I need to-"

"Is this about what happened in the Emerald Forest?"

"...No... Yes... Part of it."

"Then what's the rest of it?"

"Stay behind me, Jaune", Pyrrha ended their short conversation with, "I'll keep you safe."

Jaune wasn't done, though, "Pyrrha, you are running yourself ragged", he gestured to the harsh black bags under her eyes, and the paling of her skin, "I can tell that you're skipping meals and cutting sleep just from looking at you, and it's perfectly clear that you're not thinking straight because of it!"

"I don't need rest, Jaune. I'm fine."

"No you're not."

"Jaune, I'm-"

"Pyrrha, will you please just-"

"Enough."

Jaune stopped, surprised at the growl that came out of Pyrrha's mouth, as was everybody else.

Pyrrha held a cold look at him, before softening, "I'm sorry", she muttered, before allowing her shield to spiral out and form on her arm, and putting on her helmet, the T shaped visor flickering to green life as she then folded out her double bladed spear, and said to him, "Just stick behind me, Jaune. I won't let anything get to you."

He paused. When he had met Pyrrha, before and after the Initiation Massacre, she had been polite and cordial, and just a nice person all around. But now... Now she was, well, this.

What had changed between then and now, and why?

Jaune's eyebrow twitched, but then he just sighed, and, sword still in hand, put his helmet on, "Can we please try and figure out a plan? Tusks and his team are as, well, as disorganised as we are, and we can use that to our advantage. So can we please-", Pyrrha had already walked off towards the entrance, leaving him and Eri behind, "...Fine... We'll figure it out on the go."

Next to him, Eri gently tapped the side of his helmet with one of her 4 manipulator arms. Under his helmet, he smiled. At least someone was willing to listen.

"Thanks, Eri", he nodded to her, earning a respecting beep from the red and bronze drone, as he then said to her, "I need you in the air and out of the way, Eri. Sora Auburn has that electricity semblance, remember. It might short-circuit you if you get too close, so I need you to keep your distance. Can you please do that?"

Eri then tilted in place, and then gave a glance from him to his master, Pyrrha, and the others, before turning her attention back to him.

He sighed again, "Pyrrha can look after herself, I'm sure. Can you?" it was a genuine question, not meant with any malice or mocking behind it. Thankfully, Eri understood that, and nodded her head after a hesitant moment, "If things get too intense for you, get to a safe range and start peppering them. I'd rather not loose you in any way."

Eri nodded again, and then gave a comical salute to him in return, beeping 2 times as if to say 'Yes sir'.

Jaune laughed again, his spirits raised, "Thanks, Eri", he repeated to her.

And with that, he and Eri made his way to the entrance, and out into the auditorium, spotting Team TEAL on the other side of the wide ring in the middle of the massive room as Jaune returned a friendly wave that the hulking form of Tusks had given him. He saw the raised stage up above, and noted that that would be where Miss Goodwitch would be observing them.

His mind drifted back to when he had first arrived in Beacon and been led towards this place by Neon, with Ruby in tow, and then forwards to when he had been selected as leader of officially Team JNPR and unofficially Team JNPER. It had been only more than a month ago, but considering how their team was then, and what it was now, it was a strange, and honestly saddening change.

He looked up at the screen, and saw all of their faces, both his team and Tusks', right next to once empty bars, now filled up with the count of their aura, in a colour gradient from red to yellow to green.

(Like everybody else, he dismissed the brief flicker of the screen, where it had shown him with 2 aura bars instead of one, as a glitch.)

He looked at the pictures of their faces on the screen, and noticed that they were using their pre-Initiation Massacre photos that they had added onto the transcripts that they had sent in, and not their pictures afterwards. He could tell because Pyrrha's picture didn't have the scar on her face, still had her longer hair tied up in a ponytail, and was much healthier and happier looking.

He scanned his eyes over his own picture, and noticed how less worn he looked. How much more childishly nervous and timid and naïve he looked. It was a disturbing contrast.

His eyes drifted over to Miss Goodwitch on the stage above, as she spoke into the microphone, and said, "Now then, you all know the rules, but for clarity's sake, allow me to reiterate: This sparring session is following tournament rules only, so no foul play, and no serious harm is to be done to your opponent. Once your aura count drops to the yellow, then you are out. And please, remember to work together as a team, or you will be joining me afterwards for extra lessons on teamwork, understood?"

There were nods from the gathered students down below, and up above, Jaune could see almost all of the other first years looking down intently (He couldn't see where Blake was, though. Hm...). He gave them a hesitant wave of his own, and many of them waved back. He didn't know what he'd done to deserve this kind of attention from them, but he knew damn well that he was going to disappoint them.

"Everyone into positions", Miss Goodwitch said. Ahead of him, he could see blue light shining from Esper Fyre's mouth, and a feral grin grew on her face. He instinctively took a step back. Miss Goofwitch continued, "Now, begi-"

From Team TEAL's side, the dragon Faunus known as Esper charged forward, blue fire belching from her mouth in a blinding torrent, sucking up all of the oxygen around it.

From Team JNPR's side, Pyrrha shot forward as well, as the cannons on Nora's back arched down and charged up.

Pyrrha weaved under the blue stream of fire, and behind them, Tusks activated his bubble shield semblance just as the cannons on Nora's back roared, and twin blue blasts slammed into the middle of the ring and-

{BOOM}

-Kicked off a giant explosion that almost launched everyone out of the ring, and kicked up a giant dust cloud that flooded the entire room, almost blinding everyone. Up in the stands, Jaune could hear other peers coughing and wheezing from the smoke and dirt.

Jaune had a feeling that there was a strategy behind Nora's move. Create a cloud of dirt and smoke and blind her opponents, and then move in for the kill whilst they were blinded. Of course, Nora could've just created that explosion because she wanted to, and he was just thinking a little too much into it, but he liked to think that there was a method behind the madness.

The entire ring fell into pandemonium afterwards. Esper began to grapple with Ren and Nora at the same time, belching out a fireball at him that almost hit the crowd above had it not been a few feet higher (It hit the wall below instead), All the while laughing and throwing fireballs around with reckless abandon.

Meanwhile, Pyrrha had moved onto fighting Lavender and Sora at the same time as well. From what Jaune had heard many times from Weiss Schnee before, Pyrrha had been one of the best tournament fighters in the business, and possibly even on the planet from what he had been told (Though since he had been told this by a condescending Weiss Schnee many a times, he was inclined to take it all with a grain of salt).

And yet, from what he could see, she seemed to be sluggish. Her moves weren't as fluid and controlled as when he had seen her during the Initiation Massacre. She was slowing down, and her breathing was becoming more and more laboured, so much so that her 2 opponents could keep up with her and keep her on her guard. She was tired, drained, and it showed.

However, all of this meant that he was left with the lumbering power suit wearing Tusks, and after dropping his bubble shield, charged him and slammed his axe into the ground as Jaune quickly jumped backwards, dodging another swing from Tusks as the walrus Faunus opened up the sides of his shoulders, and a series of pure blue streaks of energy in the forms of hard light missiles shot out and impacted with the world around him, forcing him to tank it with his aura, armour, and shield, and also barrel roll and dodge as much of it as he could, before himself charging forwards, sheathing his sword into his shield and pulling out the folded up shotgun from the back of his waist, unfolding it and-

An invisible force grabbed the back of his armour, and then a hand pushed him behind someone. Pyrrha. She took a defensive stance that was slightly wobbly in front of her, and said, "Stay back, Jaune! I'll handle this!" nearby, Sora had moved on to trying to help Esper fight Ren and Nora, only for one of his tentacle limbs to be burnt by a stray fireball, and nearby, Lavender was reduced to trying to take pot shots at Eri from below, aiming her black staff up above and letting a green stream of lightning flood out into the roof as she weaved it around to try and hit the drone.

"Wait, Pyrrha, we need to work together on this!" Jaune began to protest, "If we both try to-"

"I said stay back!"

"Pyrrha, why won't you just-"

That was the last straw for Pyrrha, it seemed.

A black force covered his armour, and an invisible force threw him to the side, the boy in question grunting at the sudden impact as he slid across the training room floor.

That was the last straw for Miss Goodwitch as well, it seemed.

The bell near them rang, and the screen above them called for the match for end. Jaune, as he picked himself up, realised that the 7 others around him were looking around confused, and a few of them even looked a bit miffed at the match being called off.

Up above, he could see everyone looking down with varying looks of surprise and sympathy. One of the students, a girl with blue skin and a water apparatus attached to her by the name of Aqua, rubbed the back of her head awkwardly, and looked away. Ruby and Melanie looked down with worried looks on their faces, and the latter took a moment to glare at his teammates.

Underneath his helmet, he winced. This was not going like he wanted at all.

Nearby, he could hear the clacking of feet. Miss Goodwitch, it seemed, was finally making herself known once again, "Teamwork, I said. I expected you all to display teamwork, and yet I find this", almost all of the students in the ring winced. Esper was the only one that didn't. Miss Goodwitch continued, "The match is over", Pyrrha looked like she was about to protest, "The match is over, Miss Nikos. All of you will joining me after class, understood?"

They all nodded silently. Pyrrha looked down to Jaune, and then her shoulders slumped down. He couldn't make out what expression was on her face underneath that, but he didn't have long to think about it as Miss Goodwitch dismissed them, allowing Pyrrha to walk off-

(Jaune thought he heard her mutter something about a debt.)

-Nora and Ren following shortly after in a pair behind her, and Eri looking between them, before, with a shudder of her frame, choosing to follow her master. Jaune didn't blame her.

He picked himself off of the ground, and gave another wave- This time one of goodbye- To Tusks, who gave him one in return as his team walked off in the opposite direction, divided into singles. With one last sigh, he turned back to where he had come from, and began to walk off.

Behind him, Miss Goodwitch called out, "Next up, Teams RSBL and MNCC."

He stopped in place, and watched as Weiss dragged Ruby away to their side of the auditorium up above, followed by their other 2 teammates, and Melanie throwing a glare Weiss' way before marching after her now departed teammates as well.

He looked to the side of the main entrance, and decided to lean against the wall and wait for whoever was coming out of the changing rooms on his side. Whomever it was, he could have a quick talk with them when they were marching out and back.

No one from his team came back for him.

* * *

"Alright guys, this is our first outing as a team, official or not, so I need you all to listen", Melanie said as she finished moving her hair to hide the scar on her forehead, and moved to putting her finger talons and knuckleduster bracelets. She tapped the floor with her bladed heel boots to catch their attention, "Look, their team is mangled and divided, and they don't listen to Ruby. We can use this. I'll take out Blake, Neon, you're a speedster like Ruby, so you focus on her, Flynt, you're a heavy hitter so you take on Leadpipe, and Ciel, you deal with Weiss. Understood?"

The rest of her team looked on in silence.

"I said, understood?"

"Flynt can wipe their entire team by cloning himself and blowing on his trumpet", Neon said to her, gesturing to a nodding Flynt as she then said, "Why not just have him take them all out with a single note?"

"That won't work", at least, it probably wouldn't. They had had spars before, and people had seen Flynt's semblance and move sets. Learnt of them and learnt from them. Without a doubt, they would move to incapacitate Flynt first and knock out his semblance, so she needed to use it sparingly, and since he had a cross between a Targetmaster and a Powermaster semblance, he would most likely be the biggest threat. And also the best weapon to take on a Techion, whom were renown for their ability to tank a lot of damage, like the one on Ruby's team indeed.

Melanie herself would be the next biggest threat, despite her being so low on the fighting skill tree, thanks to her semblance's- Classified recently as a Powermaster type- self-destructive nature. She was the team leader, and as such the driving force behind their team's success, considering that she was the one making all of the decisions for them. She would naturally be the next target to hit. But, even with her handicap, she could naturally power through anything that that Blake girl on Ruby's team could deal to her, and take out the ninja-like girl.

Then, would be Neon, who, with her Targetmaster semblance, could run circles around them all, the same as Ruby, so assigning her to take on their foe's team leader would be beneficial to them because Neon would be the only one on their team who could keep pace with her and possibly outrun her.

Ciel was... Unpredictable. She didn't know what her semblance was, or any of her capabilities, but she knew that her unofficial partnership with Weiss was hampering and handicapping her. If she was forced to fight against Weiss in a spar, then she would lose because of any self-imposed limitations that she had forced onto herself. So, she needed to get used to fighting against Weiss in spars, and get it into that head of hers that she was on a team now and not on a mission for somebody else. Sending her off to fight her boss in a spar would do just that, regardless of wherever she won or lost.

"And how do you know?"

"Because I do, okay?" Melanie said to her. She didn't see the need to explain her reasoning to her, "Just follow your orders, alright?"

"You haven't given us a good reason to do so", and there was Ciel, with them for once, finally saying something after gods' know how long.

"Here's a good reason, Ciel: I'm the team leader, you're not. Understand?"

Again, silence. And then, they walked off towards the entrance.

"Hey, at least answer me!" but they didn't, and left Melanie all to herself, "If you've got a problem, then just fucking say it! Don't just ignore me!"

But they did, and Melanie growled in annoyance, before marching up through to the entrance-

(Miss Goodwitch frowned at Melanie's treatment of her team, and their subsequent treatment of her as she peered down into the entranceway that they were coming through, and the loud words that were being thrown around. She was running them like a drill sergeant, always expecting them to listen to her without question, and they were refusing to talk to her, so much so that they weren't even explaining what was wrong with her leadership.

She sighed, already knowing that they had found something in a book not too long ago, from what Weiss had told her and Ozpin, meaning that she and Jaune knew something about Salem. And now, they were going up against Ozpin's team of chosen champions, who definitely knew about Salem. At least, as much as Ozpin had told them.

The selection of these 2 teams had been random. A computer generated selection set to randomly choose teams to fight against each other.

This was going to be a disaster. She already knew it.)

-Where Jaune was waiting for her.

She smiled. At least she had something going for her today.

(In front of her, the rest of her team exchanged hellos with Jaune. Neon's smile wavered for some reason as she waved at him. Flynt gave a respectful nod. Ciel walked right past him.)

"Have you talked to Ruby?" she asked him as she leant on the wall next to him.

"Not yet. I didn't know which entryway you guys were going to go though, so I just decided to wait here for one of you. I'll talk to her afterwards. Don't want to distract her, after all."

She nodded in turn, "Good man", she said, before going, "I'm not sure if I'm alright with this."

"What?" she could tell that Jaune was quirking an eyebrow underneath his helmet, "Fighting against Ruby?" Melanie nodded, "Hey, don't disrespect her like that. She can handle herself, I know it. And you should know it too. Saying otherwise is just a disservice to her."

"...Is it though?" Melanie asked. It was a genuine question, "I mean, I know she's a Huntress, and all, but... But is she? Mentally, I mean."

Jaune looked at her, and tilted his head, and then looked up in thoughtfulness, and then looked down at his feet, "I... I don't know if I can answer that... I don't know if I want to answer that."

"...Yeah, me too", she said, before taking in a deep breath, and going, "Right then, wish me-"

"Will you just move, you dolt!"

Jaune and Melanie looked at each other, and to the entrance. Melanie was the first one to move. She pushed past her team and the entrance, and saw Weiss dragging Ruby out by the upper arm, pulling so hard that despite wearing arm armour, it was causing the red and black themed girl discomfort, almost pain, probably around the shoulder.

They were close. so close now, and Melanie was beginning to see red at the sight.

"Weiss, we can't- We need a plan!" Ruby whined as Weiss finally let go of her, and allowed her to rub her shoulder to ease the discomfort, "We can't just-"

"I've already told you the plan, Ruby, so just go along with it already, and stop whining like a little brat!"

Nearby, Miss Goodwitch called out something about usurping control from a team leader. If Weiss even noticed it, she didn't give any indication.

Melanie pulled out the taser that she kept on her and pressed it against her arm, allowing her semblance, energy absorption, so take it all in and allow it to connect to the metal wings on her back, allowing them to build up and spread out in bright blue fire. On her, the white and red feathers on her combat dress began to extend out and curl around her like before.

"W-Weiss, w-we can't just- Can't just charge in and expect to defeat them! We're not that good!" Ruby called out to her, her other 2 teammates joining her, Blake giving an apathetic stare, and Leadpipe showing more sympathy- Or pity- In his body language, "We need a proper plan, not just-"

"Don't tell me what to do, Ruby!" it was clear that Weiss' patience was finally reaching its breaking point with her, "I have had it with you thinking that you're better than me just because of the colour of your eyes!"

Melanie's mind flashbacked to when Miltia was still alive, when they were so very young, the day which she grew up, and the day that she lost her little sister all at the same time. She didn't want that to happen again.

"I-I've never thought that!" Ruby clutched her Crescent Rose 2.0 close to her chest as she cried this to Weiss, "I've never thought that! I've been too busy worrying about Salem to care about that!"

Melanie and Jaune's eyes widened. Ciel looked like she was about to panic for a second, and Melanie noticed, because, _She knew, she knew, they all knew this whole fucking time and they said nothing about it!_

In the corner, Miss Goodwitch paled. Melanie and Jaune noticed that as well, and glared for just the briefest of moments.

"But I was made team leader, wasn't I? Not you, so-"

That kicked it off.

Weiss' eyes, once closed, then opened, and she saw red.

She wheeled the butt of her rapier weapon back like a flail, and slammed it into Ruby's face, breaking her nose. The girl twisted around and fell flat on the ground.

Melanie drew out her knuckledusters and talons and saw red.

* * *

Ruby pressed a finger against her nose, drew it back and saw red.

She was bleeding. Her nose was broken. She could feel her aura repairing it, but still it hurt. She hated the fact that tears were welling in her eyes, but they were.

Dammit, she was meant to be a Huntress, for god's sake, not a pathetic little cry baby, but here she was, on the ground and crying, and she hated it.

She moved to pick herself back up, but felt a sudden heat against her back, and the sudden blowing of wind between her locks of hair despite there being no wind indoors. There was a second's long sound of a scuffle, and then-

_**"GET AWAY FROM MY SISTER YOU BITCH!"** _

-Looked upwards, to see Melanie wrapping a metal talon covered hand around Weiss' throat, digging so deep into the skin that she was drawing blood, the other fist raised back, knuckleduster with a clear glowing blue line down the middle of it, with what looked like licks of blue flame coming out of them, and wild blue fiery wings accented with silver metal flowing hot off of her back, hot enough to match the explosive look of venom on her face, teeth grinding together and snarling.

Weiss had retaliated in hand, pressing the blade of her rapier weapon, Edelweiss, against Melanie's throat, and responding with, "Oh for god's sake, she's not your sister you ignorant oaf! She's not Miltia! She is a Huntress in training! Maybe if you stopped babying her, you would understand this!"

"And maybe if you started treating her like a normal human fucking being, you would see how-"

"What? How fragile she is!? Give me a break! Just because you lost your sister doesn't mean that you can project her onto someone else and just pretend that she never left at all!"

The grip around Weiss' throat tightened, Melanie snarled, and Ruby finally noticed that the latter girl had very sharp looking canine teeth.

"You know how sharp these talons are? They can cut the skin of a Grimm open and cut it apart. Imagine how easy it would be right now, for me to slit your throat, even with your aura up, and dig out your jugular? It would be super easy, and that's just the first part."

She pulled Weiss closer to her face, and forced her to stare into her unblinking, shrunken eyes, seemingly ignorant or just uncaring as to the blade at her throat.

"Because from there, I am going to skin you alive, and wear your skin like a fucking coat."

The barrel of a gun pressed against Melanie's head. It was Ciel.

"I wouldn't."

The barrel of a gun pressed against Ciel's head.

"I might."

It was Jaune, holding a pistol to Ciel's head, and another to Weiss. Next to them, Leadpipe pulled out his wrist guns and aimed them both at Jaune and Melanie. Nearby, Neon, Flynt, and Blake stood to the side, the last one of the 3 pulling at Leadpipe to leave.

Ruby tried to say something, but with the blood running from her broken nose, as well as the sudden aching pain from it, this left her only able to barely blubber something unintelligible. She didn't know why she was acting like this because of a simple nosebleed . Perhaps it was simply the shock of it all that was messing with her ability to communicate.

Up above, there were gasps and calls for help from the audience. Miss Goodwitch was saying something, but no one was paying any attention to her.

"Ciel", Melanie slowly began, not taking her eyes off of Weiss as she then asked, "What are you doing?"

"Protecting my charge", Ciel insisted, not caring about the gun that was being pressed against her head in turn, "I'm her bodyguard. It's my job."

"I'm your team leader, Soleli", Melanie growled out, "You're my teammate. Teammates don't point guns at each other."

"You are a tyrant, Malachite, not a leader", was the emotionless reply of Ciel, "You have given me no reason to follow you", Ruby was sure that, across Ciel's hand, she could see the faint blue flicker of... An arrow? A smooth ended arrow, or what is a sharp ended one? She couldn't tell.

"And you have given me no reason to trust you!" Melanie shot back, "Especially now, when it turns out that you know about that Salem bitch! And don't lie about it, I saw your reaction."

Ciel paused, and then, "Miss Schnee told me about it."

This finally got Ruby to speak up, "Weiss, you told her! But Ozpin told us not to tell anyone else!"

"Ozpin?" Jaune asked.

"Traitor!" Blake cried out as she pulled out her Gambol Shroud and aimed it at Weiss' head, only for Leadpipe to wince in surprise and aim one of his wrist guns at her in response.

"What the hell- Does Ozpin know who Salem is?"

"What does it matter to you?!" Weiss harshly reprimanded, "It doesn't concern you!"

"Doesn't concern me! Of course it fucking concerns me!" Melanie growled, "Miltia died in the Emerald Forest, saying something about Salem, and the Cataclysm, and Ozma, and you are going to-", the gun at the back of her head pressed deeper into her, but it was ignored, "-Tell me why!"

"How did she...", Weiss began in genuine confusion, "How did she know about that? What's this about the Cataclysm?"

"Don't play retard, Schnee!"

"Hey, hey, hey, guys! Guys and girls!" Leadpipe began, "Let's just... Let's just cool off for a minute, yeah? Let's just be chill about this."

Leadpipe was ignored, however, as Ruby then, with a genuinely confused tone of voice, asked, "Who... Who's Ozma?"

Melaine blinked, and then, she slowly looked down to Ruby.

"You... You really don't know, do you?"

"Oh, so you trust a child's word over mine!" Weiss called out, earning a wince from Ruby as she said this, "I am the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company! My words should be taken as the truth as a matter of-"

The talons in her neck dug down deeper into her skin. Blood began to dribble out from each cut. Weiss stopped and whimpered in pain. Ciel's pistol was pressed even further into Melanie's head, and her finger began to itch on the trigger.

Around them, other first years- The Vultures and such- Began to flood down and around the ring from above and through the entrances, and train their own guns on the tense standoff in the centre. Ruby swore that she could see Yang moving about somewhere in the growing crowd.

"Truth...", Melanie let out a humourless chuckle that sounded as empty as she probably was, "I can't think of a word more below by the common rabble... It does have a nice ring to it, I will admit, but... It's also the tool of liars."

"Melanie, stop it!" Leadpipe called out. He was once again ignored.

"You know, there's an old Mistralian proverb."

"Melanie!"

"'There are 3 truths. There's your truth, there's my truth, and then there's the truth'."

Leadpipe growled, "Goddammit..."

Melanie's free hand, knuckleduster covering it, inched itself back even slower than before, as if winding back for the killing blow, "Well, the truth shit that you're spewing is rotten to the core, riddled with lies. Foul smelling and disease ridden. Kind of like you."

"What was that?!" Weiss snarled out. Ruby didn't doubt that she would back down from her point, even with her own life at risk. She was strong-willed like that. Well, stubborn like that at least.

"You're a delusional idiot, Weiss", Melanie began, "You think that just because your daddy is so high up in the food chain back in Atlas, that gives you the right to do whatever the fuck you want... Let me tell you something: You're not in Atlas anymore. We're in Vale, and people here have suffered more than you ever could."

Blake smiled at this. This only got Melanie's attention drawn on her.

"And you, Belladonna, hiding your ears underneath that bow like a damn coward", Blake stopped and froze. Melanie continued, "Don't bother hiding it, it was obvious from the start. What, you think that just because you hide your ears in a place where people our age wear their ears and their tails with pride, that you're better than them? That your 'Aloof and mysterious nature' allows you to hide that disgusting side to you, that part of you that smiles and laughs with glee every time a human is harmed in some way? Don't be so pathetic, Blake... If that is even your real name."

"Okay, goddammit, you've made your point, now let her go!" Leadpipe called out to her, one of his wrist guns still trained on Melanie's head, "Please, just- For god's sake, just let her go!"

"...And Leadpipe, I have something to say to you. If you think that trying to be the resident cutie of the team just because of your autism is working, it's not. It's downright pathetic how much of a pushover you are. Your autism is not a fucking excuse for your idiocy. If you want to actually be a Huntsman, then for the fucking love of god, put some actual effort into it, instead of just coasting by and expecting everyone to bend over just to accommodate you."

She never raised her voice during her tirades. Not once.

"Shut up, shut up goddammit, I know what you're trying to say, so please, just let her go!" Leadpipe called back.

"...No, I don't think I will", Melanie said matter-of-factly, "You see, there's a few things that you know, and I'd very much like to be filled in as well."

She turned her attention back to Weiss, and began to pull her thumbs against her flesh to the side, ripping just a little bit more skin.

Even Jaune was looking sickened at this, if only though his body language alone, "Melanie..."

"What?"

"I think that's-"

"No it's not", Melanie growled, causing Ruby to scoot away and try and clamber onto her feet, "It's not enough. Not now, at least."

Ruby got up, and began to breath in, sucking up all of the frustration and stress that she had been feeling for the last hour-

"Now then", Melanie snarled at Weiss, "You are going to tell me- Us- Everything that you know about Salem. Right. Fucking. Now."

-And let it all burst out.

"ENOUGH!"

Her scream was enough to draw the attention of everyone within the auditorium, an echoing silence overtaking them as everyone looked at her in sudden shock and confusion. Melanie almost dropped Weiss as she jumped, and it was then that she herself realised just how close to her Yang was, and how many people were holding back Miss Goodwitch.

She let out a shaky breath, and then, just whispered out, "Can we just stop, please?... Can we just stop all of this, please?"

There was a long silence...

And then, Jaune's voice echoed out through the auditorium with, "Just- Just do as she says."

And with that, slowly, but surely, everybody began to lower their guns, taking their hands off of the triggers and clipping away their weapons.

"I think...", Jaune's voice stopped, and then started again, "I think that's enough for today."

"Boss", Shadestep muttered nearby, "We can take them."

"I just- No... No...", he lowered his guns, "I think that's enough. Enough for today, okay?"

There was a long, awkward silence afterwards, but soon, with his word, everyone just nodded, and began to leave, taking their time to congregate to their different groups and sonder out of the auditorium. Miss Goodwitch tried to... Well, it looked like she was going to call them back at first, but then relented, and just sighed to herself in resignation at it all.

Melanie, with a guilty expression cast all over her face, just let go of Weiss, and let her crumple to the floor as her aura finally began to heal the bloody marks on her neck. Yang got to her first before Ciel, only to apply a harsh kick to Weiss' face, breaking her nose in turn, and spitting on her.

Ruby shuddered, and looked away, blotted tears forming in her eyes once again. She looked over to the side, to see Melanie looking at her with so much concern and love that belonged to a sister that wasn't with them anymore that it was making Ruby feel ill.

"Ruby", she began, holding out her hand, with finger talons that were covered in blood.

Ruby wanted to vomit. She needed to go.

Melanie looked at her with such genuine sadness in her eyes, "M-Ruby-"

That stutter was too much.

She burst away in flutter of rose petals, and b-lined it out of the auditorium.

She jetted all the way towards the dorms, and into her room. Shutting herself in the bathroom, she opened up the toilet, and vomited violently into it.

Sobbing to herself for this entire mess, she slumped against the wall, still feeling nauseous, and pulled her legs closer to herself.

She just... She needed to be alone for a while.

Just... Just for a while.

A long while.

* * *

"How are you, Mr Arc?"

Jaune didn't look up at her. He didn't want to. He couldn't even look her in the eye. Not after everything that had happened today.

Their team exercises had been a disaster, to say the least. The confrontation between him, RSBL, and MNCC had ended with everyone in their first year leaving the hall to go think and discuss between themselves, and their own teams more fractured and dysfunctional than ever.

More than that, their loud argument had revealed the names of Ozma and Salem to the entirety of the first year, as well as their fascination with the Cataclysm, and the apparent reveal that Ozpin had been the one to inform RSBL of what was going on and to keep it a secret from everyone else, so now everyone was asking questions, and spreading them to the rest of the school.

He figured that Ozpin might be doing some sort of damage control at this point, possibly right at this moment, but as he had been walking around Beacon in his own (Ruby and Melanie hadn't joined him, leaving him more alone than ever), Desperately trying to find something to do-

(He eventually settled for drafting a thesis on Faunus and human rights, having been intrigued by the area thanks to what had happened with the Harriet Bree case that he and Winter had solved together a month ago. For All Mankind, that's what he had called it.

Hey, if it distracted him from everything that was going on around it, then why not?)

-He overheard many first years talking about Ozpin. About how they always knew that he was hiding something, or how he couldn't be trusted, or how they couldn't rely on him for anything, so he very much doubted that many people would be trusting him with anything anytime soon.

This whole... Thing, was a mess. Everything was just a goddamn mess. Hardly any of their teams were able to function together at all, and everyone was just going about their own ways and tending to themselves and those that they deemed worthy of their attention. There were hardly any working teams, and there was too much stopping there from being any.

There was too much trauma. Too much poison in the minds of everyone in the first year. The Daughter and the Ascendant Court had seen to that.

"Mr Arc, please."

The room around him was stale and lifeless, and the dimming sunlight was barely able to pierce through the blinds and deliver something natural into the room against the white lights in the ceiling above.

He didn't look up at Miss Goodwitch, so he couldn't tell what expression was on her face, but he imagined it to be... Was sad the right word? He didn't know. He respected her, enough... He thought he did, at least, but... But she wasn't the right person to act as a psychiatrist. Everyone knew this.

Actually, that brought up a good question: Did Miss Goodwitch know about what was going on with Salem? Did she know more than them as well? Was she just hiding the truth like Ozpin, and keeping important information about what had happened in the Emerald Forest and the _Grimm Tidings_ away from the people who deserved to know?

Like him?

Maybe he was being selfish, sure, but his first partner had allowed herself to die right in front of him, and had been all cryptic and shit about it, so he figured that if anyone was hiding something about this, then he damn well deserved to know.

Nearby, he could hear Zwei- Beacon's mascot and therapy dog- Giving off a little bark. What it meant, he didn't know. In front of him, he could hear Miss Goodwitch get up from her seat, and step closer to him. He hadn't responded to anything she had been saying. Not even a flinch or anything. She must've thought that he'd shut down. Maybe he had.

No matter what, at every place that his mind tried to go to, it would always send him back to the Emerald Forest, to the grinning Blind Worm, to the _Grimm Tidings_ , to the belly of the beast, to the Dropship, and now, to the alleyway where he had watched Yuma die in his arms, and the other one where he had seen the bodies of Flash and Connie and Tyler, and the back of the Lightbright where he had watched Primal's head cave in, to a burning warehouse where he had been stabbed by the Neopolitan Butcher, to the police station where he had seen Carmine and Bertilak's corpses.

At once, everyone who had ever died right in front of him flashed before his eyes. Emerald Sustrai, Flashback, Curia Query, Boombox, Yuma Landis, Primal, and even more. All of them flashing before his mind, replaying the memories of their deaths over and over and over again, until it all ended on a girl in a red dress that looked like newspapers, with red and white feathers in her short black hair and green eyes and a smile that hid so many truths and secrets that it terrified him to even imagine.

Next to him, Miss Goodwitch called out his name. He didn't respond to it in any way, as tears began to develop in his eyes.

He didn't want this. Not anymore. Oh god, why was he still here? Why hadn't he already gone home and slit his own throat to make up for all of the things that he had seen and done, all of the people that had died because of him? To hell with his promise to Viola, maybe it was time to-

A hand clasped onto his shoulder.

-And suddenly he was back in the Emerald Forest, where the water and the soil and the trees and the sky and the blood were black and the grass and tree leaves were red, walking alone in a hellscape with his family home and his parents all dissolving into nothingness as he was pulled into the inky black pools below him by many bloody and gored hands as a ruined Miltia stood before him and asked him why he had let her die over and over and over and over and-

_Please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop please stop_

-Suddenly, reality came back to him. His eyes shrank, and then widened.

He was on the ground, Miss Goodwitch below him, hands around her neck, like he was trying to strangle her to death. In one hand, she had her crop raised, as if she was just about to call forth her semblance.

His eyes and cheeks were red and wet with tears.

he finally realised what he was doing, and tumbled to the side, onto his hands and knees as he scooted away in fright. He began to mutter something to himself and to her as his hands began to move to his face to hide away the tears, but stopped when he saw Zwei near him, looking at him and whining, his legs shivering in fear.

Instinctively, he went to stroke the dog, if only to remind himself that he was still a good person and that there were things out there still worth living for and _please just remind me why I'm still alive and let me remember that I can still be okay in the end and-_

The dog yelped and hid behind Miss Goodwitch in fright.

…

He couldn't stay here.

He- He couldn't stay here.

His breath began to pick up rapidly, and his heart felt like it was twisting into a knot in his chest. Everything was growing louder and louder, blending together into an ugly orchestra of verbal madness. All of the dull whites in the room and the sparse few colours in sight began to blend together into a slush of greys and whites. His skin became super sensitive. It was like he could feel every single microbe of dust and tiny blow of air hitting his skin with the force of a sledgehammer, or a steamroller, tearing through his body and ripping him apart down to the bare atoms.

He needed to leave.

He couldn't remember if he screamed. He probably did. What he did remember, though, is how he had suddenly shot up and slammed his back into the wall, skirting across the side in a blind panic as he reached for the door. Miss Goodwitch said something that he couldn't hear amidst the loud cacophony of noise in his head, but it sounded like she understood what was going on, like she cared, and he hated it because it would just be so much easier if she hated him and it would've been more understanding and-

The door finally opened in his grip.

-He was off, slamming the door behind him (He just remembered how late at night it was), And just booked it back to his dorm room, sprinting down the hallways as his breathing grew more shallow and his chest tightened and his eyes streamed tears and everything grew louder and brighter and the feeling of nausea grew bigger and bigger. Occasionally, he stopped for breaths, and one time, a group of girls came near him to see if he was alright- Gretchen Rainart, a frog Faunus by the name of Tessa, and a girl who's semblance controlled the gravity of everything that she touched by the name of Uma- But he ran off before they could do anything.

Finally, he got to his dorm room, and he slammed the door behind him. He realised that for once, his teammates were in there with him, but he didn't care as he grabbed his scroll off of the side- He could hear Pyrrha say something about a panic attack- And locked himself in their bathroom, opening up the toilet, dry heaving one time, and then vomiting violently the second time, emptying out his whole stomach before, still in a panic, he slumped to the side, pressed a familiar contact into his phone, and placed it against his ear as he pulled his legs closer to him and shook in place, drowning out the sounds of his worried teammates as he did.

Eventually, the person on the other end picked up.

 _"Urrr... Jaune?"_ Viola went as she presumably woke up from her sleep, _"Is that you? It's the middle of the night over-"_

His elder sister cut herself off when she could hear his rapid breathing, as Jaune quickly stammered out in a panic, "Vi-Vi-Viola, is that- Is that you? That's you, that's you, right, I just- I just need- Oh god, I just- I just need to speak or talk or something because- Oh god, Viola, I think I just- I think I need to-"

 _"Woah woah woah, Jaune, Jaune, sweetie, just breathe, just breath, okay?"_ Viola was readily awake, now, the sounds of her shooting out of her bed evident as she got herself up to speed on the other side, _"Look, you- Fuck, I- Jaune, you're just having a panic attack, okay? Just listen to me, okay? Just breathe. Breathe. Can you do that for me, sweetie?"_

Jaune nodded to himself, but his breathing remained rapid and confused as he just stuttered out, "O-O-Okay. Okay."

_"Okay, okay, now just breathe, little bro, breathe. Breathe once-"_

He did as he was told, sucking in a current of air-

_"-Hold it for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5-_

-Before holding it in for as long as his sister said-

_"-And release."_

-And then releasing it in a quickened puff.

_"And again, in-"_

He breathed in-

_"-Hold it-"_

-Held it-

_"-And release."_

-And then breathed out.

_"In-"_

He breathed in-

_"-Hold it-"_

-Held it-

_"-And release."_

-And then breathed out.

His breathing was calming down now, finally. He was becoming less shaky, and his eyes were just getting a little bit drier on their own, though they still stung. Everything around him was becoming less and less blurry and confusing, and more visible and easy to process. The loud noises screaming into his ears lessened, and he slowly pulled himself back into the real world.

 _"Just listen to the sound of my voice"_ , Viola was whispering to him now, trying to sooth him, which was working, by the way, _"Just listen... Go to your happy place... Let your mind slink back to a happier time, to a pleasant memory, to something that filled you with joy. Find that happy place- That happy memory- And cling and clutch to it."_

His mind wondered back to when he and Viola had played together, when he had gone to Saphron and Terra's wedding as a wee child, to just recently, when he, Ruby, and Melanie sat down together to watch and mock a bunch of terrible Spruce Willis films together, all in perfect order, all with perfect clarity.

His breathing returned to normal, and so did everything else around him, as he wiped his wet eyes and cheeks dry, and took a few moments longer to collect himself. It took him a few moments more to finally craft a response to his sister, "T-Thanks, Viola. I... I, um... Yeah..."

 _"Don't worry about it, little brother, there's no need"_ , 'For thanks' went unsaid, _"Are you okay now?"_

"Y-Yeah... Yeah, I-I think so", Jaune said to her as he began to uncurl himself from his fetal position, and then said, "H-Hey, l-listen, I know that we don't... Don't agree on much, nowadays, you know, but... But I... I love you, Viola."

He could practically hear the smile on the other end of the line, _"I love you too, Jaune."_

He smiled in turn.

_"Do you want to come back home?"_

He had forgotten about her want for him to return back to Jewel. She hadn't brought it up on any of the phone calls that they had had since their argument on Beacon's landing pad the day after he woke up from his coma, but the tension of it still lingered. It was clear that she had been waiting a long time to pop this question.

 _"I mean, I know that you don't want to, but..."_ , there was a deep breath- In, hold, out- On the other side of the line, and then, _"Jaune, you sound like you're hurting. You really do sound like you're hurting. I won't ask why, but... Please, Jaune. I mean, Apollo's opening up spots in both Jewel's militia and the House of the Golden Sun. You can always- You can always join them, if you really do want to be a hero."_

It was a damn well tempting offer. One that, guilty as it was to admit, he had been thinking over a lot more recently in the last few days, "I... I don't know... I mean, I told you why I wanted stay here, and I damn well want to honour it, but now... Now, I'm not so sure."

 _"Well, you know, our door is still open for you any time"_ , Viola said on the phone, _"You and any friends that you make over there. We've always got room for you back in Jewel."_

His smile widened just a little bit more, but then wobbled from hesitation, "T-Thanks, Viola, really, I mean it, but... I don't know. I really don't know. I mean, Ozpin made me team leader for a reason, you know. I just... I don't know", considering Ozpin's current reputational status in the halls of Beacon Academy right now, and the current status of all of the teams, as well as all of the recent revelations that had come out as a result, it was hard to say that the headmaster had made the right decision.

Maybe he hadn't at all. Maybe he was just meandering through all of this? Maybe he had selected the teams at random? Maybe he had done guesswork? Maybe there had been some grand point to these teams and they had failed? Maybe Ozpin didn't understand the level of trauma that the new first years had? Maybe Ozpin was just wrong? Maybe there was some other point to all of this that he was sincerely missing?

Maybe the current state of the teams was for the best? Maybe they just needed to be reshuffled and reorganised. Have a proper initiation for the students instead of the bloody battle that had been the last one. It was clear that the teams weren't operating as they should, so maybe it was best that they be reorganised into new teams. Better teams. At least, something that was better than the crap show that was being thrown at them right now.

 _"Yeah, only after that Nikos girl's talk to him"_ , he could hear her rolling her eyes on the other side, "I swear, some people just want to-"

Jaune paused, and then stopped her in confusion, "You mean Pyrrha?" His eyebrow was raised in confusion. Pyrrha talked to Ozpin? About his leadership? What? "What... What did Pyrrha talk to Ozpin about? My leadership?"

Outside, the banging on the door to the bathroom- That he only just realised had stopped- Started anew, more rushed and violently this time, now accompanied by the sounds of a scuffle.

_"...She didn't tell you?"_

"What?"

_"She said she'd tell you..."_

"Tell me what?" there was a pause, "Viola, what was Pyrrha supposed to tell me?"

* * *

"Jaune! Jaune, please, just let me-"

"Pyrrha, back off!"

"Just let me-"

"Pyrrha, enough!"

Ren and Nora were only just able to push her away from the door, considering how strong she was, but also how fatigued she was as well, and stop her for breaking the door down from just hammering on it. Pyrrha suspected that they didn't know why she was panicking, or at least they were coming to a different conclusion than the actual truth, but she didn't care. She just needed to tell him the truth so that he didn't report her to her father and-

"For god's sake, Pyrrha, calm down! You've give him another panic attack at this rate!" Nora scolded her as she pulled out her Magnhild from nowhere at all, something that she was apparently good at, and said, "And if you hit the door any harder, you'll break it down!"

"We understand that you're worried for your partner", Ren calmly said with a hand held outwards towards her, "But whatever you are trying to do and say to him will only serve to exacerbate the issue. We have to let him calm down in his own time. And besides, from what can be heard, his sister is helping him to calm down over the phone, so all that we will do by interfering is potentially triggering him all over again", Nora looked at him like she wanted to say something, but then decided against it.

"I-It's not that", Pyrrha began with, beginning her first real talk to the other members of her team that she regularly forgot even existed nowadays due to all of her training and practicing, "It's... It's just...", _It's just who's he's talking to_ , Pyrrha kept that thought to herself, _And what she'll about to reveal to him that I need to interfere with._

Ren and Nora weren't mind readers, though, "What, Pyrrha?" Nora began with, "What is so important that you need to break the damned door down over, if not him having a panic attack?" it did appear that at least one of them was a keen reader of the mood, though.

Pyrrha wanted to say it out loud, but didn't.

Thankfully, nobody would get the chance to ask or respond anymore, as the door to the bathroom loudly slammed over, and a hunched over Jaune appeared in the doorframe, his cheeks and eyes still red, his hair messy and dishevelled, and a powered down scroll in one of his hands.

There was a long pause, before Jaune finally looked Pyrrha in the eye, and asked in a croaky voice, "Is it true?" there was a longer pause still, before he flashed his turned off scroll at her, as if it held all of the answers in the world, and continued on, "Viola told me that you had pawned off leadership to me. That you had forced me into the role, despite even knowing that I would never want or be able to handle it. Is. This. True?"

Another long pause, and then, from Pyrrha, a shameful, "...Yes..."

...

Pyrrha hated loosing.

This was a fact that she had kept hidden from everyone- Even her father- But she absolutely despised loosing. The thrill of a fight, yes, oh gods how she relished that, but loosing a fight? No, never, not in a million years. It was one of the reasons at to why she had been training so much: To make up for her humiliating defeat around the _Grimm Tidings_.

She had hated loosing so much that she had told Ozpin to give it to Jaune because of that.

Sure, like she had said before to Jaune whilst he was in his coma, she couldn't handle the responsibilities of being a leader, and she was incredibly aware of how much of a poor leader she would be, but there was also another deeper reason to it all: The fear of loosing. Taking leadership over a bunch of people would potentially open up an entire chasm of mistakes and possible failures that she would have to compensate for, and she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she somehow made a mistake and ruined everything and got someone killed because of it, and she would have to deal with her father berating her for even daring to make a mistake and lose for once and so on, so forth, an endless wave of guilt.

And so, she had pawned it off to Jaune.

And there was the nature of her debt. The reasoning as to why she needed to protect Jaune. To make sure that he wouldn't perish due to her own damnable mistakes and selfish desires. She knew for a fact that he wouldn't be able to handle it (The poor boy had already been swimming in an ocean of guilt over what had happened during the Initiation Massacre), But at the time, she hadn't given a single damn about it. As long as she wasn't presented with any way to lose at all, she would be fine with it, and, at the GVMC, she had promised Viola that she would eventually tell Jaune about what she had done and said, and now...

Now, 5 weeks later, with not a peep out of her, and her own inaction was bringing everything down around her.

She had lost.

Again.

Jaune's eyes had widened, and his now dull eyes, so worn and tired and veterans of sights that were too filled with horror in such a short amount of time, were flooded with emotion: Grief, rage, sadness, depression, anger, more grief, so on, so forth.

And then, he moved.

"I need to- I need to go", Jaune muttered as he began to walk to the door, "I can't... I can't stay here, I just- I just need to-"

Pyrrha grabbed his arm and stopped him, "Jaune-"

"Let me go, Pyrrha."

"Just let me-"

"Let me go!"

"No! Just let me-"

"ENOUGH!"

Pyrrha let go of him in recoil, and Jaune just looked her in the eyes all over again.

"Just stop it, Pyrrha."

The girl in question looked down at her feet with a wavy frown, but Nora then quickly stepped up and said, "Jaune, come on, it's just leadership and stuff. It's not that big of a deal!"

Jaune froze, going completely still, and the room fell into a horrible silence.

"...'Not a big'... Nora", the coldness in his voice stilled the girl completely, something that, in the short periods that Pyrrha had seen her, she had thought was impossible, "Do you think that I go to those team leader lessons for fun?"

"Wha... What?"

"Every saturday morning, me and the other team leaders have lessons together. Of course, you never bother to notice that, but... Do you think that it's all fun and games? That it's all a big laugh?"

He wheeled around to her, and the sheer venom on his face was enough to make her step back in fear.

"Do you think that we're not reminded every day that if we ever fuck up in any way, shape, or form, that it'll lead to the deaths of those that follow us? That if we make even the smallest of mistakes, then that's it: Everyone dies? Do you not think that we are hammered that fact about our own fuckups over and over and over again every single time we're in that room, and every single day outside of it, so much so that we don't have nightmares about it?!"

"N-No, I-"

"This isn't a fucking game, Nora! This is life and death! Leadership is the constant fucking reminder that no matter what you do, when someone dies because of you, you're going to have to be the ones to tell their loved one that they died because of you! Because you couldn't keep them safe! And you have to live with that guilt! You have to live with that knowledge that you couldn't save your own teammates!"

"J-Jau-"

"But that only works if you actually have good teammates! And you aren't! None of you are!"

Before anyone could respond, he pointed his finger and shoved it into Nora's shaking chest-

"You continously fuck off and just go do whatever the fuck you want, without any consideration for anyone but yourself, all so you can have a quick happy moment like you're not fucking over anyone else!"

-Then to Ren-

"You do nothing to stop her! You're a goddamn enabler, just letting her do whatever the hell she wants without any thought for the consequences at all!"

-And finally to Pyrrha.

"And you, threw me into a position that you knew that I would never be able to handle, and you don't even try to do anything about it! You just fuck off like her and pretend that you're a perfect warrior without any thought for anyone else! I mean, how fucking selfish can you be!?"

He threw down his arm, and angrily marched towards the door.

"I never wanted to be a leader, and I never wanted to be stuck with you people!"

He wildly swung the door open-

"You had the leadership position before, Pyrrha. Now you can fucking have it back!"

-And slammed it behind him.

The room was deathly quiet, save for the quiet bee-like buzzing that Eri gave off as she finally floated up from behind the bed that she had been hiding behind. Pyrrha and Ren and Nora just stayed quiet, staring at the door, unsure of what to do or say or-

Nora's legs gave out and she collapsed to the ground, shaking and crying as she hiccupped, "W-Why does this... Happen to... Every family... That I have?"

Ren took to her side to console her, whilst Eri moved to the other side of her mother, whining in sadness as Pyrrha just continued to look towards the door, as still and as cold as a statue.

What had she done?

* * *

"YOU DID WHAT?!"

Ciel wasn't deterred by Melanie's explosion of anger. Instead, she simply remained cool and stoic and said, "I delivered the book to Miss Schnee."

"Why the- WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU DO THAT?!" Melanie screeched out as she gesticulated her arms violently at the stoic Schnee bodyguard, teeth grinding together as small licks of flame floated off of her, her semblance flaring up as she growled angrily at her 'Teammate'.

"I was under orders to do so."

"Orders!? From her?! From Weiss?! She's not your team leader! I am! Me!" Melanie jabbed a finger into her chest for emphasis as the 4 members of Team MNCC stood and sat gathered in their dorm room for once, Neon and Flynt sitting on their beds to the side as Ciel and Melanie stared off, "You're supposed to be following my orders for god's sake! That's why you were put in the same team as me, and that's why I was made the leader! Goddammit, you were there in the auditorium! You were right there pressing a gun to my head! That's blatant mutiny!"

"You were threatening my charge!"

"Goddammit Ciel, you heard my reasoning in there! You know why I needed that book!"

"You're weren't privy to that information."

"NEITHER WERE YOU!"

"Miss Schnee told me I was."

"When she was blatantly told that she wasn't meant to! When she betrayed the entire trust of her own team in order to do so!"

"She never cared for her team."

"And neither do you!"

"I only care for the safety of Miss Schnee-"

"Oh fuck off with that spoilt brat for just one fucking moment, won't you!?" Melanie harsly jabbed her finger into Ciel's chest, and snarled out, "My god, can you just fuck off about her for just one minute?! I would like to pass the Lesbian Bechdel Test, you know?"

"I do not know what that means."

"Nor do I care."

"Ain't that the truth", muttered Neon on her bed as she played with her tail.

This earned her the ire of Melanie as she wheeled her head over to her and, in a gravely tone, growled out, "What was that?"

"You don't care about us", Neon didn't back down as she looked up at Melanie, pointing her own finger accusingly as she then said, "You've never given anything resembling a single damn about us."

"What the- What the fuck does that mean?!" she cried out to her, shaking her fists momentarily as she then said, "Of course I care about you! You're my teammates and I'm your team leader! It's in the job description to care about you-"

"Because that's what it is, isn't it? An obligation, and not an actual imperative! Not an actual common decency!" Neon shot out of her seat so fast that a rainbow flash could be seen behind her, facing Melanie head on as she herself prodded her in the chest and said, "Even when we were put together as a team, you've never liked us. It's clear even in our group chat that you think you're better than all of us, despite-", the cat Faunus let out a bitter laugh, "-Despite, being the second worst fighter in the year! Fuck, ever since we've been put in a team together, you've lorded that position over us-"

"'Lorded'?! Is that the shit that you're pulling out right now, Neon?! Is that where we're going with this!?" Melanie fired back, "I'm not lording over anything or anyone: I'm being a leader! I'm trying to take charge! I'm trying to be responsible for you idiots!"

"You've never asked us about how we feel!"

Melanie moved her head back and blinked. Neon pressed on.

"You've never asked us about our opinions of your orders, or how we were doing, or how we could improve, or any of that shit! You've never taken into consideration how any of us feel, and you've expected us to follow your orders without question, as if we're somehow able to understand exactly why you want us to do whatever it is you say, like we're somehow able to immediately guess what the hell you're doing", there was a long pause, and then Neon capped it off with, "And you're rude, too."

"...You fucking hypocritical piece of shit...", Melanie hissed out, before going, "You've never done the same either! All of you are just as guilty as you say I am of that shit! Over a month we've known each other, and not one of you- Not one!- Has ever come up to me to voice their complaints, or ask me what was going on, or talk about whatever the fuck it is that you were feeling sad about or some shit! Not one of you has ever voiced your problems to me, or even asked me about how I was feeling, or anything! All you've ever done is ignore me, and keep all of your problems to yourselves as if I should somehow be able to figure it all out for myself! For fuck's sake, I am not a mind reader! I can't know your problems if you don't tell me them!"

"Would you have even helped us!? You're a sink-or-swim kind of girl, aren't you?"

"I expect you to be able to handle your own problems! If they're too much to handle and you really do think that you need to talk to me, then talk to me about them, but I can't hold your hand for every small thing that you have! You have to be able to do them yourselves! But, again, if you do have problems that you really do think that you need to share with me, then fucking share them with me! Don't just keep them to yourselves and do nothing about it!"

"You wouldn't have helped at all!"

"Yes I would've!"

"No you wouldn't have! You can say that you'll help out, and you'll do your part, but in the end, each promise will be just as empty as the threats that you make! Like all of the threats and violent words that you say!"

"You think I like being mean to you guys! You think I like making threats to you! None of you will listen to me at all! You and Flynt always fuck off to go fuck in a corner or whatever the hell it is that you guys do when you're together, and Ciel always goes off to follow around the Schnee girl like a fucking house pet! There's no other way that you'll even remember that I exist, much less even listen to me! How the hell am I supposed to act nicely to a bunch of people that make it their mission to ignore me every step of the way!?"

"Act better! Be better! Oh wait, that's not what people like you do, is it?! It's always angry angry fucking angry!"

"'People like me'!? I'm trying to help you people if you would just-"

"That's always what you say! That's all that people like you say! The racists, the elitists, the tin pot tyrants, and every other person who's blood get's pumping at the slightest hint of power over everybody else! People like you lord yourselves over us, like we're nothing more than trash and waste that can be thrown out onto the wayside- That can be scratched and burnt and beaten- Until it's no longer of use! It's people like you that make Remnant the shithole that it is today, you elitist, discriminatory, FUCK!"

…

…

…

There was a long pause. An ocean of silence flooded into the room and drowned any trace of noise in its reach. Ciel had retreated to the other side of the room. Flynt hadn't said a word, and had gone still on his bed. Neon breaths were heavy, yet somehow still silent. Her cheeks were red and wet, and her tail had fallen limp. Was what she had said all about Melanie, or was it something that had been building up inside of her for so long, that it had finally grown too big to be ignored any longer.

In front of her, Melanie's arms had gone limp, her face tilted down, and her bangs covering her eyes. Her expression and body language was that of pure neutrality, showing no emotion at all.

...

...

...

"Alright then."

Melanie tilted her head up. Her eyes were tired, but there was still a faint blue glow to her pale green eyes. The way she spoke... It was so calm, yet it felt like it had the anger of an entire sun behind it.

"If that's how you feel... Then I'll take my leave."

And with that, she wheeled around, walked through the door to the dorm, and slammed it behind her in barely hidden rage.

The room returned to life. Flynt slumped down into his bed. Ciel let out an uncharacteristic sigh of relief. All Neon did was slump down to her knees, onto the floor, and lean against her bed frame.

She had done it. She had aired out everything to Melanie.

She should feel happy.

So why did she feel so empty inside?

* * *

"You stole their book?"

Ruby had been sitting in their dorm room for the rest of the day, with her door locked. At least, for anyone that didn't have the code to the door on their scroll. She had heard many people- More than 2 dozen, in fact- Knocking on their dorm door, asking if she was there, and if she was okay. Ruby had muffled out the noises so much that she couldn't tell who almost any of those people were. The only 2 that she could make out were Jaune and Melanie, and she had almost completely blocked out the second one entirely.

She couldn't face her. Not after the auditorium. Not after what she had said- What had been revealed.

She just... She just couldn't...

She just couldn't...

Not yet, at least.

She hadn't realised the time until the rest of her team had walked back in, Weiss in the lead, as always, with a particularly smug expression on her face, which was odd considering what had happened earlier in the day as she noted the bandage over the Schnee heiress' nose. However, that was soon answered by the large book in her hands, simply titled The Myths and Fables of Old Remnant.

"I didn't steal their book", Weiss answered smugly as she plopped it onto their desk and sat elegantly on their bed, "I was given it from them. Obviously, they saw that I was in the right, and-"

"Soleli gave it to her", Blake cut in with, "Not Arc or Malachite or the others."

Weiss' eye twitched, annoyed at the interruption, but then continued on with, "Yes, thank you for that, Blake. Yes, Ciel did give it to me, but I'm sure that it was under the orders of you-"

"You, not them."

"Don't start with me already Blake, I've had a bad day", her smug smile was fading now, but Weiss relented anyways as she then said, "Anyways, it doesn't matter. Now that we have the book with the knowledge of Salem in it, we can deliver it to Ozpin, and be rid of it, thus putting this whole mess to-"

"They deserve to know."

Weiss stared at Ruby intently, "What?" there was a barely hidden tone of anger in her voice. Her thin patience was waning. If Ruby was a crueller person, she would joke that her patience was always waning.

"J-Jaune, and Melanie, a- And everybody else", Ruby said out loud to the rest of the room, "They deserve to know what we're fighting- Who we're fighting", she took a quick glance to the book on the desk, and back to Weiss, "They deserve to know what we're up against."

"Ruby", Weiss began curtly, "Ozpin has been explicitly clear about the security of our kingdom and this information. We cannot just spread it to whoever we like just because-"

"But you told Ciel."

This got Weiss to pause for a moment, but only for that as she said, "Ruby, I trust Ciel. She is a trustworthy person, and also my bodyguard, so-"

"You don't know that", Ruby was surprised at the edge in her own voice, but continued on regardless, "You don't know that she can be trusted. You couldn't have known."

"And you don't know that Arc and Malachite", she said that last word with an angry hiss, "Can be trusted."

"Does it even matter now?" Ruby asked, "Everybody already knows about Salem, or at least just her name, and now, they're going to start making connections and coming to conclusions, both right and wrong. There's really no point in secrecy anymore."

"There is every single point in secrecy, Ruby", Weiss scolded, "Ozpin said-"

"I know what Ozpin said", Ruby interrupted with, "He said that if the truth get's out then there'll be a mass panic. But the truth is already out in Beacon, and people are, presumably, panicking because they won't know anything about the people that they're fighting. About the person that they're fighting. But now that people know that we're hiding stuff about it- That we know more than we're letting on about the monsters that killed so many people back in initiation, they're not going to trust us, and any previous trust that they had in us will only continue to slip away if we keep all of these secrets to-"

"Enough, Ruby", Weiss shut her up with this as she rose up from her bed and bore down on the other girl as she sat on her own bed, "I have made up my mind on the situation, and I shall not be lectured about it by a mere child with no understanding of the world around her."

Too far.

"'No understanding'", Ruby muttered out, before finally jumping up and going, "I'm this team's leader! I'm the team leader, remember? I'm the one who has the final say in these decisions!"

"No, Ruby, you don't!" Weiss cawed back with, "And you aren't! You have not made any decisions at all in regards to this team or anything else at all!"

"Because you keep taking away the option for me to do so! You keep forcing me out of the leadership position and making every decision for me or anyone else, without ever consulting any of us about what we think! I was the one who was made leader! I should be the one to-"

"Ozpin made a mistake!"

Ruby took a step back.

"That's all that you are, Ruby Rose! A mistake! You've been nothing but a blithering mistake every step of the way! The first time we met, you made a mistake! And then afterwards you made the mistake of preventing me from picking the right partner! And then you made the mistake of trying to pick a fight with the Brother of Light and needing me to rescue you! And then, in the end, thanks to some grand new level of a mistake on the part of Ozpin, all thanks to the colour of your eyes and nothing else, you were made team leader! You, over me! You, placed into a position that should belong to myself! Again and again, you have screwed up, and again and again and again, you have learnt nothing from it, leaving me to have to be the one to continuously compensate for your screwups! And all of this- Every single bit of this- Comes back down to you, Ruby Rose, and the walking disaster of a mistake that you continue to be!"

There was a long pause that overcame the room- A long moment of silence, as if time itself had been put on pause. Ruby was left glowering at the floor for a long time, whilst nearby, Leadpipe shivered next to his unused bed, and Blake just sat on hers, hiding her face behind her book, making it impossible to see what expression was on her face.

Then, after so long without even the sound of a fly buzzing around the room, there was a break in the silence.

A humourless laugh.

From Ruby.

"You... You want to know something, Weiss?"

The girl in question, now finished with her rant, looked at her in silence, prepared for any accusation or complaint that she might throw her way, and carefully reflect it with-

"Maybe you're right?"

Weiss blinked, "...What?"

"I said maybe you're right", Ruby said, her dull left eye peeking through the bangs that covered it as she looked at Weiss with a dull smile and a shrug, "I mean, that has to be why, hasn't it? It has to be the reason why so much of my life has been one big screwup, doesn't it? I mean, first my mum walked out of us and probably died, probably due to a mistake, then Patch fell and all of my friends died- Probably a mistake as well, probably on my part, if what you're saying is true! And then Iris... Did things, probably a mistake on my part for being a 14 year old girl, obviously! And then I was made leader of a team, with no choice of my own- Probably a mistake on my part all over again- And then it turns out, I'm suddenly the most important person on the planet and somehow the 'Chosen one' or something all because I have silver eyes, and not blue or olive or whatever! Yeah, yeah that has to be it..."

Leadpipe got up from where he was sitting, "Ruby..."

"...I never asked for any of this, you know."

Suddenly, she was right up in Weiss' face in a flash, and glaring down the white themed girl.

"I never asked to be made team leader, Weiss! I was never given a choice! And I never asked to be made an orphan! I never asked to be the most important person on the planet, just because of the shade of my eyes! And I never asked to be the one who would have to save the world, all to protect people like you!"

"R-Ruby...", Weiss began, almost fearfully.

"I never asked for my mother to walk out on me and die! I never asked for my dad to die! I never asked my home to fall! I never asked for Iris to do all of those things to me, or for the Initiation Massacre to happen, or to be your partner, or to be team leader, or to be manipulated by Carmine and Bertilak, or to fight Neopolitan, or to be hunted for the rest of my life, BECAUSE OF SOMETHING THAT I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER! BECAUSE OF THE COLOUR OF MY EYES!"

In a flash of rose petals, she was at the door, book from the desk now in hand.

"If you want the position so badly, just to sooth your own ego-"

She pulled the door open-

"-THEN YOU CAN HAVE IT!"

-And then slammed it shut behind her, leaving the rest of Team RSBL in utter silence.

Leadpipe collapsed onto the side of the bed that he didn't use with a shaking body, nervous and frightened, while Blake kept her cool behind her book, not moving a muscle and revealing her thoughts or intentions to anyone in the room.

All Weiss did, in the end, was fall back onto her bed, and sigh.

Did Ruby just give her the leadership position?

It seemed like it.

So why wasn't she happy about it?

* * *

All around the watchtower, The Valley of Giants, accompanied by the ruins of New Fortressa and the Sleeping City, were punctuated against the moonlight by their pitch black shapes and outlines, though it was impossible to see the finer, or even rougher, details in the moonlight.

The Techion didn't really care much, though. All that mattered right now were the theatrics for the crowd below. As it stood, the shattered moon was positioned directly above him, and the display behind him had been propped up against the outline of the broken city.

Perfect.

He looked down to his crowd. Hundreds of Disciple Grimm and others, numbering 5,000 in total. Some of them were survivors of the Initiation Massacre, some of them were lost dead souls from the various conflicts that made up the Second Great War, and some of them had sought him out themselves. However, all of them were united under one goal.

The worship of the Silver-Eyed Warriors.

The red, white, blue, and yellow Techion known as Templar studied his followers carefully, nursing his grand speech in his head to his waiting acolytes, and wondering about the path that had sent him here.

So many years ago, he had been one of Professor Ozpin's staunchest, and most loyal allies. He had been with the man every single step of the way since his enrolment at Beacon Academy, advising him on his plans and strategies, and being there for him as he planned and planned and planned against their greatest enemy:

Salem.

It had been Summer Rose, the leader of his sister team STRQ, that had gifted him the hope of seeing this conflict's grand end. He had hoped that she would be the one to save all of Remnant, to save all of mankind from the greatest evil that it had ever known.

And then, he had come to a conclusion of his own: If one gave tithe to a power, did they not themselves become empowered as well? Did they not find salvation? And Summer Rose's powers, and the powers of the Silver-Eyed Warriors themselves, were like that of gods, drawing directly from the God of Light himself. Did that not make them something to be worshipped, a higher power to be praised?

Was that not a thing that made them gods themselves?

And so, Templar turned to worshipping the Silver-Eyed Warriors, and for his worship, he was made a pariah in the eyes of Ozpin, and cast out from his ranks. But that did not temper Templar's ferverous devotion; It merely taught him the need for subterfuge. Faking his own death hadn't been hard, and with that, he went underground, building up his church...

Only for Ozpin's agents to tear it all down again. Or was it Salem's agents? In all honesty, it might've been the latter.

And so, Templar was left to wander back to Vale, hoping to find some form of succor there.

When he had encountered Summer Rose, he had thought himself to have been blessed.

It had been no secret that he had been in love with Summer Rose. Perhaps that was behind one of the reasons for his worship. The question still plagued his mind, even to this day.

However, unfortunately, there had been a... Disagreement between the 2.

He very much didn't like to think about what had happened that day.

And so, he was left to wander the whole of Remnant aimlessly, his purpose stolen from him, his meaning devoid of just that.

But then, the Initiation Massacre happened, and such, the beginning of the Second Great War, and suddenly, Templar was flooded by the strangest of patrons and fellow worshippers.

Grimm. What's more, these were the new types of Grimm faced from the Emerald Forest, all of them from scattered parts of the world. All of them lost, without direction.

And all of them, fellow pariahs and outcasts, running away from their once fellows, because of their devotion of the Silver-Eyed Warriors.

It was time to address his loyal followers.

"Brothers and sisters!" he called out, spreading his arms out wide as if to embrace them all, "Today we stand, freed from the shackles and chains that once tied us down!"

He paused, to let the questions be whispered amongst all of them at his words.

"These chains are those that would seek to keep us away from our worship!" he continued, "It is these chains that once kept us drowning in the filth and dirt that was the past, and our heretical notions were the bonds! It was these bonds that kept us as slaves to the apostates that would blind us to our salvation! But no longer are we bound! We are free! Free to pursue our worship, away from the corrupt eyes of the devil king and the whore queen! Free to invite the blessings of gods themselves upon us! Free to be free of ourselves and the limitations of our own existences!"

The crowd roared at his words, shrill cries and bloody weeping at his words, clawed hands stretching out and scratching the air, reaching out to him as if they were looking to embrace him.

"It was not only the bonds of heresy that chained us down, but the bonds of ignorance! How were we to know of the powers of the silver eyes? How were we to know of their bonds of the gods of old? No longer! Now we know of our gods, and we know of the power that they hold!" he pulled out his sword, and pointed it to the display behind him, "Bring forth light!"

The display behind him lit up, to reveal a emaciated woman, with skin so pale that it was almost transparent, nailed to a cross, with a thorn made crown in her head, and her eyes hollowed out, bloody sockets being the only thing left of her eyes as they stained her haggard face a dry crimson.

"This woman was once a Silver-Eyed Warrior!" Templar began dramatically, "But she has committed a heinous act of blasphemy: She had committed the act of cowardice! She hid herself away from the world around her, scared, like a pup, at the monster that she should be fighting!" he reached into a pair of side compartments in his waist, and pulled out his own clenched his own clenched fists, "As such, her blessed eyes shall be put to better use!"

He opened his hands, to reveal the woman's silver eyes in them, severed from their cords, and covered in dried blood.

The crowd cheered as he crushed them in his hands, and then let the red blood and gore drip down into the Grimm below, the creatures lapping at the red liquor with orgasmic vigour.

"For her heresy- For her cowardice!" Templar began once more, after wiping his bloody hands across his metal head and chest, "There is only one punishment!"

He then pulled out his sword-

"Death!"

-And severed the haggard woman's head in one clean swoop, the crowd roaring with delight as he picked up the severed head and threw it into the crowd, the creatures clawing at the heretics face and head and tearing it to pieces, covering themselves in her blood and marking patterns across their skin in a disgusting ritualistic display.

"Tomorrow, the true goddess of our cause arrives! The true object of our worship makes their presence known!" Templar continued, "She will come to grand us our divine blessing, and our ascension into paradise!" the crowd roared once more at his words, and Templar continued on, "So we must be ready! We must be strong! For when the goddess gifts unto us our blessing, we will begin our crusade against the witch queen of horror! And by divine right, WE! SHALL! WIN!"

The crowd roared, and Templar nearly fell to his feet at awe in their approval. It was so sickeningly sweet that he might die from it.

But there was work to do. The Sleeping City and New Fortressa must be prepared, Tock and her Undertakers must be given their due, and the good work must be done.

He only hoped that Ruby Rose wouldn't be such a brat like her mother. He hate for her to moan the entire time that he had her-

If Templar could even smile anymore, he would've.

-But then again, he might.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun tidbit: Somebody called Sefeia has blocked me on Fanfiction.Net.
> 
> Huh.
> 
> Here's what happened: There's this fic that they have, called Pancakes (Which, as of writing this, has been reuploaded for the 3rd time), Which is like one line and 30 words or so long. Of course, because of this, I assumed it to be a sort of joke fic, so of course, I left a joking review on it. You know, I talked about it as if it was a full feature length story on par with ImSoAwesome and Coeur Al'Aran and such, and how it had a lot of themes and characters and stuff. It was about 5 lines long, though, so I guess that I went a little too far with it, but I still thought that it was enjoyable, so I posted it, and figured that it would get a good chuckle out of the person, or something.
> 
> The next morning, I see a message on my account from Sefeia (Now, because of different time zones, he sent it to me in the middle of the night, and I didn't see it until the morning. So, I went to go and open it, but it wouldn't let me, because apparently they had blocked me, so I don't know what it was that they said. And now, not too long ago, I went to leave a review on their reupload to ask why they had reuploaded the same thing 3 times, and also what the message that they sent said, but I couldn't leave a review on their story because I was, again, blocked.
> 
> Again, huh.
> 
> I looked at their profile page, and it turns out that they had pretty strong negative feelings about somebody called SapphireAsashi, whom had been using proxy accounts themed after Irani Ookami to harass and bully people, according to their words, so they must've thought that I was one of this SapphireAsashi's proxy accounts, so I can understand that, but still...
> 
> Huh.
> 
> I'm not mad about it or anything. That'd be a silly thing to get mad about. But still, I don't think I've ever been blocked by someone on this site before. Or anyone at all, for that matter.
> 
> It's a strange experience.
> 
> Anyways, moving on, I did say that this arc was going to be about trauma, didn't I?
> 
> I hope that I did it justice.
> 
> And in the meantime, we've now been introduced to the main villain of this arc in particular: Templar, a Techion based off of James Robert's version of Star Saber, whom was a religious Knight Templar in the comic More Than Meets The Eye and Lost Light, hence the name that I gave him, being Templar.
> 
> Oh, playing on words is tight!
> 
> Anyways, what are our heroes going to do now? They're traumatised, broken, and even more fractured than ever before...
> 
> And they've got one hell of a field trip waiting for them the next day.
> 
> One thing's for sure: Things are going to change for some more than others.
> 
> (On a side note, if any of you guys want to draw any fanart for this fic, then feel free to do so. I would really like to see how the new outfits for all of these guys look like.)
> 
> And in the meantime, leave a review, favourite and follow, and I shall see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	29. Jaunedice part 4: Valley of Giants

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the teams effectively dissolved and left to ruin, the first years of Beacon find themselves on an airship straight into the Valley of Giants.
> 
> And the Grimm of the Choir of Silver wait for them, eager to meet their goddess...

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)_  
 **Arc Theme:** _[Through The Valley by Shawn James (The Last Of Us 2 trailer edition)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xunZys4VDMQ)  
_ **Theme:**[ _Dream Fortress by Grimes_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy3FPRaeW3Y)

* * *

_There is, at current, an intense historical, philosophical, and theological debate concerning the past of Remnant, including all of its hidden mysteries and unknown truths. Thanks to the savagery and destruction left behind by the Great War, and the accompanying destruction of almost all of Remnant's cultural identity, there has been a lack of records and detailed historical findings that are able to collaborate with anyone's theories and understandings of the past that we barely know._

_What spurred on this intense debate had been the collective awakening to the truth of a higher intelligence within and possibly behind the Grimm following the event grimly referred to as the Initiation Massacre by those whom discuss and talk about it, as well as the announcement of the Second Great War. Many of us, being scholars and professors and intense studiers of the past, now look to that hidden past in search of possible answers to the many questions that we find ourselves with today._

_Chief amongst us, many of our number turn to the Cataclysm, one of the few well documented events of the past that were able to survive in the wake of the Great War, yet still are shrouded in its own mystery, and look to the sudden surge of Grimm that was spurred by the chaotic violence of the bloody conflict as a demonstration of a greater mind and intelligence behind the Grimm. Most of these specific researchers and self-proclaimed 'Experts' are young and inexperienced, so it falls upon more seasons scholars and teachers to remind them that this massive surge was brought upon by the massive amounts of negativity that had been generated by the madness and despair of the Great War, and as such, did not serve as sufficient enough proof of any sort of greater intelligence to be found within the Grimm._

_Instead, I myself turn to the fairy tales and myths of old, to all of the half-truths and exaggerations and the strange aperiodic amount of information of some than others, and in particular, to the legends of what is known as the Dark Times. According to what few tales of these legends exist, the Dark Times was a time on Remnant so long ago that even the gods themselves were young, and Azul Primus had yet to unite the world and all of mankind. According to those legends, death was not a natural state of existence during these times, but a concept. A commodity dispensed by the Grimm themselves, whom were worshipped as reapers of death by the people, and brought before those that wanted to die or needed to die, and were given that gift._

_(This is oft thought to be a mistranslation, or even just a misunderstanding of history, and a story that had been skewered and muddied over the long course of time. Of course death did exist back then, as much as it does now, but what most likely happened was that the Grimm were a thing of worship by various sects of humanity, and were offered human sacrifices regularly, thanks to a limited understanding of the Grimm themselves and what they did.)_

_The most concerning part of the legends that come out of this time, though, are the ones that record the so called Dark Empire. It is said, when referring to this topic, that during the first half of the Dark Times, Remnant was ruled by a witch queen of the Grimm, and her Grimm were lorded over humanity, and ruled it through a tyrannical iron fist, before being brought low by a warrior with silver eyes, and leaving Remnant as lawless and destitute._

_It is my belief that it is this legend that must be looked to for proof of the existence of any kind of commanding higher intelligence behind the Grimm. It is this legend that must be observed and understood, especially now with the new enemy in the colours of our old one that we now find ourselves faced with._

_Of course, many may criticise me for looking into the past and such old, obscure legends, and taking them for any sort of fact, but as my colleague, Mandarin philosopher Ashla Mir, always says:_

_There's always a bit of truth in legends._

**_Excerpt_ ** **_from an disclosed report written by Stella Threadbare, ordered to be removed from publications and destroyed, along with any accompanying research and references, by Headmaster Ozpin_ **

* * *

Ruby hated being alone.

As much as she didn't like Yang's treatment of her, her coddling overprotectiveness, she longed for the days where, when the night was the darkest and there were monsters made from the mind lurking outside of her window, that she could just jump into her bed and hold the form of her stronger older sister, and just know that she wasn't alone.

Those days had long since past.

She hadn't wanted to talk to Yang. She hadn't wanted to go to Yang. To just see her older sister when she was in this state- When she had practically abandoned her own team and left them to fend for themselves in the midst of a war against an evil that apparently only she could defeat somehow due to her eyes- Would only reinforce her protectiveness, and probably increase it so.

And worse, it would prove Yang right.

And so, Ruby had gone to seek out the next best thing. She had pressed her ear against their door, but heard voices. 3 in total, and none belonging to him.

But then, finally, she found the one that she was seeking out.

Jaune Arc. The boy whom had sung to her the song of Summer Rose. Who knew the song that her mother had always sung her as a young child.

She had found him in the Lounge, sleeping on the sofa, tired and worn, his cheeks and eyelids red as anything, his face twisted with discomfort and sadness. Something had happened between him and his team.

Something was always happening between team leaders and their teams nowadays, it seemed.

She hadn't wanted to disturb him, and yet, she hadn't wanted to be alone, and she still didn't feel comfortable even entertaining the idea of talking to Melanie, not after everything that had happened in the auditorium.

And so, she spent the rest of the night sleeping in his arms, sheltered in his gentle grasp as he unconsciously wrapped his arms around her, and she more consciously wrapped her arms around him as she slept with him- As she slept with one of the holder's of her mother's lullaby, as she slept with the one whom had saved her in Carmine and Bertilak's warehouse, and had been there for her, as well as the other holder, in her time of need.

When she had woken up in the morning, she had found the second holder of her mother's song, Melanie Malachite, sleeping right next to her, a dull look on her silently snoozing face as she gently kept her fingers teasing the skin of her hand.

Ruby had wrenched it away as quickly as possible, and then felt ashamed of doing so.

She looked over at the sleeping form of Melanie Malachite, and gently guided her thumb over the long scar that ran across her forehead, not disturbing her fellow sleeping team leader in the slightest.

Ruby felt... Conflicted about Melanie.

On the one hand, she loved Melanie. She loved her like she was a sister- No, like she was a mother. She trusted Ruby, and treated her as if she was her own. She was kind to Ruby, and gentle, and protective, and loving, and Ruby couldn't thank her enough for that.

But on the other hand... If what Weiss had said in the auditorium... If what Melanie had essentially confirmed... If it was all true... Then she was nothing but another Miltia to Melanie. Just a replacement of Miltia. A stand-in so that Melanie might have something to project her dead sister onto. A fake sister. A replacement, and nothing more.

And with how angry she had gotten... How violent she had gotten...

It scared Ruby.

She knew that it shouldn't (This was a Hunter's school, after all. She was bound to see scary things, of course. Just ask the Ascendant Court...). Melanie was nice. Melanie was kind.

Melanie had also threatened to slit Weiss' throat in front of the entire first year.

Melanie was scaring Ruby.

She looked over to Jaune's still sleeping form on the sofa, and...

And just stared.

And just continued to stare and stare.

She stared over the form of the man whom had unknowingly sheltered her for the night, and brushed a strand of hair from his closed eyes.

She remembered how he had said that his sister had learnt the song from a Huntress years ago. Her mother, Summer Rose, undoubtedly.

She then cautiously looked over to Melanie, and remembered that she had said that her sister had sung her that song as well, from when they were little children, though Melanie always told her that she had no recollection at all about a woman with a white cloak that looked exactly like her. However, that didn't mean that they hadn't met before, and she just couldn't remember her.

It was clear, just from what they had revealed on that rooftop night that they had shared together after their teams were established, that Summer Rose had a much more lively past than she had originally thought. Maybe now, and maybe only as a sort of comfort, it was time to start digging it up, if only, against, as a source of comfort, and also as a way of truly proving if what the Brother of Light had said back around the _Grimm Tidings_ really had any truth to it, and finally knowing what actually happened to her mother.

(For a moment, her mind flashed back to Jaune's talk of the Daughter, and his description of her. She shunted it away, but still... It was not an implication that she liked to dwell on.)

A sleepy murmur. Feminine, and to her side. Melanie was waking up ahead of the alarm that she had left in her room.

And Ruby, still not ready to talk to her, was out of the Lounge before she could even open her eyes.

* * *

Melanie looked through groggy eyes down at the fading trail of rose petals that led all the way to the door, and winced, bitting the inside of her cheek as she slumped herself upwards from the sofa beneath her, pushing away the stray limp hand of the boy next to her as her eyes narrowed in sadness.

Ruby, the girl that she had come to see as a little sister in place of her real one, was frightened of her.

She hadn't wanted that. She hadn't wanted her to be so scared of her, but... But when she was in the auditorium, and that fucking skank of a whore Schnee had dared to bloody her and knock her to the ground, she had just felt... So angry. So enraged at that slight that she had wanted to stab her taloned fingers into Weiss's throat and pull it apart and spill her blood onto the floor.

And now Ruby, her sweet pseudo little sister in place of her real one, was afraid of her.

Was Melanie being selfish? Was Melanie really just projecting Miltia onto Ruby so that she could... What, cope? Deal with her loss.

Maybe.

Probably.

But Melanie didn't care. She loved Ruby. She loved her sugar sweet sibling that wasn't truly her sibling from the bottom of her heart, and she would be damned if she let anyone like Weiss do anything to her.

So did Melanie feel guilty about threatening to kill Weiss?

No, absolutely not. The only thing that she felt bad about was doing it in a way that made Ruby scared of her.

That white-haired bitch had hurt her family, and nobody was going to mess with her family.

(For a few moments, her mind drifted back to her happy dream last night, where Miltia was alive and she and her real sister and Ruby and Jaune were together as one happy unit, playing together and dancing together and singing together and doing everything together. She had dreamt of a world where this war had never happened and evil was just a forgotten concept and people called her Melanie instead of her old name, Mason, and called her 'She' instead of 'He'.

It was a happy dream. It was a beautiful dream. It was a dream that she had never wanted to wake up from.)

She looked up at the wall. 7:30AM. It was way past the time for her to get up. Great, she was late for... Everything really. She groaned, and suddenly the urge to go limply back to sleep supress her need to care.

Besides her, a yawn. Jaune was waking up now.

For a moment, Melanie looked over the sleeping boy next to her through lazy eyes, and wondered what it was that Miltia had seen in him. Jaune had told her- Had reaffirmed to her- That he had no connections to any kind of royalty, and had never met her sister before, but still, Miltia acted like she'd known him for all of her life, and had called him her king, of all things.

King.

Miltia had called Jaune Arc, of all people, her king.

Neither of them knew anything about what had been going on in Miltia's head, and that seriously scared her.

It was clear that Miltia had known things that she shouldn't have. She had known things that she couldn't have known at all. So, that belied the bigger question: How did she know these things at all? How did she know Jaune's dad's name? How did she know that he was dead? What the hell had she been talking about before she allowed herself to die?

Why did she call Jaune her king?

She thought back to the rhyme that she had sung to unlock Jaune's aura.

_For it is in the darkest nights that we find the light_   
_Through this, we become the fairy tales that cast away the dark_   
_An beacon of hope to all of those in fear_   
_Selfless in heart, and infinite in hope_   
_With stories that will fuel generations_   
_I release your soul_   
_And by my hand, become legends._ _  
_

All of it... All of what she had said... She made references to fairy tales. To legends and stories and myths. Not any specific ones, but just the concepts alone.

What the hell had she been talking about?

Jaune groaned next to her, and began to process of stretching out his arms and legs, before running a hand through his messy blond locks of hair and looking to the side to see the girl sitting next to him. He looked rubicund at the sight of her, and inched back in response. Melanie quirked a tired eyebrow, and muttered, "Morning", to him.

Jaune nodded in turn, "Morning", and leaned himself forwards off of the sofa, cracking his back, and then clicking his neck to the side.

Melanie blinked slowly, "...You know, I'd thought you'd have a bigger reaction to a girl sleeping right to you", she willed the energy to tilt her head cutely to the side, "All sorts of naughty implications~"

"...", Jaune looked down at himself. He looked like he was wondering the same thing as well, "...Good point."

"...Jaune?" there was a note of concern in her voice now.

"...I think I'm too tired to really care that much", there wasn't a hint of negative emotion in his voice, merely a sudden belated understanding.

"..."

'Too tired'... She felt the same way.

"Alright then", and with that, she made a move to stretch herself up, and ended up standing up from the bed before him, offering him her hand before pulling him up to his feet with an old man groan, "Ugh, did I just let out an old man groan?"

"You did", Jaune nodded, "You did just let out an old man groan."

"Ugh."

"Yeah, like that."

"Ugh!" Melanie old man groaned, "Just- Just ugh. Honestly..."

"'Kids these days'?"

"Ah, shut up."

The 2 of them looked to each other, and then shared a laugh at their mutual pain, before they folded their hands over their school uniforms (They hadn't changed out of them), and then sighed, the both of them surprised that no one else had walked into the Lounge and noticed them. Perhaps they felt the same as the 2 of them did.

The 2 of them stood in place for a few moments, before Melanie turned to Jaune with a grave expression on her face, "Ciel took the book. She gave it to Weiss."

Jaune returned her look with an equally alert one, "Should we... Should we go get it back?"

"...There's no point", Melanie looked down and sighed, "By now they would've given it to Ozpin, and he would've brunt it, or hidden it away or whatever. I doubt he'll give it back to us. He might just play coy with us about it if we ask about it. I wouldn't put it against him to do so."

(She had never noticed that Ruby had the book that they were talking about with her. For all of her intelligence and skill, she had missed that crucial little detail.)

"What about our notes?" Jaune asked, "I mean, you had them last time, didn't you?"

"Mm", Melanie hummed, before going, "Yeah, but Ciel's probably gotten to them now and handed them off to Weiss, like the obedient little lapdog that she is", she muttered that last part, before finally muttering out, "Dammit...", and falling back onto the sofa.

Jaune didn't join her, "So that's it? We've lost everything? All of our research, just- Just gone?"

"Most likely", Melanie muttered, before growling and chastising herself with, "Should've photocopied it... Should've copied it while we had the chance...", there was a twitch of the eyebrow, and she brought her hands to her head, "This is fucking ridiculous..."

"Yeah... It is, isn't it?" Jaune said, before looking down at his hands, back to her, and going, "What do we do now?"

"...I don't know."

It wasn't the best answer, but in a way, it was the best as well. It might've been the one they both wanted and didn't want at the same time.

Jaune felt his shoulders slump, and then, with a cold sigh, he changed the subject, "Have you... Have you seen Ruby, lately?"

Melanie felt her shoulders freeze up. It was an involuntary action, and she knew that Jaune noticed it. Before he could ask about it, she pointed to the door and said, "She just left, right before either of us had woken up. I only saw the rose petals on the floor as they were fading away."

"Oh...", was all that Jaune could say. Melanie was thankful for that.

"...I did see her last night, though", Melanie said, catching Jaune's attention once more as she pointed to him, and said, "She had been clinging to you as you both slept."

"Oh...", was Jaune's only reply. He seemed saddened. He must really want to talk to Ruby as much as Melanie did.

And it seemed like he wanted to talk to her as much as he wanted to talk to Ruby.

"Melanie", he began, "We really need to talk about yesterday."

No they didn't, "No we don't", she really wasn't in the mood for any of that right now. She was still smarting from the fight that she had had with Neon last night.

"Melanie-"

"We need to be down by the landing pads in 30 minutes, Jaune, otherwise we're not going to be able to get on the airships to the Valley of Giants."

"Melanie-"

"Move it, Jaune."

And with that, she was out of the Lounge, leaving Jaune on his own. He caught up with her a few minutes later, and the rest of the walk, down to the changing rooms so that they could grab their combat outfits and weapons in their bags and take them with them, and then down to the landing pads at the cliff face of Beacon, was in total silence.

Once they reached the landing pad outside, the 2 of them, with bags in hand, found that everyone else in the first year were already there, and they were already dressed up in their outfits, with their weapons in hand. Nearby, they could see Jolie Kobal trying to give her team leader, Yamana Morai, something akin to a deadpan pep-talk, though it clearly wasn't working (Melanie knew that Yamana was still soring from the departure of her 2 other teammates, Kevin Red and Terra-Terra Steel), and next to them, the 2 of them spotted Shadestep and Skipjack standing off to the side, the Vultures on Shadestep's side, and the rest of the Constructors on Skipjack's side, as the lot of them listened to Professor Watts continue on with what to do and which airships to get on.

(Melanie noted that the guns and cannons that had been hastily fitted onto the airships during the Initiation Massacre hadn't been removed. It was a sight that she both was and was not comfortable with.)

It took Melanie a few moments to realise how out of place she and Jaune looked amongst all of them, still in their school uniforms, still creased and ragged looking despite their best efforts, and their hair were big clumps of messes and the both of them had bags under their eyes. She could spot many of their peers around them shooting looks of caution and unsettledness at the haggard pair, and turned their gazes away when she caught them looking.

She twitched her eyebrow, and then growled silently. Whatever, she didn't care. Not her or the few friends that she had, not her problem. They could deal with themselves. Just leave her and her 2 friends out of it.

Jaune didn't seem to think that way, though, as his shoulders sagged at the sight of the people looking away from him like that, and Melanie had to nudge him in the ribs with her elbow to snap him out of his funk, "Ignore them, Jaune. They don't matter."

"Everyone matters."

There it was. There it always was. That selfish selflessness...

As much as she liked the guy, Melanie really wanted to smack him for it sometimes.

"...", Jaune was quiet for a while, before finally, he said, "We need to be better, Melanie. Better leaders, better people. We owe them more than we're giving them."

She didn't like how he had included her in that, but at the same time, she was thankful that he was sharing the burden instead of-

"Dammit, I owe them more than I'm giving them."

-Instead of selfishly taking it away from her and not letting her help him along with it.

There it was. There he went, taking the burden all onto himself and refusing to let anyone else carry it for him. She knew that he was never doing it out of his own ego (He was an easy person to read like that), And she knew that he thought that he'd be doing a favour for her, but at the same time, trying to carry all of that responsibility- All of that guilt and trauma- By himself instead of letting others help him and carry it with him was just so unbelievable selfish that it made her want to scream out in anger.

"Perhaps, but they owe us a lot more than they're giving us as well", Melanie said to him, "Respect is mutual. It goes both ways."

"Mm..."

"If they want us to lead them, then they have to work with us, and-"

"And we have to work with them, right?"

"...Yeah", Melanie bit the insides of her lip, suddenly uncomfortable with the conversation.

Thankfully, there was an interruption in the form of Professor Watts, as he called out, "Remember to stay with your teams when you arrive in the Valley of Giants. This is a team building exercise as well as a field trip, so do not allow this opportunity to build your bonds together, no matter what personal relations may get in the way."

The last part of Watts' call out came out quieter than the rest, almost like a purr.

Nearby, the gathered Techions took a shared step back.

"Oh, and Miss Fyre?" he called out again, "If you could come see me, please?"

Nearby, Esper nodded, but was stopped by Tusks, who grabbed her arm and said something to her, but was shrugged off by the dragon Faunus as she forced him to let go, and spared a look over to Melanie and Jaune, her lips moving in what appeared to be a silent chuckle, before walking off to join Professor Watts and talk about whatever the hell it was that he wanted to talk to her about.

Nearby, DJ shot them an expressionless glance, his visor and faceplate as unemotive as ever.

Melanie ignored this exchange (Not her, not her problem), and then turned to Jaune and went, "C'mon, Jaune, we need to get to the changing rooms. Or the toilets and just change in one of the cubicles."

"Melanie-"

"Jaune, let's go... See you in the Valley of Giants", and on that final note, Melanie left him alone, bags in hand as she trudged her way to one of the airships, not ready for the conversation that was bound to happen. Not ready at all, no matter how much she wouldn't admit to it.

She just wanted to see Ruby again.

(Unbeknownst to her, Ruby could see her. Ruby could see the both of them perfectly fine.)

* * *

Long ago, in the times of ancient, when even the gods were young, Remnant was home to another species.

They were the giants.

Massive, almost mountain sized humanoid creatures with curled horns atop their heads, that were so large that you could walk and run across one of their ribs, and a camp within their eye sockets. It is said that they roamed the lands, spreading destruction and ruin wherever they went, and bringing entire civilisations to ruin as they walked across the entire world, creating the many canyons and valleys that covered Remnant, and reshaping the continents beneath their feet.

However, it is said that when the time for their extinction came, in what was, for some reason, known as the God War, the giants gathered in the lands that would one day be called Vale, and dug out a great canyon for themselves, where they constructed thrones for themselves out of the stone and earth, and laid themselves to rest, becoming everlasting monuments and obelisks to a time that may not have ever happened.

At least, according to the legends.

Of course, the rationalists and hard lone atheists would remark that such a time never existed, that the concept of giants roaming the earth was ridiculous, impossible, make believe stories to tell the children at night, like the tales of the Story of the Seasons, or the Warrior in the Woods, or the Gift of the Moon.

Then, those same rationalists and hard lone atheists would be silenced, by simply looking out of the window.

A deep canyon, almost like a gash in the earth below, stretched out for miles. Within this deep cut in the world, surrounded by mountains and deep ravines, sat humungous, one eyed and curled horned skeletons, sitting atop thrones that were carved into the rock of the mountain itself, their cracked, horned heads stretching up over the tops of the canyon and allowing birds to nest in the calcium cracks and exposed cambium like layers. Trees and plants and vines and wildlife wove themselves into fine coats for the remains of these gigantic beasts as they continued to lay in rest, undisturbed by man for so many years, and would most likely continue to be so for many more years to come, whilst in between these great skeletal behemoths, massive trees that curled around each other and stretched up to be as high as the dead giants themselves (The Twisting Trees, the children of Remnant called these giants onto themselves) Stood tall like sentinels, like guardsmen watching over their charges.

Around the Valley of Giants, the monolithic city of New Fortressa had been constructed, and had been established as a sort of 'Gateway to paradise'. In the times before the Great War, New Fortressa had evolved to become one big morgue in the form of a city, a giant cathedral and retirement home for the sick and the elderly, whilst also serving as a giant church, an oversized place of worship for the faithful of all religions, because of its close proximity to the ancient corpses of those that once walked with the gods, and as such, was considered a holy site, a city with a closer connection to the holy energies of the gods than anywhere else, and a place where the religious would go to die, so that they might be carried easier to heaven than anywhere else.

Then, the Great War came and went, and New Fortressa was completely ravaged, first by Mantle and Mistral, then by the Grimm, and then once more by Mantle and Mistral all over again. The churches and cathedrals of the city were ransacked, the morgues were emptied out, the corpses of the city were desecrated and thrown onto the streets, and the once Moving City, a civilisation that was moved around on 4 massive legs that left prints that still remained to this day, was almost destroyed, and came to a stop next to New Fortressa, almost crushing the city underneath its weight.

Now, all of this great work and wonders of human ingenuity had been reduced to a broken necropolis, now renamed into the Sleeping City, rusting in the sun like rotten fruit, and left like a carcass for the scavengers, drifters, and vultures to feast on.

From her seat on the airship, Ruby could see all of the dilapidated buildings, the hollowed out skulls of domed churches and halls, and the toppled skyscrapers that acted like bridges between the Sleeping City and New Fotressa. But above all, she could see the skulls and the twisting horns of the giants themselves, the massive cyclopes that now sat lonely and yet also together in their opened tomb in the earth, catching cobwebs and dust as they sat and sat and sat, turning grey and hardening like stone over the years, fossilising into brittle coal over centuries of dead slumber and neglect.

And then, the view of her window was overtaken by a great big creature of feathers and beaks and horns of their own.

A dragon.

"Holy shit, you guys, it's a dragon!" one of her fellow first years called out, and in a few seconds, she was crowded by boys and girls and humans and Faunus and Techions of the like as they stared out of the window at the giant feathered beast that was flying alongside their slow moving airship.

Dragons, contrary to popular belief and folklore, were not actually giant flying lizards that breathed fire. Well, not all of them were lizards, but none of them were able to breathe fire-

(Apart from the mythical 3 headed Thunderstorm type, though those were just a myth as far as anyone else knew, though Ruby had her doubts.

Though, the fact that Esper Fyre was a self-proclaimed dragon Faunus, whom had scales for skin and was had a semblance that allowed her to breathe fire, was just way too coincidental for Ruby to swallow.)

-Rather, in fact, there were multiple different types of dragons.

The first ones were the more commonly known dragons, being giant feathered birds with 2 hind legs, 2 forearms combined with their feathered wings, and a long neck that extended up to a giant bird head and beak, with a long tail or more flying behind them, and a pair of curled horns up atop its head.

Next were the rarer, but not entirely uncommon drakes, land based dragons that lacked both the wings and the beaks of the airborne dragons, but had a powerful bite to them as well.

Thirdly, there were the wyverns, also land based dragons, but more befitting of the traditional dragon trope, lacking feathers and beaks in exchange for a sharp toothed jaw, and looking more lizard like, what with scales and whatnot, with only 2 hind legs to keep it upwards, and a pair of wings that, for a short period of time, could keep it up in the air for a short period of time, usually for jumping and getting ahead of its prey.

Then was the amphiptere, smaller dragons that looked more like flying feathered snakes with barbed tails and wings, about the size of a person's arm, and hardly a threat on their own, but would always travel in swarms and colonies, and would use their sheer numbers to overwhelm and kill their prey.

Up next was the lindwurm, snake like dragons native to Solitas only, with thick fur coats covering them, only 2 hind legs to walk on, leaving the rest of their bodies to slither in the snow, large beaks to swallow up their prey whole, and some sort of internal fission within themselves in order to keep warm.

And lastly, was the Wyrm, or the Sea Serpent, an aquatic form of dragon that resembled a snake with a lizard head, having gills covering its body and being able to swim in the sea, being part bioluminescent as well, and was theorised to have been the reason behind the evolution of the Grimm subtype known as the Sea Feilong.

Huh. Guess all of Weiss' lessons did pay off after all.

Speaking of which, she could hear a familiar sound of heels (How on Remnant was someone supposed to walk around in those things anyways, it was ridiculous) Making their way towards the crowd watching the dragon.

Ruby really didn't want to deal with this.

She heard Weiss call out her name. It was hard to tell what emotion was behind it, but Ruby didn't stop to pay attention. She began to move through to the other side of the crowd, and, strangely enough, people parted like a sea for her, whilst also covering her escape out of the crowd, and into the open.

They must really not like Weiss.

Then, she could see Weiss and Ciel, and they saw her, and Ruby darted off into a flurry of rose petals down the corridor, away from the sight of the dragon (Because she sword that it had been looking right at her), And further into the airship, coming down into a corridor with Yamana Morai and Jolie Kobal sitting together off to the side, on a pile of boxes, talking to each other about the Impossible Moon myth, a strange conversational choice to have, but then again, Ruby had never really been good at holding conversations, so that might just be her.

So, with a shake in her step, Ruby pointed to one of the boxes, and caught their attention by asking, "Um, e-excuse me, but, um, could I-"

"Ruby!" a shrill voice called out behind them, and 2 shadows lining the floor slowly emerged from around the corner.

Upon hearing this, the 2 girls on the boxes looked at each other, both of them seemingly recognising the voice, before Yamana got up from the box that she was sitting on and opened it up, "Get in, quickly."

Ruby nodded, "Thank you!" and quickly jumped in for an extremely tight squeeze, as Yamana closed the box's lid above her, and sat back down on it, hard.

In the darkness of the crate that she sat in, she could hear Weiss and Ciel approach the 2 sitting on the boxes above her, followed up by the former asking the 2 girls where she had gone off to. She got no reply. She asked again, her voice raised to catch their attention. No response at all. A sound of exacerbation, and then 2 pairs of feet, one heeled, the other not, walking away.

The crate opened once again, and Yamada motioned for her to climb out, "The coast is clear", she said, and Ruby nodded and muttered her thanks, "It's no problem", Yamada responded with, "Just helping a fellow team leader out."

Ruby nodded again, and just as she climbed out of the box that she had been hiding in, and had finished dusting herself off, the airship around them rocked in place. The 3 of them reached for their weapons instinctively, but were calmed by the voice of Miss Goodwitch speaking over the ship's speakers, _"All students are to make their way down to the main ramps out of the airship immediately. I repeat, all students are to make their way down to the main ramps immediately."_

"I guess we've landed", Ruby muttered, "Still don't know why we're at the Valley of Giants, though..."

"I guess we'll find out", Jolie said, and with that, the 3 girls made their way down the corridors, towards the main ramps, and outside, right onto the footsteps of the dilapidated city of New Fortressa.

The air around them was stale, tasting bitter in the mouth and reminding her of death. Before her, through the ruined domes of the many cathedrals, and the makeshift watchtowers that had been constructed between the toppled skyscrapers, she could see the light of the sun poking through the many shattered windows and war-made holes, inching through the soft rock and reflecting off of the scattered puddles and stray shards of glass that had been brushed into the corners.

At least there was some security running about. Atlesian auto-turrets and electrical fences lined the areas as high up into the air, recently placed cranes and scrapping robots tinkered and toiled against the city walls and wreckage, taking it all apart as Atlesian sentries in full battle armour, helmets and all, watched over the area from their towers and balconies, armed with MG turrets and LMGs connected to said balconies, all of them equipped with holographic sights and red dot vision, and possibly a bunch of other attachments because they all looked like customisable rigs and had a bunch of different attachments added to them like grenade launchers and long barrel muzzles and Ruby just really wanted to go over the specs for them and-

"I thought this was all abandoned. Why are these guys out here instead of in Vale? Why would Ironwood want to send his men all the way into this place?"

Ruby's mind stopped mid-rant, and froze. There was one voice-

"That's because this entire area, from the Sleeping City, to New Fortressa, to the Valley itself, is one giant- No pun intended- Goldmine for scrap metal. Look, see the cranes and scrapper bots up there? Ironwood's stripping this place down for parts. It's one giant salvage operation."

-And there was the other.

"Huh, I guess... Kind of morbid to take apart a giant tomb, though. Feels like graverobbing, of a sort."

"Yeah, I don't like it, either. Atlas must be getting desperate for metal. Can't say I blame them, but still... This does feels wrong."

They were together. Jaune and Melanie. They were hanging out together. Ruby couldn't fault them for it.

(There was a split second sharp pain in Ruby's heart, but she brushed it away.)

She didn't want to talk to them.

Or more specifically, her.

But Melanie wanted to talk to her, it seemed. She could see her olive green eyes widen at the sight of her, and she began to squeeze her way through the many small crowds that had formed, weaving around the groups of friends and acquaintances as Jaune followed shortly after, a hesitant and unsure spring in his step. The both of them had changed into their combat uniforms, at least.

Ruby made plans to worm her way through the crowd to avoid them, but all of them were broken out of whatever conversations that they had by a loud assertive cough from ahead of them, and they all looked to see Professor Goodwitch and Professor Watts standing before them, long blinking blue and metallic silver poles in their hands that stretched out just above their heads, connected to a black power pack and stand at the bottom, all the while, an Atlesian soldier coloured in greens and greys, his encompassing helmet in his hands, revealed a fair skinned man with a stubbly chin, dark green eyes, and wild brown hair.

(She noticed how Miss Goodwitch's eyes seemed to linger on Jaune for just a second, and how Jaune looked away in shame. 2 different emotions flickered in their eyes, though it was just for a moment, and Ruby would be damned if she knew what they were.)

"Students, pay attention", Professor Watts called out to all of them, waiting for a moment to let them all mentally catch up, before continuing, "Now then, originally, this trip was planned for the Forever Falls, but an unexpected breach of Grimm there thanks to elements outside of our control-"

Outside of our control? Ruby thought in confusion (As did everyone else, she suspected, before remembering a news broadcast that detailed a raid on a SDC sponsored train by the Acolytes of the Ascended not too long ago near the Forever Falls, and realising that the Grimm must've used that opportunity to make a breach into the Forever Falls.

"- Forced us to change plans. However, I'm sure that you're all confused as to why we are out here, so allow me to explain", he paused again, this time for effect, and then carried on, "After the terrible event in the Emerald Forest", there was something behind his voice, but Ruby couldn't make it out, "The council has demanded that a much more reliable source of detecting and patterning Grimm movements around the kingdom is needed. As such", he held out one of the poles in his hands, "These come into play. These sensor nodes, designed by myself-"

Miss Goodwitch coughed.

"-Ah, my mistake- Designed by us, I mean, and supplied by our good friends over in Atlas", the soldier next to them waved, "Shall serve as the first part of a new proximity network that will safeguard Vale for years to come. Of course, these shall need to be planted in as many places as we can, and as such, that task falls to you."

Miss Goodwitch then continued, "For years after the Great War, the Valley of Giants, along with the ruins of New Fortressa and the Sleeping City, have been abandoned, and left for the Grimm and scavengers to make their homes in. However, that changes today. With the help of our allies within the Atlesian military, we are going to be beginning the process of mapping out the entirety of these ruins once again. So, once we are led to our central gathering point by our guide, Lieutenant Malcom Croft-"

The lieutenant in question waved, "Hello."

"-We are to take as many of these sensor nodes as we can, and split off into our teams across the ruins, and plant them in strategic positions across the area. These positions should be concealed and hard to find, so that the nodes will remain undiscovered by our enemies. Once one of the nodes has been placed and turned on, and ping to the shared app on your scrolls that it has been activated, and will map out its surroundings, allowing you to find your way around the ruins. Remember, this is a team building exercise, and I expect all of you to be able to work with your teammates in this talk. However, remain alert at all times. Much of this area has already been cleared and scouted out by the Atlesians present, but there could still be a large number of Grimm and other malcontents lingering about this place, so remain vigilant, and do not be afraid to retreat back to friendly lines if the situation gets too hot", she then gestured her head over to the helmetless soldier next to her, and said, "Lieutenant Croft, the floor is yours."

"Thanks, Miss", the soldier said in a bit too cheerful of a tone, before turning to the students, with a goofy smile on his face, and going, "Alright then kids, I know you all don't want to be here, so let's get a move on! The quicker that we can get out of here, the better!" he turned around, and with a wave of his arm, "C'mon, let's move, kids!" he beckoned them all to follow him.

Ruby was the only one (To her knowledge) Who didn't. Slinking to the back of the crowd, and grabbing a stray sensor node off of the ground, she moved herself to the side, and hopped between the pillars on a deactivated electrical fence, over a few piles of cleared away rubble and dirt, and down into the ruins of an old monastery.

She couldn't stay there. Not with her there as well.

She just... She just needed time to think.

She stopped running, and found herself in the middle of a domed building. The monastery that she had run into. The ceiling had long since caved in, and the floor was flooded with water, up to the soles of her boots. The pews had long since been removed, but instead, rusting metal stands that had been cut off at the base, with cleanly cut wires poking out of them, rested in their place.

Ruby tilted her head at this, and then looked to the broken wall, where a painting that had been made on it, thankfully still visible, despite being faded and splattered with graffiti. The painting itself was about people on... Crosses? Yeah, it was crosses. Metal crosses as tubes were pumped into them through their bellybuttons, and drew out faded substances from the body... Or was it pumping in substances? Ruby couldn't tell, but it was safe to say that she was thoroughly disturbed by what she saw.

She didn't notice the sloshing footsteps in the water beneath her until they were a few steps away from her. A lack of situational awareness that she needed to work on.

"This is an old catalyst church. That's what they're called."

Ruby froze, not bothering to turn her head.

"Back during the Great War, food supplies for both Vale and New Fortressa were getting low, since Mantle and Mistral continuously made it a mission to burn down their agricultural centres and food suppliers, and the noble families started getting desperate. Started setting up a human and Faunus recycling centre right here in New Fortressa. First they started with the corpses, and then with the slaves that they owned, even spreading off to people that wouldn't be missed. Technology back in the day was super advanced, so it's likely that a lot of genetic engineering was involved, but... Well, using a lot of advanced machinery and genetic manipulation, these people would be broken down into their component parts, like tissue, bone, calcium, fat, and iron. Blood Alchemy, that's what they called it back in the day. These new products would then be tampered with on a cellular level, making it impossible to tell that it was ever a person, and then rebranded as new war rations and material."

"...Industrialised... Cannibalism?"

"With the general populace never knowing that they might've been eating their neighbours... Or their relatives", a humourless chuckle followed, "The nobles did, though. That's why they never ate that shit."

"That's... Sickening."

"It's a dead practice, now. The technology's never been rediscovered, and I know for a fact that nobody ever wants to."

"And Vale... Let this happen?"

"The nobles did, not Vale itself. They didn't know until the mass trials of nobles during the Rights Revolution."

"They never taught us this at Signal."

"They're whitewashing the past, then. 'History is written by the victors', after all."

Ruby looked to her side, "You sure do know a lot of stuff, Melanie."

Melanie nodded, and kicked up a string of water with the front of her heeled boot, Jaune behind her mimicking her movements, "Yeah, well, when you live with my sister, you tend to pick up a few things. Seriously, compared to her, I used to look like an idiot child."

The 3 of them stood in silence for a long few seconds, standing around awkwardly and uncomfortable in each other's presence. What a change that it was from just a few days ago.

"...Ruby-"

"Do we have to?"

"Ruby-"

"Do we have to talk about it?"

Melanie paused, "...I don't want to, and I know that you don't want to, but I feel like we have to."

"Why?"

"Because I want my friend back."

"To whom are you addressing that to?"

"...Ruby?"

"Are you saying that to me, or the person that you've replaced Miltia with?"

For a split second, Ruby saw a hint of vulnerability go over Melanie's face. It was an unpleasant sight.

Jaune got in the middle of them, "Hey, guys, maybe we should... Maybe we should catch up with the others. See what's going on with them, yeah?"

"...No, Melanie's right", Ruby muttered, before saying out loud, "I know we don't want to have this conversation, but... If we don't talk about it now, then we never will."

"...Let's go find a place less... Waterlogged", Melanie said to them, "Somewhere more open. Who knows, we can spar it out?"

"...yeah", Ruby nodded, "I like that idea."

And with that, the 3 friends-that-weren't-sure-if-they-still-were-friends walked off, sensor node still in Ruby's hands, wading through the water below them, around the metal spikes and rubble on the ground, and through into a different, almost collapsed corridor.

Behind them, a smoking robotic spider followed not too far behind.

* * *

"Jaune, switch with me."

The boy in question looked to her for a moment, before giving a hesitant nod, and letting his bright white aura flicker away, folding away and holstering his electrostaff on his back, and letting Melanie step into the circle as he moved to the side, resting himself on a broken piece of roof that had fallen into the now opened circle around them.

The 3 of them had eventually settled for a wide, circular room in the web of ruins that made up New Fortressa, with an opened roof made by natural degradation, and a pair of corridors on either side on opposite sides of the circle. The room looked like it had once been coloured a rich red, though it had now faded into a dull maroon like colour, and the walls were cracked and opened, with tiles once scattered along the floor, now swept to the side by them, to make sure that they didn't trip up on anything. The muffled sound of trickling and splashing water was heard behind the walls.

Melanie looked to her opponent over in the corner- Ruby- And Let her knuckledusters flip down. With a flare of her aura (And a burning sting to her hands), She watched the glowing blue strip in the middle of them flicker with blue fire from the energy that she hadn't used the day previous, and flicked her fingers over the metal talons covering them. Sparing one last glance to the long blades that ran down the back of her legs and heeled her boots, she looked up to Ruby, and scanned her for weaknesses.

It was obvious that she was going to lose this fight. Ruby was a progeny with her scythe and weapons, apparently, as she watched the red and black themed girl spin her recently created Crescent Rose 2.0 as a warmup. The chances of her coming out of this fight as a winner were low, but there was still a chance. Ruby had multiple weapons on her, but she might not be used to all of them by now, and her new Crescent Rose wasn't as long as her previous one, meaning that she also might not be used to the lesser amount of weight and melee range yet. These were things that she could use to her advantage.

On the other side of the circle, she could see Ruby doing the same as she was, and scanning her for weaknesses as well, _Good, that's good, look for every weakness on an opponent, and get ready to exploit the fuck out of them_ , Melanie thought to herself, _I would be disappointed if you didn't-_

Ruby moved in a flurry of rose petals, and Melanie didn't have time to react before she reformed right in front of her and sent her scythe slamming down into the ground.

Luckily, like Melanie correctly theorised, Ruby still wasn't completely used to the shorter melee range of her main weapon yet, which gave Melanie ample distance to quickly jump away, though Ruby seemed to immediately learn from her mistake as she pulled it out of the ground and took another swing at her (They had agreed not to use their guns in the fragile old ruins, and focus more on their melee skills for the time being), This time almost catching her before she was able to react, though she quickly fell to the ground to dodge, and delivered a sweeping kick to Ruby's legs, summersaulting upright as Ruby fell, and then moving to deliver a strike with the long heel blades on her boots, though Ruby quickly shimmered into rose petals and reformed above her to dodge it, motioning her scythe down like an axe-

_Ah, crap._

-And letting it impale into the ground where Melanie would've been if she hadn't quickly flung herself out of the way and righted herself onto her feet.

 _She's fast_ , Melanie said as an obvious statement, _Too fast for me to match. Just need to wear her down, and then go in for the kill._

Another swing to her, and she rolled out of the way again. Ruby twirled her scythe in the air above her, and then folded it away, deciding instead to move onto a new strategy, and pulled out the 2 swords on her back. Wither and Blossom, that's what Ruby called them.

Ruby swung with them, and Melanie countered with her heels, knuckledusters and talons, though she was more experienced with the former than the latter 2. Cartwheeling across the ground, Melanie sent a series of kicks at Ruby, each one deflected, before twirling herself around and throwing a talon augmented claw at her, and then a fiery knuckleduster enabled fist, before alienating between the 3 available options to her in a maddening frenzy of slashes and punches and kicks that seemed to be just as disorientating for Ruby as it was for Melanie.

Unfortunately, this style of fighting really wasn't working for Melanie (She definitely needed more practice in the art of fisticuffs), and Ruby could tell, as she began to time her attacks when Melanie alienated from her heels to her hands, throwing off her fists and claws and hitting her with the butt end of her swords, and getting slash after slash on her aura, moving her swords into a scissor position and catching her below her shoulders, scrapping across her arms and cutting her aura down a fair bit as she did.

Melanie didn't have a lot of aura, and Ruby was taking advantage of this. Melanie had to cartwheel out of the way once more as Ruby then switched her weapons out, sheathing Wither and Blossom, and activating her arm blades, Silver Bloom-

 _Ah, she's using the same sort of strategy as me_ , Melanie thought to herself, _Constantly adapting and changing her fighting style in order to confuse her enemies and not allow them to adapt to her movements. Clever._

-Letting the arm blades reach out like mantis claws, and then charging forwards. Melanie countered this by grabbing the blades themselves with her armoured hands, and pulling Ruby closer to her, allowing her to knee her in the gut, and then into her chin in close succession, before stepping back and planting a heeled boot into her waist, forcing her back, almost onto her feet if she didn't flutter into rose petals and fling herself back at Melanie, arm claws stretched out and ready to fight, and Melanie moved to counter this with-

Arm blades.

Red and black.

Her.

_Miltia…_

Melanie froze for just a second. A single moment hesitation.

It was all that Ruby needed, her eyes narrowing at the sight as she planted her fist into Melanie's gut, and sent her flying back, right towards the edge of the circle.

Somehow, Melanie was able to recover herself, and righted herself onto her feet, _Alright then_ , she thought to herself, _You want to get serious? Then let's get serious_ , and with that, she flared out her aura, and activated her semblance proper.

Blue fire began to dance across her arms, and the metal wings that sat on her back began to flay themselves outwards, bright blue fire spreading out from them as she stood ready, like an archangel sent down from the heavens above, and-

She supressed a scream at the pain. The fire on her began to cook her hands, burning her arm stockings and skin, and the white hot flames on her back began to burn at her clothing and sear her flesh.

Ruby blinked, "Melanie-"

"I'm fine", she gritted out between her teeth.

"Melanie-"

"I'm. Fine."

"Melanie!" Jaune began from the side, "Your arms!"

She looked back down, and saw- And felt- The skin on her arms peeling away from the heat.

"Dammit!" she gritted out, and with that, she shut off her aura, and deactivated her semblance. The blue fires immediately cooled away, and Melanie turned off her knuckledusters, folding them away, and peeled off her talons and finger armour, letting the pieces- Attached by thin cords to her bracelets- Dangle below her wrists, and inspected the damage to her arms and hands.

First degree burns, all around. Her hands had turned red and yellow from the heat. She could feel her unused aura begin the process of healing them, but still, to only be able to use her semblance for a few second before she was rendered useless from the pain and the physical trauma? It didn't paint a bright future for her.

"Melanie, are you- No, dumb question!" Ruby went as she quickly sped to Melanie's side, ghosting her hands over Melanie's, and then turning to Jaune and going, "Jaune, we need water! Something to cool her hands off, and- What are you doing?"

"Just give me a sec!" Jaune said as he pounded his fists against the walls in quick succession, and called back with, "I swear, I can hear running water from behind one of these walls. I just need to-"

His hands banged against a hollow wall, a muffled echo on the other side. As quickly as he could, he pulled out Crocea Mors and stabbed it deep into the wall, before pulling it out, and letting a torrent of water pour out of it. Rain water. It must've been collecting over the years from all of the rainfall, or might've been a naturally made river flowing through the ruins for all they knew. In a frantic motion, Melanie ran forwards and threw her hands underneath the torrent of water, feeling her hands immediately begin to cool from the cold ambrosia, and letting out a sigh of relief as the pain in her arms began to numb and soften. Her nerves hadn't been deadened by the heat, it would seem. Thank the gods for that much, at least.

"Melanie, what was that?" Ruby sounded off as Melanie kept her hands underneath the freshly made waterfall, "Just- One minute you're fine, the next minute you're screaming, and your arm is burning up!"

"It's my semblance. A side-effect of it, at least", Melanie sighed out as she pulled her hands back and shook them dry, looking at her red and yellow burnt skin, and watching a blue glow hum over them and fill the red sea of skin with islands of pale whiteish pink. Only superficial injuries, then. That was good. They would heal quickly, at least, "Remember last Saturday, when I mentioned how self-destructive my semblance was? This is it", she waved her burnt hands, "I can collect energy and weaponize it, pretty much turning it into fire, or plasma or whatever. But the drawback is that my aura can't protect me from the sheer heat of it. Blue fire is the hottest fire of all, after all. If I use it for too long, then I'll burnt up under my own flames, and I really don't want a repeat of the Emerald Forest."

"Yeah", Jaune muttered humourlessly as he watched Melanie reach for the now folded wings on her back, "You looked like a living corpse when I saw you."

"Yeah", she muttered, "You should've seen what I looked like before- AUGH!" with a cry of pain, she stopped tugging on the metal wings on her back, and redirected much of her aura to healing the burnt skin around it, "Alright then, let's ignore that for now... Might be for the best to just let my aura sort that out", Jaune moved to cup a handful of water and pour it onto her back to sooth the pain, but Melanie stopped him with an outstretched hand, "Don't. Don't bother. I don't want to rust or short-circuit the metal."

Jaune took a hesitant step back and nodded, letting the water in his hands fall to the ground, and Ruby quickly piped up with, "So, your semblance is your own worst enemy, then? If you use it, it kills you? Is that why you're at the bottom of the combat scoreboard back at Beacon?"

"Well, that, and the fact that, again, I'm one of the weakest fighters in the school, considering how I was getting trounced by you just now, but yeah, that's pretty much the long and short of it", Melanie let out a chuckle, "You looked like you were having fun, though. Cathartic, isn't it?"

Ruby didn't answer verbally, but the look on her face suggested that she hadn't agreed.

"...Yeah, me neither", Melanie answered truthfully, wondering why they had even bothered to spar in the first place, and quietly said, "If there was ever the time to talk, Ruby, now is the time."

Jaune, sensing the discussion that the 2 of them were going to have, plugged his sword back into the hole that he had made in the wall, stopping the flow of water from coming through, and stepped off and out of the circle, leaning against the wall and giving the 2 girls some space.

"...What am I to you, Melanie?" Ruby began with as she looked to the ground, eyes downcast.

Huh?

Melanie looked to her. She didn't know what she meant by that, "What do you-"

"Just answer the question, Melanie."

"...You're Ruby", Melanie asked after a few moments pause, unsure of what Ruby was trying to ask or imply, "You're my friend... Hell, you're like the little sister I never had, and I-

"You what?"

"...Well, I, you know, I love you like the sister that I-"

"That you already had."

Melanie blinked, and then narrowed her eyes at the girl with the acid burnt skin on the left side of her body, "What are you saying?"

There was another long pause, before Ruby finally asked, "Am I Ruby to you, Melanie? Or am I just a replacement for Miltia?"

Did it matter?

"Does it matter?"

"Yes!" Ruby whirled around to the white themed girl and got up in her face to almost yell this, "Yes it does matter!"

"Why?"

"Why? Because you're not seeing me for me! You're seeing me for Miltia! You're not seeing me as a friend, but as a replacement!"

"..."

Melanie looked away.

"Does it... That's not... That's not true-"

"It is true."

"It's not!"

"It is!" Ruby responded with, before taking in a deep breath, and going, "I'm not Miltia. She's gone, and I'm sorry. And trust me when I say that I know what it's like... But... But what you're doing... And how you acted yesterday..."

Melanie's eyes darted to her, "Is this really about that?"

"Yes this is about that! You threatened to kill Weiss, for god's sake!"

"She deserved it!"

"I know!"

Melanie took a step back in shock at this. Even Jaune's eyes widened under his helmet at this revelation from Ruby's part.

"Goddammit, I know that she deserved it! She was being a prissy little... Little... Brat of a princess, and she deserved it! But that didn't give you the right to do that!"

"Ruby, I had every right to-"

"To fight my battles for me! I should've been the one to stop Weiss from doing that. That's a failing on my part. But that gives you no right to baby me!"

"You sound like Weiss."

"Weiss was right!" she threw her hands in the air in exasperation, "Weiss was right, dammit. I'm not Miltia, and I'm not someone that you can just project what you want onto! I'm me! And I'm a Huntress in training! I need to be able to fight my own wars and stand up for myself, and I'm going to try!"

"Evidently, you can't, because if you could, you wouldn't have been hiding from Weiss in the airship!"

This finally got Ruby to stagger back. Melanie supressed a smile. She was getting a craving to rub into Ruby's face how much of a hypocrite she was currently being, but decided against it.

"If you could actually stand up for yourself, then you wouldn't have let Weiss walk all over you like a doormat! Can you actually fight your own battles by yourself, Ruby? Because it's pretty clear what the answer is!"

"I can't do that if you don't give me the chance!"

"You've been given the chance to do so for the last month!"

"I KNOW! For god's sake, I know! I was scared! I still am scared!"

"Why?! What are you so afraid of?!" Melanie paused, and then, "Is this about Salem? And the Ascendant Court?"

"...Yeah."

Melanie straightened herself, "You knew about that. About her. All this time Jaune and I were trying to find out anything that we could about her, and you knew about Salem! You knew!"

"I wanted to tell you! You have no idea how much I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't! The headmaster-"

"Ozpin."

"-Yeah, him. He told us not to tell anyone about anything even relating to her."

"Including Ozma?"

Ruby queered her head, "I don't even know who that is."

"...You're being serious, aren't you?"

"...Yeah."

Melanie tweezed the bridge of her nose, sighed, and then looked away. There was a long pause between the 2 of them, both girls unsatisfied with the argument that they had just had, before Melanie finally asked, "Where do we go from here?"

"...I don't know."

Down the corridor near them, a scuttling sound was heard, and the 3 sort-of-friends inside looked to see a sliver of an incredibly thin black limb move around the corner in the corridor, and out of sight.

"...We were being watched", Melanie realised.

"Scout, or a spy", Ruby said as she pulled out and unfolded Crescent Rose, almost unclipping the sensor node that she had attached to her back, "It must be moving to report back our location."

"At least we know where we're going, now", Jaune said as he pulled out 2 of the pistols at his side, and said, "Let's get after it before it reports back to its buddies."

The other 2 nodded, and with that, they sped off after the thing that had been spying on them, down the corridor, and through the crumbling and water filled hallways that made up the Necropolis of New Fortressa, until...

They stood in the entryway into a massive circular gallery with no clear lighting, a giant circle in the middle filled with water, and completely shrouded in darkness, and then-

"It's a trap."

"So a trap."

"Definitely a trap."

-Immediately turned around and, at a brisk pace, began to leg it down the corridor.

"I feel stupid for almost falling for that."

"Yeah, we all do."

"I'm gonna give myself a cookie for not falling for that."

The walls around them immediately peeled away and fell apart, to reveal dozens of stun mines attached to the walls behind their hidden layers.

"On second thought, I really should've seen this coming."

"Yeah, we really do deserve this for falling into this trap so easily."

"I rescind my reward cookie."

The stun mines on the walls flared to life, and purple electricity leached out and towards the 3 Hunters in training. However, Melanie retched her hands out in time and activated her semblance, drawing all of the electricity into herself and keeping it away from Ruby and Jaune.

"Melanie!" Ruby called out as the girl in question began to feel her skin cook from the combined efforts of both her own semblance and the electricity dancing over her, but she gritted her teeth and weathered through it.

"Get moving already!" she called back to the 2 of them, "I'll be right behind-"

"We're not leaving you!" Jaune yelled this time, but Melanie didn't have time for this as she felt a shadow begin to loom over her from behind.

"I'll be right behind you, now go, before-"

It was too late. The ceiling behind Jaune and Ruby collapsed, and that thing that had been watching them before scuttled through it. It looked some sort of half-flattened sphere, but with 10 legs in total protruding from the bottom, and a dozen gleaming red eyes encircling the entirety of its smoking metal body. Some sort of Probe-Bot, like a spider-droid of sorts.

Ruby didn't waste any time in cutting the thing in half with her Crescent Rose.

However, it was then revealed to be futile, as the Probe-Bot's remains fell apart into around a hundred small, one eyed spider-bot Grimm, that began to climb and swarm all over both Jaune and Ruby.

"Ah, shit, get them off!" Jaune cried out as he and Ruby tried to claw off the Spider-Bots, only for them to clamp onto their arms and spread across them even more.

"Jaune! Ruby!" it was all that Melanie could manage to get out, before a clawed smoking hang grabbed her by the hair and pulled it back, forcing her to look upwards at a blank slate of a white bony face, with only a single red eye in the middle that was pulsating with red light, like a siren or something, attached to a body covered in a ripped thick black hooded coat, with long arms that stretched down to its torso, long fingers and claws, and only a long black tendril at the bottom, with thin red lines segmenting it into pieces, clearly showing how it was able to float off of the ground like a Geist.

(Syren. She was going to call this new Grimm sub-species a Syren.)

Around the eye of the Syren, its bone plating on its face opened up like a nested mouth and mandibles, and the insides of it began to glow a violent red, drawing out a blue light from Melanie and sucking it into itself like soup.

 _Oh god it's draining my aura_ , she thought to herself, but had little time to react as a split second later, it was done feasting.

Her aura was gone, and with her aura, her semblance was no longer useable.

The electricity that she had been drawing in on using her semblance now covered her completely and seared her alive, burning her flesh and frying her nerves. She screamed out in pain, as did Ruby and Jaune as the electricity covered them without Melanie drawing it away from them, their aura also being drained by the Syren, before they all lost consciousness, and fell to the wet floor below.

Well, almost all of them lost conscious. Melanie was still somewhat lucid, as she felt the claws of Disciple Grimm wearing strange silver cloaks hand her and Jaune off to a group of Disciples wearing salvaged uniforms and animal skins in the centre of the room that they had almost walked into, with hundreds of Grimm in cloaks and mismatched wears flooding out of the balconies above to watch the proceedings below.

_Knew it._

The last thing that Melanie saw before she blacked out, was a red, blue, white, and yellow Techion with blue optics, pick up Ruby in a bridal position, and reverently whisper, "Our goddess has finally arrived."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter of Ascendancy. This is a lot shorter than my other main chapters, I know, but I blame University starting up again.
> 
> Just to add onto that, I've got about 6 assignments to do that have to be in from between November and January, so I'm not sure how much I'm going to be able to update any of my stories, so just be aware of that.
> 
> Anyways, feel free to make any fanart of this stuff if you want. That would honestly be massively appreciated, as I really want to see how all of these new outfits look like from your guy's perspectives, and even more.
> 
> Seriously, all of the cool guys on this site get fanart. I want to be able to show something for it, dammit!
> 
> But with that, leave a review, favourite, follow, and I shall see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	30. Quick Update + Short Story: Elsewhere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An old friend makes themselves known...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there, everyone.
> 
> Now, before I say anything else, this is me explaining where I've been, and why I haven't updated.
> 
> 3 reasons, in fact:
> 
> 1: Writer's block. In this case, it's knowing what I want to say, and not how to say it. I know what I want to write for my next chapter. I just didn't know how to write it until more recently.
> 
> 2: University work. I've still got a 3000 word essay to do, and after that I've got a 2000 word, and then 1200 words, plus all of the other bits of work that they pile onto you.
> 
> 3: I've also started a new story called Cult of Silver (Which you should definitely follow, favourite, review, and all of that jazz), So go check that out, and...
> 
> Yeah, that's where I've been.
> 
> I wouldn't expect any more updates for a while, at least until nearing the end of December. I need to really dedicate myself to writing all of these things, so for now, I'll just leave you with a short story as an interval for the current arc. At least then, I won't be leaving you with nothing.
> 
> So, please enjoy!

**Main theme:** [ _Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM) _  
_ **Theme:** [ _Star Wars: Ahsoka Tano Theme | Mandalorian Season 2 Soundtrack by Samuel Kim Music_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCTGo9RNVs8)

* * *

_Jaune woke up, laying on the ground, in a strange place_

_Above him, the sky was not a shattered dome of ruined, twisted things called progress, but was instead a bright ocean blue, with few clouds in between the spoil the natural sunlight. Around him were not dilapidated walls and buildings, but rolling plains of land connected to floating islands of grass and stone, kept in a deep purple void below. Surrounding him were buildings of purple and blue crystal and stone, held up by metal frameworks, and twinkling in the sunlight, and near him, pathways gave to garden buildings built for tea parties in the cool wind and healthy glow of the sun. In the far distance beyond the atmosphere, a world could be seen, much very similar to Remnant, in fact._

_This was surely the afterlife. A place of purgatory where those whom died would be kept in peace, until they are finally served the sentence that their lives entailed._

_And yet, Jaune was not ready to die._

_On any other day, he might had been okay with the prospect of death, but right now, Ruby and Melanie needed him more than ever. He had to wake up, find out what happened to them, defeat the Grimm that had cornered them, and then get home safely, preferably in that order._

_And so, he went to sit up-_

_And found that he couldn't._

_His body refused to move. Nothing worked. Not his arms, not his legs, nothing. He could only breathe and blink as he laid helpless on the ground, unable to do anything as-_

_A shadow loomed over him._

_His breathing hitched._

_"Shhhh…"_

_He blinked. Somehow, the voice felt... Familiar._

_"It's okay, Jaune. It's okay..."_

_For some reason, he believed them. He didn't know why._

_"You're not dead... But you won't remember this."_

_He blinked. Why wouldn't he remember this? Who was this person?_

_"Dreams are fickle things like that, you know? No matter how hard you try, almost all of the time, you can never remember how they go for too long. The mind... It's like a sieve, in that regard. The details always just slip through."_

_Oh, so he was dreaming... Right?_

_"But... I must be honest, Jaune… You, being here... I am sorry, but it is more for me, and less for you."_

_What? What was this person talking about?_

_{CLANG}_

_{RATTLE}_

_What was that?_

_Were those... Were those chains?_

_"Chains... They're strong. Sometimes, the chains of destiny are too strong to break. Almost impossible."_

_There was a pause._

_"Almost."_

_Another rattle, and then, footsteps, stepping to the side where he couldn't see them._

_"Because sometimes, you will find a chink in the chains. A tiny little crack where they are at their weakest. And once you find it, you can cut it open, and be free from your chains."_

_A hand stroked his hair._

_"But it's difficult. It's strenuous. It is like trying to fight against the gods and the weight of the universe itself. And sometimes... Sometimes, you lose sight of why you're doing all of this in the first place."_

_The hand stopped in place._

_"Jaune… In all of our lives, there comes a point where we must decide who we are, and who or what we fight for. There comes a point where we must pick a side."_

_He didn't know why, but he could sense the bittersweet smile on the person's lips._

_"Because in war, a side must always be taken... Even if it's the wrong side."_

_The hand left his head, and Jaune found that he missed it._

_"So thank you, Jaune. Thank you for reminding me what it is that I fight for."_

_A hand clasped his own. He found that he enjoyed it._

_"And please... Never forget what it is you fight for as well."_

_He promised them that._

_And an Arc doesn't go back on their word._

_Something roared in the distance. Inhuman. Grimm._

_"They're coming. It has taken them so long to seize control of this place. No wonder the Daughter wants to tighten her grip."_

_The hands took hold of Jaune's body, and began to lift him up._

_"Be brave, Jaune. The darkest times have yet to come, but when they do... I need you to be brave."_

_He looked at the person who was telling him this, and even though he knew that he wouldn't remember this... He still tried to burn the image of this person into his mind._

_"Be brave, and be ready, my king. Be ready to break your chains, and be free."_

_Suddenly, he was falling. Falling falling falling, all the way back down to Remnant._

_Leaving Miltia Malachite all alone once more, on an Impossible Moon._


	31. Jaunedice part 5: Choir of Silver

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Choir of Silver make themselves known...

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Arc Theme:** _[Through The Valley by Shawn James (The Last Of Us 2 trailer edition)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xunZys4VDMQ)  
_ **Theme:** [ _Buried Secrets from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em7JYN9ZsBs)

* * *

_"You haven't seen it out there, man. There's a trail of corpses from Wire all the way to the Sleeping City, and they're missing their... Fuck, man, they're all missing their eyes! The men, women, even the fucking children! All of them are dead, and eyeless! Oh god, what sort of- What sort of sick fuck would do that?!"_

**_Partial recording of a Hunter, found deceased and missing their eyes_ **

* * *

"Has anyone seen Ruby?"

If the question had been from anyone else's mouth, then it would've been innocent enough. But considering that the question was coming from Weiss Schnee of all people, Skipjack wasn't exactly inclined to respond with anything other than a harsh retort of, "Why do you want to know?"

Weiss winced at that. Good. She knew what she did.

But the way that her face morphed from it, into that of... Guilt? Was she feeling guilty now?

Did it matter?

Not in Skipjack's eyes, it didn't, but that wasn't exactly his judgement to make, that was Ruby's.

"I just- I just wanted to talk with her, about...", she didn't finish the last bit of her sentence.

Skipjack raised an eyebrow, "Well, give her some space. I can tell she's still smarting after what happened yesterday", he instinctively looked around to find her, "So don't think that you can... Huh."

For all of her faults, Weiss raised a good point: Where exactly was Ruby? He couldn't see her in the crowd as they gathered in a wide rounded chamber, with stained walls and metal pillars keeping up the ceiling, placed haphazardly next to the walls around them.

Come to think of it, where was Jaune and Melanie? He couldn't see them either.

He took a step away from Weiss, and turned to his partner and long time friend, Scrapster, and quietly asked, "Hey, have you seen High Command anywhere?"

"You mean the Big Three?" Scrapster asked. When Skipjack nodded, he just shook his head, "Not since we left the airships, no. I figured that they were just in the crowd somewhere, but...", there was a long pause from the Techion, as he looked down in contemplation, before rising to his tippy-toes and yelling out, "Hey, are Jaune, Ruby, and Melanie around here?"

There was the sound of sudden chattering amongst the crowd of 200 as they all looked around, trying to find where their missing members were. Even the 2 teachers up front- Professor Watts and Professor Goodwitch- Had gotten out of whatever bickering they were going through, in order to quickly do a head count to see who was possibly missing.

"They're not over here", Yamada called out over the chattering of the 200 students.

"They're not over here either, ribbit", croaked a frog Faunus by the name of Tessa Aman.

"I don't think they're here at all", yelled out Afterburner from at the far end of the room, "They're just- I think they're just gone."

Skipjack blinked, and then turned his head to the side as he heard Miss Goodwitch call out, "Did no one see them go?!" in a worried tone, which got nothing from the crowd as they all began to panic as well.

Next to the 2 professors, Lieutenant Croft, now with his helmet on, just crossed his arms in silence.

His fellow soldiers all around him remained silent.

Skipjack narrowed his eyes at them. Nearby, Yamada did too, and walked up to him, saying, "I've just noticed that none of the Atlesians, besides Croft, have said a word, have they?"

"Nope", Skipjack whispered back, "Not one."

Up ahead, Professor Goodwitch turned to Croft, and urgently asked, "Have your men seen any students leave our group?"

"Wait, give me a sec", he pressed a hand to the side of his head, and turned on his comms, "Head's up, 3 Beacon students missing? Does anyone have eyes on them?... Copy", he then turned back to Professor Goodwitch and Watts, and went, "Nothing from my men. They haven't seen any students leaving the crowd."

In said crowd, Jolie Kobal prodded DJ on the side, and said, "Hey, DJ, was that really what they said over the comms?"

"He didn't get any communications."

"What?"

"He just made it up."

"...Shit."

DJ passed the message to the rest of the crowd, "Guns ready, guys."

* * *

**_"Malcom, you made. Best retreat now, yes?"_ **

* * *

"Look, I'll find them, alright?" Croft went with a sigh, before muttering, "They're your kids, anyways. You should be keeping better care of them."

"Excuse me?" Professor Goodwitch went incredulously, "I'll have you know that it was your men who promised us the safety of our students, and promised us that they would always keep an eye on them throughout the duration of our trip here, and right now, you are failing to deliver-"

"Now now, Miss Goodwitch, let us not be hasty with who gets the blame", Professor Watts quickly added in with an annoying calm expression on his face, "Besides, we should be looking to correcting the fault in our students firstly. After all, is it not your duty to discipline and educate them in the dangers of wandering off?"

"Oh don't you start, you aggravating little-"

"Anyways, with that, I'll head off and find your kids", Croft said as he quickly began to march out, his fellow soldiers following shortly afterwards, "You all just stay here for the time being. We'll figure out what's going on."

Before the last Atlesian soldier could walk out, though, Yamada walked up to him and grabbed him by the arm, "Excuse me!" she went in an authoritarian tone, flipping him around as she then said, "I was just wondering, do you know where the toilets are? I'm sure that you know, right? I mean, you have been here for quite a while, haven't you?"

The Atlesian said nothing.

"...Take the helmet off."

Professor Goodwitch looked over to her, "Miss Morai, what do you-"

"If you've got nothing to hide underneath your helmet, then you should have no problem taking it off, right?" Yamada said with an accusatory look, "So take it off."

The Atlesian tried to break out of her grasp, but Yamada latched her hands onto his helmet, and tried to rip it off.

"Take off the helmet, dammit!" Yamada went as she wrestled the soldier to the ground-

"Miss Morai, what do you think that you are doing?!"

-And wrapped her hands around the soldier's helmet as she went, "If you've got nothing to hide then-"

The helmet finally came off with a {RRIIIPPP} sound, and a hiss of air being released.

A gunmetal black head with a single red eye looked back at her, and said something in an ugly alien language that she couldn't understand.

"SHIT!" Yamada yelped as she jumped back and willed her semblance forth-

Her semblance, known as Creation, allowed her to manipulate her aura into creating a limited supply of aura constructs out of her own reserves, from pickaxes to swords to shields to guns-

-Bringing forth a glowing golden pickaxe and landing it into the Disciple Grimm's head, killing it and letting the body dissolve under the coopeted armour as she then yelled out, "THEY'RE GRIMM! THEY'RE ALL-"

The metal pillars surrounding them opened up, and dozens of pylons filtered out. In a flash, the pylons erupted with electricity, connecting each other into a fence of cackling blue light and white hot heat. An electro-fence. Yamada was barely able to jump back before she was almost burnt to death.

Professors Goodwitch and Watts were not so lucky. They avoided the sting of the electric fence, but an automatic stun cannon opened up at the top of one of the pillars and fired 2 rounds into them, knocking them out instantly.

"Miss Goodwitch!" one of the students called out as they crowded around them, but by then it was 2 late to do anything. The electric string of light danced over their heads and connected together, and beneath their feet, through the hollow floor, they could hear the hum of electrical lances beneath them.

They were caged like animals.

"Croft you sly little son of a bitch!" it was surprising to hear Nora Valkyrie of all people swear, but she easily communicated the rage that they were all feeling at the moment, "You sold us out to the Grimm?! To the gods damned Ascendant Court!?"

"The Ascendant Court?" Croft's laugh was no longer goofy and cheerful, but was now snide and mocking. He took his helmet off and turned back to them with a sly grin. It looked more natural on him, "You really think I'm cutting my checks with those guys? I've got much better contractors paying me", he turned back around and walked towards the exits, "Now excuse me, but my job's done here. I've got things to do! Jobs to get to, money to earn!"

"Money?!" it was Lavender this time who threw this out as she was healing the burn wounds across Professor Goodwitch and Watts, "Is that what this is all about?! You'd sell out your own kind for money!?"

"Yeah, I would", he shrugged, before a Grimm in Atlesian armour held open one of the doors out for him, "I mean, we're at war now, and we're all going to die, so I might as well die rich. Sorry for leaving so abruptly- That's a lie, actually, I'm really not- But this is where we must part company."

Pyrrha reached out her hand to use her semblance to pull him back towards them, but found that she couldn't call it forth. She looked up, and saw several glowing green circles built into the metal pillars. Aura suppressors. That was what the people of the Moving City and New Fortressa had used to neutralise any traces of aura within their test subjects during their Blood Alchemy experiments. They must've been salvaged from the remains of the necropolis.

And right now, the Hunters of Beacon were being drained of their aura. They were effectively useless.

She settled for growling out to Croft, "I swear to Azama, Croft, if you don't-"

"That's it, guys, see you later", and with that-

"CROFT!"

-He left.

"DAMMIT!" Pyrrha yelled out, reaching for her backpack for something, only to realise-

"Where's Eri!?"

-That she had no backpack on anymore.

Skipjack just looked around in despair.

This was not good.

* * *

 **"Good work, Malcom, yes"** , went the voice of the Tinkerer, as he stood with the rest of the Silver Court in their chapel, right in the middle of the Sleeping City, **"Return to _Pilgrim's Flight_ , and bring technology, yes?"**

 _"Heh, whatever you say, boss"_ , came the voice from the custom communicator in his hands, made from scavenged human parts from across the ruined settlement, _"Me and my boys will start packing everything up."_

 **"Break nothing"** , the Tinkerer ordered, **"No more than already broken. Want everything intact for tinkering, yes."**

 _"Sure thing, boss"_ , and with that, the comm turned silent, as the Tinkerer turned to his many screens, and observed the now captive hundred times 2 Hunters that they now held within their grasp.

 **"Good human technology"** , he muttered to himself as he watched the Hunters panic like cattle on their way to the slaughterhouse, **"But ruined. Broken. Lost by time. However, not all meat spoilt."**

He flicked the cameras around, and observed his loyal followers hoarding the human's lost technology onto the Pilgrim's Flight, now headed by Malcom Croft, a very helpful mercenary that they had hired not too long ago.

It had been easy, gaining access to the human's automated salvage robots and changing their mission statement to more direct salvaging, particularly of that of certain human machines and remnant pieces that he was oh so curious about. Of course, he had had to waste his time in directing the Grimm forces of the Choir of Silver, as well as Tock's few Undertakers, across the Sleeping City and New Fortressa, and against the 538 human soldiers that populated the ruins, killing all of them and donning their armour, but still, as long as he got what he wanted, he was fine with it.

He had to remember to thank their agents in the Schnee Dust Company and Godfall Industries in getting him the codes needed to crack these machines. They were oh so helpful.

**"You waste too much time with those machines, Hephaestus."**

A cold feeling overtook him, and he- Hepaestus, the Tinkerer and God of Machines- Looked behind himself to see another member of the Silver Court.

Adonai, the God of Worship. She was a Grimm, much like the rest of them. A Baron Grimm, more specifically, dressed in a silver cloak that went over her shoulder and across her back, and white robes that trailed down from her chest and between her robes in a sash, with silver coloured armour covering her arms and legs, and a domed helmet with a single blue light in the centre of it, with 2 flat-surfaced spikes poking out of the sides of her helmet, and 6 rebreather tubes poking out of her neck, emitting cold smoky breath into the air.

She had been the first of the Grimm in the Silver Court to gain a semblance.

It wasn't a true semblance, of course. Not one like the mankin or beastkin humans. Merely ice dust that she had wedged into her body as crystals, and inserted into her blood veins as powder. The result was her hands and lower arms turning completely into ice, and her body becoming so cold that one could freeze just by touching it.

 **"You should be focusing yourself on the worship of our silver goddess"** , Adonai scowled underneath her helmet, the cold blue optic in the middle of the silver painted metal shining down menacingly on him, **"She is almost here after all, and you know how Templar feels about those who may soil the name, and waste the time, of our silver gods."**

The Tinkerer craned his neck to the side. He knew. Oh how he certainly knew. An entire platoon of Disciple Grimm were planning to defect back to the Ascendant Court, carrying as much information about the Choir of Silver as they could, but worst of all, in the eyes of Templar, they had insulted the object of his worship and lust, the dead mankin human known as Summer of Rose.

They had all be executed for their heresy, violently and painfully. He and the rest of the Silver Court had to watch them die, and listen to their screams, as Templar murdered them in the cruellest and most violent ways possible.

Grimm do not sleep, but the Tinkerer was sure that if he did, he would be having nightmares about the horrors that he had seen that day.

But he was not worried.

 **"I merely seeing to side project, yes"** , the Tinkerer began to explain as he moved away from his screens, and then turned to the door, **"I head back to Cellar, and make ready effigy."**

There was a loud scoff behind him, and he looked back to Adonai as she crossed her arms, and muttered to herself, **"You and Templar have that much in common, at least."**

**"What that?"**

**"You both cling to the past"** , she said more loudly this time, **"We should be using the arrival of our goddess as a sign of moving forward, not going backwards in time, just so he can satisfy his old urges and obsessions."**

A loud stomping was heard from behind them, and a deep electronic voice cried out through the room, **"You dare question our priest! He had not led us astray before, and he will not now! Not with the coming of our lord!"**

Adonai growled, **"Silence yourself, Attis! We did not bring you back from the dead just so that you could throw another temper tantrum!"**

 ** _Was me who brought back Attis_** , the Tinkerer thought to himself, but wisely kept quiet about it.

Attis, the God of Rebirth. A former Grimm Disciple that had been almost killed during the Initiation Massacre, but thanks to the work of the Tinkerer and his technologies, he had been able to save the Disciple Grimm from an almost certain death.

Now, the once spindly creature was now a hulking titan of a robot, standing taller than all of them, coloured in pure white and silver with glowing blue lines patterning it, a silver fur cloak covering his shoulders and back, followed by a fur coat clinging to his chest, and 4 blood red optics in a horned, almost flat head. 4 brawny arms sprouted out of his body, and along he walked on hind legs that wheezed with robotic gears, whilst slung on his back was a large, rectangular shaped cannon that he called the flame belcher, whilst vents scattered across his body vented out black smoke from what was left of the internal organs inside. Stabbed into him were shards of glowing purple gravity dust coloured him, giving him the artificial semblance of being able to control the gravity of multiple objects. In other words, telekinesis.

Suffice to say, Attis' newfound power as a Grimm Techion had left him with a deep reverence for those that he considered a god, as well as a strong loyalty towards his priest, Templar.

How strong that loyalty was, though, remained to be seen.

 **"The both of you silence yourselves, or I will rip your jugulars out of your necks with my bare hands!"** a shrill voice called out that sounded all daggers and teeth, **"Augh, I should be down there in the coliseum with Tock and her Undertakers, not waiting around here for Templar to return with his bounty!"**

Ares, the God of Battle. He had been one of the first Grimm of the new guard that had been created- A Scion Grimm, more specifically- And had come out as an anomaly, being too violent to control or coral, and known for making rash decisions in order to obtain a good fight, including compromising himself and his fellows and putting them at risk, just so he might satisfy his unquenchable bloodlust.

And his literal bloodlust, considering the stuff that was pumping through his veins.

Ares himself wore burnt silver robes, stained red with blood on top of that, with jagged silver painted armour covering his arms and legs, sharpened metal talons across his hands and fingers, and a black and red stained helmet with silver lines painted over it, and a glowing orange cross stretched across the middle of its face, as well as a black mane of fur that travelled down from the back of his helmet and across his bare spine, stitched into his skin through clumsy needles and threads that were stained a smoking black from his blood. Thin tubes that contained liquid filtered with powdered fire dust travelled up and down his arms and legs, connecting together and stabbing themselves into his visceral covered and mangled chest, whilst shards of fire dust were clumsily stabbed into his skin, giving him the artificial semblance of being able to project fire akin to a mythical dragon, his internal organs lighting up in a orange glow behind his exposed ribcage as he breathed out ashy smoke from the 6 vents in his neck.

The diluted fire dust, and the other dust semblances that the rest of the Silver Court Grimm were using, was a special combination that the Tinkerer (Under duress from his former masters in Atlas) Had cooked up. In the major human settlements known as the 4 great kingdoms, there was a specific trade of dust that was circulating in the criminal underworld. A diluted brand of dust, which the humans used as a cheap, yet dangerous, drug substitute. Dusties, that's what the humans called the users of this drug.

It was easy to mess up the formula for this drug. Too much dust in the drug, and once injected into the human body, the properties of that drug would activate, and the human would die an excruciatingly painful death. The Tinkerer had heard of humans freezing in place thanks to ice dust, being killed by plants growing out of every pore in their bodies, spontaneously combusting and having all of the flesh in their bodies melt away from the heat, burning themselves from electricity dust, or just being crushed under their own weight by gravity dust, and turning into puddles of splinters of jagged bone and ribbons of bloody gore. No matter what type of dust, it was always an excruciatingly painful way to die.

And of course, his former masters from Atlas, and the other 3 Grimm in the Silver Court, wanted him to make a weaponised version of it.

The Tinkerer did not know how so many of the producers of this drug were able to screw up the formula so easily. It was a simple process of processing raw forms of dust once he took into account the different types of dust that were available to him. Solving his own dust usage- Being electrical dust- Had been easy to use, seeing as it was powering his personal technology, and so had adding gravity dust to Attis' systems. Adonai had been a more difficult challenge, but luckily, Grimm biology was uniquely different to that of humans, and seeing as certain Grimm of the old guard such as the Geists could utilise all sorts of dust, it had been easy to adapt the formula to Adonai's body.

Ares hadn't been the same.

Ares had wanted a more violent formula.

The Tinkerer had advised against it, but Ares had... Insisted on it.

The Tinkerer still wore the scars.

And so, he added a more unstable version of fire dust into Ares' bloodstream, and the results had been a completely violent reaction. His blood had boiled in his veins and evaporated into nothingness. His skin had bubbled and his bones had fused together. It had taken extensive surgery just to keep him alive and mobile, and not reduced to a moribund living corpse.

Ares had enjoyed the pain.

Until he needed more blood, of course.

The Tinkerer forced himself to watch Ares as he opened up a cooler next to him, and pulled out a human blood bag, applying the cone section of it to one of the vents in his neck, and drinking it like a sweet treat. Crimson blood trickled out of the other smoking vents in his neck as he let out a satisfied gurgle of a growl.

Soon, he found his new supply of blood.

Right in the people that they hunted.

Whenever he wasn't blinded by his need for war, he would capture as many humans as he could, open them up, and drink their blood as an analogue for his own. He turned vampiric in nature, constantly burning through his own blood supply, thanks to the fire dust in his veins. Soon, it became less of just a need, and more of an addiction.

He treated the eyeballs that they collected from their dead as confectionary.

The Tinkerer was thankful that he didn't have the capacity to vomit.

 **"Ugh! When are we making our move?!"** Ares asked impatiently as he finished off his crimson drink and threw the empty packet to the side, **"I'm getting bored already! I need war! I need battle! Templar promised us glorious conflict when we are to go on our crusade across Remnant, and yet we still sit here and dawdle!"** he kicked his foot against a rotten pew nearby, and the soft wood caved in at impact.

 **"Patience, Ares, patience"** , Adonai said to him with 2 arms raised, **"We have only been here for a day, and you have conducted a great slaughter when we arrived. Is that not enough for you?"**

 **"Great?! You call that trite thing great?!"** Aries pointed a clawed finger to through a broken stained glass window, and towards Vale, **"That is where the great slaughter is! That is where it is waiting for me, and yet here I am, doing nothing but guzzling blood sacks, just so I don't get bored!** " he pulled out his 2 cutlasses off of his back, the both of them made from cooled magma and obsidian, and lined with fire dust, and slashed them against the same pew as before, the rotten wood hissing with smoke, **"Augh! My blades yearn for blood! For flesh and gore! And yet I am still denied!?"**

The Tinkerer rolled his eye underneath his helmet. The way of Ares was always one filled with blood and violence. It was how he was born into the world, and how he would eventually go out of it, or at least, how Ares planned to go out of it.

The Tinkerer stepped up from his spot, and cracked his neck. Nearby, a shattered piece of mirror allowed him to re-examine his entire body, taking in all of his own details and designs.

His was an outfit that consisted of silver and white robes underneath chest, arm, and leg armour, with wiring and electronics covering his arms all the way to his clawed gauntlets, where shards of glowing yellow electricity dust were built into them, giving him the artificial semblance of electricity projection. He wore a helmet over his head, with 4 glowing yellow eyes built into it, as well as a pair of tubes that connected to a large, cylindrical generator on his back that glowed a bright humming yellow. Around his waist was a fur lined belt-cape that stretched down to his knees, as well as knee high boots that shone a mat black in the light, but with glowing yellow lines of electricity dust built into them.

When the Tinker, Adonai, and Ares had committed their heresy by giving themselves names and fled the Crimson Keep at the same time as Ella's split from the Court-

* * *

_The walls were crumbling around him. Fire licked at the world and threatened to swallow itself whole as explosions and gunshots and snarls and screams sounded off from every direction._

_Overhead, the monsters of the air battled with the fleet of Grimm ships that the Ascendant Court had constructed before the violent split. Imperator-class command cruisers, Liberator-class carriers, and Recruitment-class colony ships broadsided with Monstras, Wyverns, and those giant jellyfish Grimm that he could never remember the name of. Vetols, Carriers, Twin-Suns, and Aerial Assault Platforms, or AAPs for short, engaged in dogfights with Nevermores, Griffons, Manticores, Teryxs, Sphinxes, Ravagers, Lancers, and a dozen other types of animal Grimm, turning the sky from its majestic blues and purples to a smoking obsidian black, interrupted by flashes of explosions and the zigzag of rocket trails and tracer rounds._

_On the ground, the hordes of beast Grimm slammed themselves like an ocean against the oiled war machine of the Ascendant Court, explosions and artillery blasts and swarms of tracers flying left and right as the Grimm continued to swallow themselves whole. The city of Grimm around him was enveloped by the chaos of the split. What was left of Evernight Castle- That hadn't been destroyed by the creation of the Crimson Keep- Was pecked away by the warring around it, only to be swallowed whole by a massive explosion, as the world descended further into ash and fire._

_It was a Grimm Civil War, between Salem and Ella's court, and that of the Daughter's Ascendant Court._

_It was the old guard vs the new guard._

_And the new guard was winning._

_Though, there were some who abandoned them._

_In the distance, he could see pockets of Disciples, Barons, and so on split from the main army, and run off into the wilderness of the Land of Darkness- Into the Grimmlands- To escape the carnage and horrors of Civil War._

_It was disgraceful. Were they not born for war? Would they truly abandon their very reason for existing?_

_He didn't know._

_He found himself without any way of knowing at all._

_Then, as he watched the Daughter and Salem battle- As he watched Ella hastily retreat like a coward, into parts unknown- He tilted his head to the side, and his single eye narrowed._

_And then, if just for a moment, the Daughter looked his way, and stared into his only eye, right into the place where, if he were anything else other than a Grimm, he might've had a soul._

_It was here, where he remembered something that the Daughter herself had said to him once before:_

**_"A side must always be taken... Even if it's the wrong side."_ **

_And then, for the first time in his life, the answer came to him._

_He finally knew which side he was on._

* * *

-He shook his head, and cleared his mind of his own treasonous thoughts.

Getting back to it, he- Hephaestus- Had been a mere Disciple Grimm with a love for machines before the split. Now though, while he was still a Disciple, he was also the leader of the biggest splinter faction of Grimm on the planet, baring Ella and her control of things in Atlas.

Oh, how he wished to return to Atlas, with all of its fine machines and devices and technology. How he couldn't wait to take it all apart.

"Hephaestus, what are you doing up here?"

The Tinkerer shook his head out of his thoughts, and looked to the entryway into the chapel, to see their priest, Templar, standing in the doorway. Behind him, he dragged along a hand trolley in the shape of a cross, with his new goddess held down tightly in it.

The sleeping Silver-Eyed Warrior, dressed in red and black, with the left side of her face coloured red with scars and burn marks, and her weapons being carried in a bag held in Templar's free hand, which he then handed off to Attis, presumably for safe keeping.

He didn't make note on the sensor node sticking out of her bag.

 **"Apology, Priest Templar"** , the Tinkerer said to him as he bowed his head, **"Wanted to view side-project. Will return to prepare effigy, now."**

"Yes, you best do that", Templar said as he wheeled the unconscious Silver-Eyed Warrior into the centre of chapel, and tilted his head to the side, brushing away a strand of hair from her wounded, soiled eye with his cold metal fingers, "The rest of us shall continue on whilst you are away, and prepare the ceremony. Adonai, inform Tock that she may prepare now. It is time to wake out goddess."

 **"Of course, my priest"** , said Adonai, staring reverently at the girl with the silver eyes for a few seconds, before strutting off and tapping into her comms. Attis, meanwhile, began to rub his hands together and began spewing unctuous words and ravings about the arrival of their new goddess, whilst Ares just leaned against the wall nearby and scoffed, constantly twitching around the blades in his hands. He was probably thinking about ways to carve up and skin the flesh of the silver eyed girl, as well as ways to drain her of blood like a squealing piglet.

The Tinkerer did not put much thought into it as he left. Templar wouldn't let anything happen to the girl, surely.

And besides, he had other things to take care off.

From the side, he pulled off a white cloak out of a discarded pile, and travelled downwards to the effigy.

He had work to do.

* * *

Eri had no idea what to do.

Below her, the coliseum was packed to the brim with Grimm. Disciples and Barons and Life-Givers and Scions and so on filled the stands, as beneath the dirty and muddy floor of the arena below, beasts and contestants and captives were held at bay, crying out for emancipation, but drowned out by the ugly cheers of the crowds above.

They were not here for mercy. They were here for blood.

A carrier floated over the ruined arena with a series of cameras wired into the bottom of it, displaying all of its different camera angles on the flickering screens below. A rainbow of confetti and streamers filled the air and floated down like snow, and banners and picket signs were held high in the air in some shared language that she couldn't translate.

And here Eri was, in a dilapidated building some ways away, watching this all unfold with no idea what to do.

The little drone quivered in the air as she poked her green optic out of a long shattered window, and looked outwards to the shattered arena of ruined metal and stone. She had no idea what was going on. She knew that the sensor node that Mistress Ruby had taken with her led to further into the Sleeping City, but right now, Master Jaune and Mistress Melanie were in the bottom of that arena, waiting to be sent to the wolves. She couldn't just abandon one or the other. Mistress Pyrrha would be disappointed in her if she did that, and she really didn't like disappointing Mistress Pyrrha.

She hadn't known exactly what she was doing when she followed what had become known amongst the Masters as High Command- That being Mistress Rose, Mistress Melanie, and Master Jaune- But she knew that they shouldn't have been wandering off. This place was dangerous. Anything could happen.

Unfortunately, she had been right. She hadn't followed them into the buildings, but she could see those cloaked Grimm and the Techion carry Mistress Ruby away through the streets, whilst the other cloaked Grimm, as well as those few Grimm in mismatching armour, carry Mistress Melanie and Master Jaune away, all the way to the ruined coliseum at the edge of the Valley of Giants.

There were too many Grimm for her to contend with. There must be hundreds of them. A few thousand at least. Enough to occupy the Sleeping City and march on Vale if need be.

Was that their plan? To attack Vale itself?

In that case, then that meant that the situation was bigger than High Command. Bigger than the students in the Sleeping City. Bigger than everything else. If the Ascendant Court- Or whoever was leading this faction of Grimm- Was planning an assault on Vale, then the city had to be warned, so that they may prepare for a fight.

Activating her internal communications, she compiled a message to Mistress Pyrrha and Mother Nora, so that they might inform Mistress Glynda about what was happening.

_Sending video feed..._

_Sent_

_Sending audio recordings..._

_Sent_

_Compiling Grimm infestation record..._

_Compiled and sent_

_Full report..._

_Sent_

Eri cursed the fact that she didn't have any long range communications on her, meaning that she couldn't just contact Vale or Beacon with this news. She wasn't constructed with those in mind. She needed something to help her boost a signal through to the outside world.

An incoming call. She pulled it up, to see a webcam view of Mistress Pyrrha, with several other faces popping into the frame, _"Eri! Where are you?! Where did you go?!"_

She didn't have time to explain the specifics, so she quickly texted back, [/(ㄒoㄒ)/~~ /(ㄒoㄒ)/~~ /(ㄒoㄒ)/~~ (っ °Д °;)っ ┗( T﹏T )┛ ( ‵□′)───C (￣ε(#￣) ( ‵□′)───C Σ(っ °Д °;)っ]

_"What does that even mean!?"_

_"Wait, I think she knows where Jaune, Melanie, and Ruby were taken!"_ a voice called out, and the face of Mistress Neon invaded her view as she then went, _"Eri! Croft's betrayed us and locked us in a electric cage filled with aura dampeners! He's working for the Grimm! At least, we think this is a new Grimm faction in play, and not the Ascendant Court."_

Then, Mother Nora's face invaded the screen as she then said, _"Eri, I know I didn't build you with the ability to tap into them, but try scanning for long ranged communications coming in and out of the city! We've tried calling Beacon, but we've just been stonewalled each time!"_

Eri did as Mother Nora commanded, and scanned the communication signals bouncing to and through the city. Sure enough, all long range communications were being jammed, with only inner city radios working fine. From what it looked like, there was a network of jamming computers set up across the city, bouncing dozens of obfuscating signals off of each other. She traced the central signal point that they were all broadcasting from, and found it to be transmitting from an old cathedral in the centre of the Sleeping City, if the electronic map of the old city in her databanks was still accurate.

She rolled her 4 arms, twirled in the air, and nodded her optic. If she could get there in time, then she might be able to shut down the jamming network at its source, reopen communications in and out of the city, and send an S.O.S. to Vale. Then, they could mount an epic counter attack, and-

What about Master Jaune and Mistress Melanie?

What about Mistress Ruby? She knew where the formers were, but the latter? She was who knows where, and in the hands of possibly an entirely new faction of Grimm, which would only complicate things even more.

Suddenly, a loud horn blared out from the coliseum in the distance, and a loud voice, distinctly female, but with a harsh bloodthirst behind it, brought the crowd to an even more defining pitch than before.

* * *

"Hey, check it out", one of the students said as they pointed to one of the pillars, a screen attached to it that-

{FTZZZZ}

-Flickered to life and revealed the roaring crowd of Grimm within a broken and shattered coliseum, multicoloured confetti and banners in the air as the crowd continued to cheer and roar.

"Do you think... Do you think that that's where High Command have been taken?"

DJ pressed a series of switches on his wrist, and then asked, "Somebody pass me one of those sensor nodes", when someone did, he then opened it up, and began tinkering with the electronics, "Right, I'm in the system, so I can scan the sensor nodes in the city, and try to find where they... Oh."

Weiss wheeled around to the Techion, "What?! Where are they?!"

"One of the sensor nodes... They must've taken one with them, because right now... It's reporting that it's right in the heart of the Sleeping City, and probably right in the middle of enemy territory."

* * *

 _"Welcome, my lovelies, all the way from the Sleeping City to the Valley of Giants"_ , grated the woman on the speakers to the crowd, _"To the first annual Hell-Bound Festival!"_

The crowd roared to attention at the cheers of the grating woman, her gnashing voice laced with an electric undertone

_"Ah, it's a lovely day for a bloodbath, innit loves? And even more so for a slice of gladiator combat! Got to tell ya, I can't think of anything better to do than kill! After all, it's what we were all born to do, innit? Kill! It's in our blood! It's in our bones! It's in our very beings! So, I figure: Why not embrace it? Why not embrace our bloodlust and want for war? And what better way to do that, than with some gladiator combat!"_

Another roar from the crowd. From where she was perched in the ruined building that she had made her nest, Eri could make out what looked like Grimm drones- With cameras attached to them- Circling around the arena pit like carrion birds, vultures looking for meat to pick off of the bone.

_"In the pits below, we have our first challengers, all the way from Beacon Academy itself! That's right, Ozpin himself has given us the task of testing the strength of his students, and by god we shan't disappoint, or my name ain't Tock!"_

Eri blinked, and then began to scan her database. Tock, as in an individual identifying as Tock. Only one record came up, an crocodile Faunus known as Patricia Urquhart, a former Huntress/bounty hunter turned serial killer using the word Tock as a codename, and was reportedly behind the gruesome murder of the famous Huntress called Maria Calavera, also known as the Grimm Reaper. However, she was reportedly killed by the deceased Huntsman known as Qrow Branwen during a skirmish in Mistral with the Bandit Confederation. Tock was reported to be a vicious and merciless killer, known to toy with her prey, ripping them apart, before finally ending them, leaving her victims as nothing more than bloody piles of gore.

And 2 of her masters were down below, in that pit.

Master Jaune and Mistress Melanie. It had to be them.

Eri pinged over a message to Mother Nora and everyone in the cage. She needed to know what to do. She could fly down to Mistress Melanie and Master Jaune, but that would also leave her unable to access the central network that was jamming all communications out of the city. She could fly over to Mistress Ruby, free her, and try to access the network there, but she would be in the heart of enemy territory and utterly exposed, meaning that she would probably be killed before she could get anywhere. Or, she could head to where the students of Beacon were and try to free them from whatever trap they were in. However, this would still leave them trapped in the Sleeping City, surrounded by Grimm, and without any backup at all, and she would loose track of her other 3 masters, leaving them all alone, and possibly allowing them to be killed.

She got her message not a moment later.

 _"Go"_ , said Master Tusks, "Go help Jaune and Melanie, if they really are in the coliseum."

"Yeah! We'll be fine!" added in Master Skipjack, _"We'll bust out of here on our own, and fight our way towards Ruby and the central network!"_

 _"Meanwhile, you go and save Jaune and Melanie. Do whatever you can"_ , finished Master Shadestep.

Eri paused, and then sent a message: _(⊙_⊙)?_

Was that the right thing to do? Was there something else that she could do? She didn't know-

 _"Eri, go"_ , Mistress Yamada leaned over and said, _"We'll bust out of here ourselves. Divide and conquer, yeah?"_

-But all that she could do now was her best.

Eri nodded to them, and sent them one last message- _d=====(￣▽￣*)b_ \- Before swirling up the propellers in her arms, and flying at top speed towards the coliseum below.

She would find a way to break into the coliseum. She would find a way to access the jamming network there. And she would find a way to break out Mistress Melanie and Master Jaune.

Their lives depended on it.

* * *

Yamada looked up to the rest of the team leaders around her as the transmission towards Eri cut out, and said to them, "Well, we have a semblance of an idea of what to do, but let me just remind you all-"

She pointed to the humming electrical fences around them all.

"-We're all still trapped in here", she winced as Lavender continued to apply healing cream to a patch of skin on her legs where the electricity had caught her.

"Yamada's right", DJ said to them, "I can trace the jamming network and the sensor node all the way to their origin points, but we need to get out of here, preferably as soon as possible."

"Wouldn't it be wiser to stay here?" Razor put in with, "I mean, we have to assume that Ozpin and Ironwood have noticed the radio silence from the city. They must be sending in men to figure out what's going on."

"That's not a good idea at all, Azure", Bayonet replied, "As far as we know, no one's coming to save us. Not this time. We have to be the ones to save Ruby, Melanie, Jaune, and ourselves."

"Yeah, but we're still trapped", Shadestep said, before throwing his hand up, and going, "Does anybody have any idea on how we can get out of here?"

"Um, I- We have an idea..."

Everyone stopped, looked to the side, and stared.

Nora and Voltage stood together. They both looked to each other, gulped, and then looked back to the crowd.

"...But I don't think any of you are going to like it."

* * *

_Ruby..._

_Ruby._

_Ruby!_

_RUBY!_

Melanie woke up with a gasp, and felt her head bang against the metal pole behind her. With a groan, she muttered a curse word to herself, and then looked around at her dark surroundings. She was in some sort of large, circular room, with a metal slit in the roof that allowed for barely a faint trace of light to get in. At the bottom of the room were glowing green circular dishes, positioned around them like worshippers to their gods. Aura dampeners, the things that Vale used during their Blood Alchemy experiments. The Grimm must've salvaged them from the city ruins and-

The Grimm.

The Grimm and their pet Techion took Ruby.

Fuck!

"RUBY!?" she cried out into the darkness, "Ruby, where are you?!"

A groan sounded off from behind her. Someone was strapped to the- Oh yeah, her arms, legs, waists, and neck were strapped down by metal restraints- Someone was strapped down to the metal pillar behind her.

"Ruby?"

Another groan, "Wha… Where am I?" a male. Jaune, "Melanie? Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me", was Melanie's reply, "Do you see Ruby over there?"

"I don't think I can see much of anything."

"Just- Just try, okay?"

"Okay then", was the muttered reply. Melanie could practically sense him narrowing his eyes through the darkness, before going, "No, I... I can't see her... Where is she?"

"I don't know", Melanie responded with, "I had hoped that... I don't... Last I saw her was when we were captured. Right before I lost consciousness, I... I saw Ruby being taken by the Grimm, as well as their leader. Some big fuckoff Techion took her."

"Wha- A Techion?! Someone's working with the Grimm?!"

It was a disquieting thought, the idea of somebody willingly cooperating with the Grimm- Selling their own species, mankind, out to the Ascendant Court. To think that someone- Anyone- Would sell their own soul and align themselves with mankind's worst enemies... It wasn't a pleasant thought.

Though a possibly realistic one.

"Yeah", a long pause, "But I don't know if he's leading them, or serving them. Hell, it could be both or either, in all honesty."

She bit her tongue, and then heard Jaune struggle against his own restraints, before he then said, "We need to get out of here, find Ruby, link back up with everyone else, and then... Gah!" he growled to himself, "We should've known something like this would happen. We should never have left the group."

"I know, but it's too late to worry about it now", Melanie replied with, "Right now, let's just figure out where we are first, and... Do you hear cheering?"

Indeed, in the background, there was a muffled drone of noise. A subtle cacophony of howls and cheers, comingling together into an orgy of screeching sounds and noises, like many nails against many more chalkboards. The vibrations from the noises ran through the walls and the floor, running through the soles of their footwear and the restraints that shackled them down, making their bodies hum uncomfortably.

Then, before any of them could say anything, the roof with the split of light above them shuddered with a dull drone and a gnashing scrape- Dust came down in clouds and dirtied them, covering them like dusty ash- And began to split open, and their platform began to raise against the growing, and blinding white light. The cheering was no longer muted and dull, but was now roaring and deafening, like they were screaming right into their ears.

"Well then", Melanie muttered to herself, "Let's meet our hosts."

The cheering grew louder and louder still, mixed with booing, hissing, and catcalling from the crowds around them. The blinding light lessened, and their sight came back to them, finally allowing them to see where they were.

In their shackles, they were held down in the middle of a massive arena, coloured beige by dirt and sand, and with walls of muddied stone and patchwork metal surrounding them. The stands above were filled with Grimm upon Grimm, all of the humanoids wearing silver cloaks and armour as Life-Givers, Pumas, and what looked like little Grimm drones floating in between the stands, as Disciples, Barons, Long-Shots, Guardians, Marauders, Rocketeers, Lashers, Juggernauts, Scions, Clerics, Lancers, and so on, waved their hands in merriment and bloodthirsty cheer.

"Well", Melanie muttered to herself, "This isn't good."

"Yep, no kidding."

Melanie narrowed her eyes to the crowd, "You see anyone from the Ascendant Court in the crowd?"

"No", was Jaune's answer, "I don't see any of the court, or any Royal Disciples or Architects anywhere."

"So this is an independent operation?"

"Sure looks like it."

The speakers around them boomed into life, and a scrapping voice in a lower Mantlian accent came into being, _"And here we are, my lovelies! Our 2 new champions, here to test their mettle in the arenas below! Ah, s'a lovely day to be a member of the Choir of Silver, innit? For all of your worship, you get one of the greatest rewards in the world: Good ol' fashioned blood sports!"_

As the crowd cheered this woman on, Melanie sensed Jaune tilting his head to her with an eyebrow raised, "The Choir of Silver... Didn't Ruby mention something about her eyes the other day?"

"That was Weiss, but yeah... Her eyes are silver, Choir of Silver...", Melanie paused, and then said, "At least we know who we're dealing with."

Suddenly, the shackles around their sides gave way, and the pair of them reflectively stepped away from the metal stand that they had been attached to, and looked over themselves, checking their wrists, their legs, and their-

Huh, they still had their weapons on them. They just couldn't use or reach them before because of their restraints.

Then, the giant gate built into the wall opposite them slowly opened, and 9 Grimm, dressed in rusting armour- Some of them looking like they had been painted over with ochre- And body gloves made out of animal skins dyed green, with silver metal helmets covered in glowing blue dots, with red painted quills sticking out of their backs. Most of them were Disciples, from the looks of it, but the last 2 of them were Clerics, with 4 blades in their 4 arms, shining in the sun, newly polished and sharpened. One of the other Disciples on the field held a large cannon with fire coating its barrel, connected to a pair of cannisters on its back, and 2 other Disciples were armed with what looked like hunting rifles. The rest were armed with spears that held elongated blades on a curve at the end, cracking with blue electricity as they pointed them at the pair.

_"And here we have our challengers for the throne! My Undertakers! The biggest, baddest, and meanest gang of Grimm on Remnant! Led, by yours truly!"_

The main viewing booth in the stands lit up, and a figure walked out. A Techion-

"Is that the one that took Ruby?"

"I don't think so... No, no it isn't. This one's completely different."

-With 4 arms that ended with sharpened claws, coloured black and grey, with green crocodile scales covering the armour on her (They assumed her to be female, because of the sound of her voice) Body, and glowing golden lines covering her arms and legs, and building into a glowing golden clock emblem on her chest. Across her back was a cloak made out of wolf fur, and on her lower 2 arms were long blades made out of sharpened, yet jagged bones. On her pointed head, instead of a visor, were 2 rectangular slits for eyes that glowed a steady gold, and a metal jaw that was dripping with what looked like saliva and black oil, shielded by a glass faceplate, and filled with jagged metal teeth. Slung across her back and over her cloak was a large cannon that had a red and yellow glow to it, and in her hands was a pair of cutlasses with golden hilts, a line of yellow dust along the edges of the blades.

 _"But that's not all folks!"_ the Techion called out with unrestrained glee in her voice, _"We've got one more challenger for the title of champion! One more fighter, looking forwards to the battle ahead of it! One of the beasts of legends! A mythical creature of old!"_

With a dramatic swing of her hand, the Techion pointed to the other gate in the circular wall, and cried out:

_"Bring in the dragon!"_

In stark contrast to the first gate, this one was flung open with a bang, and a pair of Scion Grimm marched in what looked like a giant bird, that was emaciated and beaten, with scars running across its body, chips across its beak, and a snapped left horn. A dragon, with white feathers stained red, a pained looked in its eyes and body, and a large electrical collar around its neck, connected to a long shackle.

Melanie noticed the aura flare across Jaune's armoured body.

They were torturing the poor thing.

The dragon was walked out into the arena, and let out a pained groan at its misfortune. However, the electric collar around its neck activated and lit its entire body up in an amber light, the beast itself letting out a scream of pain before slamming its head against the ground, then lifting it up only to hit a hardlight dome that extended over the arena.

The dragon's eyes, filled with madness, looked down onto the 2 students of Beacon below. It's pupil constricted with rage, taking umbrage at their presence alone.

The Techion laughed, _"Alright then boys and girls, count it down with me now!"_

**"3!"**

Jaune pulled the ML-15A off of his chest, and in a single hand, aimed it at the Dragon, hoping that he wouldn't have to hurt the beast any further, but knew that, unfortunately, that wouldn't be the case.

**"2!"**

Melanie's hands brushed over the 2 Shot-Pistols on her waists- Her Manglers, she called them- And down towards the various throwing knives that lined her legs, narrowing her eyes on the Techion's Undertakers that occupied the arena with them. Her knuckledusters lit up a bright blue.

**"1!"**

In an instant, the dragon's chains slipped off.

**"FIGHT!"**

* * *

**Do you have any idea how many times I've had to rewrite this chapter?**

**Do you?**

**DO YOU?!**

**Because it was 4 to 5 times, my friend! 4 to 5 times!**

**God, it was a nightmare...**

**Anyways, just as a quick note, Templar's Court of Silver was based off of the Dark Council of the House of Salvation from Destiny 2: Beyond Light, and Tock's new design is directly influenced by the Fallen from Destiny.**

**What can I say, I really like the design.**

**Now, before I end this note, I feel like I should make some notes about the characters of this story. Don't think I haven't been seeing the reviews, I know how you guys see Melanie, Jaune, and Ruby's teammates. I know that you guys think that they're shit. And while you do raise good points, I feel like I need to make something clear:**

**They are not meant to be irredeemable.**

**They are in the wrong in their treatment, sure, but there is a logic behind it all. My intention was to give everyone meaningful reasons as to why they are acting the way they are, through the different POV sections in the previous chapters.**

**They do have reasons for acting the way that they are.**

**Allow me to explain:**

**For Ren and Nora, the 2 of them have known each other for most of their lives, and they both just came out of the biggest calamity of their lives, e.g. The Initiation Massacre. Suffice to say, they're riddled with trauma, and they want to spend as much time with each other as possible, meaning that they're abandoning their own teams to do so, because of course they would, it's only natural.**

**For Nora specifically, she is the type of person (To me at least) That would try to block out the trauma and the nightmares by distracting herself as much as possible, jumping into as many hijinks as possible, as to deal with the trauma, which she has been doing, both for the Initiation Massacre, as well as... Other things.**

**(If you don't know what I'm talking about, look back to the GVMC chapter, as well as the short story about her hijinks. There's a little detail in both of them that'll clue you in...)**

**And as for Ren, he watched his love interest (Yeah, Renora is a thing in this story) Jump into the mouth of a Blind Worm and then jump out, and then getting stabbed in the gut on top of that. And so, because of that, he begins to act sort of possessive of her, and enables her behaviour, because of course he would. If your love interest almost died twice before your eyes, wouldn't you act a bit selfish around them?**

**Pyrrha, meanwhile... Well, I've taken inspiration from Tournament Arc by ImSoAwesome for her character arc. As shown in her POV, she's suddenly developed a crippling fear of loosing, except it's not so suddenly, if you put logic to it. If you couldn't tell already, Pyrrha's dad, Morado, isn't exactly a good person, and beat it into her head that loosing is a very bad thing to do, which she then tied into her invincible girl persona, which only increased as she continued to win and win. However, during the Initiation Massacre, she lost. Hard. As such, she is continuously going out to train and train, so that she would never loose. Add onto the already shown truth behind how Jaune got his leadership, and you get a very unstable bond.**

**Neon and Flynt are pretty simple, as they've had to deal with crappy authority figures in their lives, and because of Melanie's style of leadership, aren't obliged to trust her at all.**

**With Ciel, it's kind of the same, but there's a bit more plot behind it, so I can't say without spoiling anything.**

**Same goes for Blake, unfortunately. I can't speak much about her without giving anything away, so... Yeah.**

**Leadpipe, of course, took Yang's place, and does try to act as the peacemaker in RSBL. However, because of his own learning disabilities (Something that I share in, seeing as I am autistic myself) As well as his own anxiety, he is unable to really push any true attempts at peace, and when they do, they are usually pushed aside by the strongest ego on the team.**

**Speaking of the strongest ego, let's talk about Weiss. She is (Probably) The most controversial of the lot, so allow me to explain. You have to remember that this is set in early volume 1, and let's be honest: Early volume 1 Weiss was a bitch of a person, so this Weiss is still in that stage of character. However, then factor in that she just came out of the Initiation Massacre, one of the most harrowing events of her life and something that she is still having nightmares about, and then factor in how Ozpin told her about Salem so early on in the timeline, and not at a time when she is more responsible, and you get a very stressed, and very bitchy Weiss that is trying to compensate for the weaknesses of her team through what she considers to be tough love. Angry, demeaning love, hence her harsh treatment of Ruby, and how she practically usurps leadership from Ruby herself, just to satisfy an ego that hasn't been properly tempered yet, and is now extremely fragile.**

**She's not malicious. She's just very stressed about practically everything, and is trying to compensate for it. Of course, this doesn't justify her treatment of Ruby, but it does give context to it.**

**And you have to remember, she's not wrong about Ruby: She is mentally a child, suddenly burdened with the responsibilities of leadership, the destiny of defeating Salem and saving mankind, years worth of education to catch up on, and is still dealing with years of fresh and still raw trauma. Suffice to say, she just isn't ready for life at Beacon Academy.**

**Now, perhaps if Yang was in Team RSBL instead of Leadpipe, she might've been able to temper the, er, tempers that were flaring in the team, thanks to her more maternal nature from raising Ruby for years on her own. But she's not: Ozpin took her off of the team roster so that she could recover from her wounds, as well as... Plot points that I can't elaborate on right now, so hush.**

**And on top of that, the team leaders have their own issues as well, remember? Melanie acts too authoritarian in her leadership and expects complete compliance without a shred of complaint, Jaune doesn't assert himself as much as he needs to, and Ruby is just way too passive to do anything because of all of her own issues.**

**Each side is meant to be sympathetic, just some more than most. Everyone is riddled with PTSD and issues, and there is blame that can be passed down to everyone.**

**And there we have it.**

**Now, final final note, I won't be updating this until I finish the first arc of Cult of Silver. After that, I'll be dedicating myself into finishing this arc on this story, so go check out Cult of Silver.**

**Now.**

**That is an order.**

**But, with all of that said and done, leave a review, favourite and follow, and I shall see you all next time!**

**Titanmaster117 out!**


	32. Short Story: Obsessive Observations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A viewer watches the fight from afar...

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)   
_ **Theme:** [ _Obsession_ _from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6enGUkhv4P0)

* * *

**"Look at you... Such a frail little thing..."**

She looked through the mist, and towards the image provided for her. The world swirled and twirled around her as she spied that which she held dear to her.

**"Just a gentle blow of the wind could knock you down, couldn't it?"**

She smiled. It was not a malicious one, as one might think considering her nature, but of kindness.

Empathy.

Love.

So so much love.

**"At least, that is what you wish for them to think, isn't it?"**

A laugh.

**"My oh my... You are a strong boy, aren't you?"**

Her smile turned to a frown.

**"But also a troublesome one... You just can't help but get yourself into trouble everywhere you go."**

Her frown lowered itself, and her eyes narrowed.

**"It is a trait that I find rather annoying, if only for your safety..."**

…

She smiled once more.

**"Still though, it will serve me in time."**

Another laugh.

**"And besides, you are already doing my lightwork for me, aren't you? I should thank you for that, next time we meet, even if it is by the sword, and not by the-"**

Footsteps outside. A guard passing by. She dissipated the cloud, and watched the guard peak through the small gap in her cell door.

She made a show of struggling against her restraints for a few moments, to sell the illusion of her captivity, and it was enough for her guard to bark out a laugh, "Having fun in there, psycho?"

 **"You are one to talk, are you not?"** she grinned through her hair, **"I can smell the death in this place. The horrors. The torrents of blood at your feet."**

The guard scoffed, "Oh, like you're one to talk."

**"Indeed I am. I do not deny the blood on my hands. You could drown someone in the rivers of red that I have spilt."**

Do not mistake her tone for one of sadistic pleasure. She took no joy from the deaths that she had wrought. It was simply a matter of fact, rather than a trophy to be worn.

**"The difference between us though, is that I do not deny my monstrosity. I am a monster. Of course I am. How can I not be? But what about you, then? Or your master? Are you going to continue to delude yourselves into believing that you are civilised people instead of rabid animals?"**

It was her turn to scoff.

**"That is the truth about civilisation, you know. We pretend that we are built upon common decency, and yet every foundation is soaked in the blood of millions, willingly or otherwise. We can be every bit as monstrous as the ones that we propagate our lies towards."**

"Oh, shut the fuck up, you mad bitch," the guard muttered out loud enough for the both of them to hear, "Just keep talking to the voices in your head, why don't you? It's the only thing you're good at," he made a motion to go, before looking back into her cage and going, "And for the record, my boss ain't my master."

**"And yet you would suckle on her clit like an obedient little pet if she asked, wouldn't you?"**

"Ha, that and much more if she let me," he laughed, before finally walking off, the wails and groans of those in their cells echoing through the world around them, and juxtaposed against the guard's low chuckles and clanging footsteps against the thin metal beneath them.

…

Men.

They either wanted to have sex with her or be babied by her.

It was infuriating.

…

Her smile finally returned.

**"But..."**

And so did the black mist, and the rainbow of colours that flowed out from the middle of it.

**"You are not like most men, are you?"**

She watched her beloved fighting for his life, once more against the throes of death by tooth and sword.

Just watching it reminded her why she fell in love with him all over again.

She watched him twirl around his opponent and block a blow with his shield. A strike from his sword, and then a changeover to another weapon. He had so many at his disposal. He was like a walking armoury in of itself. He switched to an electrohammer, and then shifted it into a pair of electrobatons as he duelled with another pair of opponents, twisting himself around to dodge and block their attacks, just for a giant beast to throw its weight down against him, though he quickly rolled out of the way and shifted his batons into their combined electrostaff form, twirling it at an opponent and sending it flying back, before switching weapons out to one of his pairs of pistols and shooting them out at his opponents, whilst they sought to surround and overwhelm him once more, and he held out each time.

The butterflies in her stomach fluttered and flew.

She couldn't help herself. She got a little excited.

Still, she promised herself that she would remain pure for him, and she would.

Arcs didn't go back on their word, after all.

Or soon to be Arcs, for that matter.

Her smile widened, but then faded.

The next time they would meet... It would most likely be at the ends of each other's blades.

Much like last time.

They had tried to kill each other last time they met.

But this is not uncommon of mankind.

So many tales of this world have been of war and destruction.

So many fairy tales darkened and polluted by blood.

So many kingdoms and foundations built on the backs and flesh of those beneath them.

It was in every person's nature to wage war.

And theirs was just beginning.

**"I can't wait to see you again, Jaune."**

The Daughter tilted her head against her restraints. How she had landed herself in a prison was a tale for another day.

When they would meet again, the world would shudder at the wake of their battle, and Remnant would be brought to its knees.

She couldn't wait for it.

 **"I'll sharpen my best blade,"** she said to him, **"And see you on the battlefield, my love."**

It was her word.

And Arcs, official or not, never went back on their word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Going to finally be changing this to an M rating with the next chapter. It's been a long time coming, trust me.
> 
> I'm sorry for the short chapter, considering that I haven't updated this in ages, but this is more for my sake than for anything else. Specifically, this is to get my motivation back in order.
> 
> I want to tell this story, I really do. It's just hard to get back into the rhythm when you've not touched this thing for over a month and a half.
> 
> Trust me, I'm already 2000 words into the next official chapter, so it'll be out soon. I just have to get my writing mojo back in order, is all.
> 
> I blame schoolwork.
> 
> And Re:Zero. I blame Re:Zero.
> 
> Have you seen my profile page? I got 5 oneshot fics on Re:Zero out in under a week. Under 5 days. Please read them. They make me feel so powerful. I feel immortal now.
> 
> Until next time, Titanmaster117 out!


	33. Jaunedice part 6: Choir of Sin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An awakening is met with resistance, and an ally joins the battle...

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)   
_ **Arc Theme:** _[Through The Valley by Shawn James (The Last Of Us 2 trailer edition)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xunZys4VDMQ)   
_ **Theme:** [ _Forbidden Knowledge from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STOiF_SH8z0)

* * *

_Be with me my dear_   
_For the end of our world_   
_Where the monsters lay in wait_   
_For our bodies to rot and curl_

_Be with me when the remnants fade_   
_And death comes knocking at our door_   
_And we go to slumber in the Fortressa_   
_And wake and feel no more_

_Be with me when the reaper comes_   
_When the sun creeps low_   
_And our rest comes to us_   
_As the world looses its glow_

_And when we feel no more pain_   
_And our sufferings are no longer in vain_   
_Let us pray and pray_   
_For yet one more day_   
_Where we may see each other again_

_**Recovered poem from the ruins of New Fortressa** _

* * *

"You're mad."

"Ren-"

"No, Nora, you will listen-"

"I have listened, Ren. This is the only option we have to us."

Ren looked away and held his hands to his face, groaning in exasperation, before looking to Nora and, under the oppressive blue lights of the cage around them, "Nora, this- This isn't going to work! You and I both know it! I don't care how much training you and Voltage have been doing! You-"

"Do you have any other ideas, Ren?" Nora said to him as she glared up at the green-dressed boy, pointing an armoured hand to the metal pillars that were projecting the electric fence around them, as well as a pair of students that were trying- And failing- To cut it open, "Because bullets and cutters aren't working against those things, and if we try to use explosives in such an enclosed space without any cover at all, we might just blow ourselves to pieces, with or without aura. This is the best that we can do."

She then pointed to the TV screen on the wall. The images of Jaune and Melanie doing battle with Grimm and their pet dragon continued to flicker and flash at rapid speed across the screen.

"Look at them, Ren. Jaune and Melanie are fighting for their lives, and Ruby's been taken to god knows where by these monsters. If there is any other option, then now's the time to say it."

To her side, Voltage nodded and folded his arms in front of himself, "Nora's right, and we all know it. If we had access to our tech back in Beacon, then frying the electronics would be a hell of a lot easier, but we don't, do we?"

Ren paused, and bit the insides of his cheek, but before he could say anything, Shadestep cut in with, "How long will it take?" he waved off Ren's sharp look, "I know that this is bad, and I know that it might... It might kill them, but we have to think about this logically. It wouldn't be the first time that they- And the rest of us- Have almost died, and it sure as hell won't be the last," he looked back to the 2 electricity pseudo-twins, "How long will it take to get everything ready?"

Voltage and Nora looked to each other, and then back to him, with Nora going, "With Skipjack and the Constructors' help? About half an hour, maybe."

"Sounds about right," Voltage put in, "I mean, the aura dampeners in the walls are 80 years old, and are incredibly unreliable tech. Not to mention that even without my semblance, I've got entire battery packs filled with spare electric charges on me to power an entire 2 story house for a day and a half. I'm pretty sure that even if we couldn't fall the dampeners, we'd still be able to overload the electric fence around us, if only at a bigger cost."

After a long pause, he then gestured to him and Nora.

"To us, I mean."

Everyone around them stopped, and the remaining members of High Command looked between each other, before they shared a collective nod, and Shadestep went, "Alright then, get it done. The sooner we get out of here, the better."

He spared a look to the TV on the wall.

"For their sake, if nothing else."

* * *

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…Wha…_

_Where..._

_Where am I?_

_Where's Jaune? Where's Melanie?_

_The Grimm... What happened? Did they take us? Where are we?_

Around her, the world suddenly rattled, and she realised that she had been restrained, her hands pulled out into a capital T, and her feet restrained at their ankles, almost like she was on a cross.

At least there weren't nails in her hands. She really didn't want to repeat that part of the Two Brothers' bible.

It was a whole thing.

Suddenly, a voice called out, "Finally, our sleeping beauty awakens," it wasn't a voice that she recognised. It sounded almost... Reverent. Worshipful.

She didn't know how to feel about that.

Then, something else began to fill her ears. Sounds of combat and struggle, but with an electric warble to them. Almost like a recording, or a broadcast.

What exactly was going on?

Slowly, she opened her eyes, one of them, healthy and silver, blinded by a white and blue light, the other, broken and milky white, shielded by the darkness of her hair.

In front of her, looking down onto her trapped form, was a red, gold, white, and blue Techion, big and tall and with large grey metal shards on his back, almost like wings, as the metal person tilted their head to the side queerly, as if curious at her condition.

What condition? Being tied down to a metal cross with this guy? Whoever he is, anyways. Goddammit, Ruby, pay attention. Figure out where Jaune and Melanie are, and get to the others. Warn them that there are Grimm in the city, if they aren't already aware.

The Techion leaned back, and if he could smile underneath that grey metal faceplate that he wore, then he probably would be, "At last, our goddess awakens..."

…

…

…

…What?

The Techion took 3 steps back from her, and then bowed, "Forgive me for the... Spartan accommodations, my lady, but it was the best that I could manage," he- She recognised his voice as male- Then lifted himself up and threw his arms out wide as, in a grandiose tone of voice, went, "I am Templar, of the Choir of Silver. You may look upon me, and recognise your priest."

…

Huh?

What was this guy talking about?

Priest?

What?

Then, another thought came to her mind.

"...'Choir of Silver'?" Ruby faintly asked as her senses worked themselves back up to full strength, "You're not... You're not with the Ascendant Court?"

"Bah!" 'Templar' threw his hand to the side, a mechanical groan behind the movement, and scoffed, "As if I would want anything to do with those animals. I have no want to be part of their pointless war," he stepped away from her, and scoffed again, "I have much bigger ambitions than just mindless slaughter."

It was then that Ruby finally noticed the 2 other Grimm in the room-

One of them a chilled Baron Grimm in silver and white robes, with a horned domed helmet with a blue light in the middle, and 6 tubes where its neck vents should be that emitted cold smoky air, and a fiery Scion Grimm covered in burnt silver robes and armour, a black and red helmet with a orange glowing cross with horns in it and a fur cloak that stretched across its back, as well as tubes of liquid fire dust covering its body, and shards of dust stabbed into its skin, leaving its internal organs glowing underneath its burnt skin that was covered in dry red blood.

-Looking down at her, the former tilting its head to the side whilst also performing what must've been a curtsy, whilst the other folded its heated arms together in scoff and looked away with a growl, as the last unique occupant in the room-

-A 4 limbed silver, white, and glowing blue beast of a Techion covered in fur, and with 4 blood red optics settling within a flat horned head, as well as vents that let loose black smoke across it as the mechanics in its hands shimmered a deep purple-

-Tilted its hind legs down in reverence, the last remaining occupants in the room, being the silver cloak wearing Disciple guards, doing the same as well.

Ruby groaned as she fidgeted and readjusted herself against her restraints, groaning as she asked them, "Where are... Where are my friends? What have you done with them?"

"Oh?" Templar cocked his metal head to the side, "You mean the heretics? Those whom allowed you to come into our arms in the first place? Those whom failed to protect you?"

He moved out of the way, and allowed what had been creating those strange electronic noises to be seen.

"Tock is having her fun with them."

It was a TV screen. A screen with poor sound and visual quality, as well as the occasional flicker, but a TV screen none the less.

And on that screen, Jaune and Melanie were fighting for their lives.

In the screen, they were weaving and worming their way between a series of humanoid Grimm, Disciples and 4-armed Clerics, all of them armed with spears, hunting rifles, and a flamethrower, and all of them covered in robes and quills and armour that were coloured in green animal scales and yellow coloured ochre. With them, a ruined, emaciated dragon slammed its beak and head down onto where Melanie was just standing, letting out a groaned cry as the glowing blue collar around its neck shimmered and let out an electric shock into the beast, forcing it to fight once more.

 _"And once more, our esteemed fighters from Beacon leap their way out of certain death!"_ the voice from the monitor- 'Tock', presumably- Roared out in laughter as the crowd around them cheered once more, _"But let's just hope that they'll be able to keep up this performance, yeah? Y'never know when something might just pop along to ruin your whole day!"_

"What are you-" Ruby struggled against her restraints as the woman's voice on the screen rattled on, "What have you done? What are you doing with them?!"

"I have done nothing to them, and am doing nothing to them," Templar added in as he gestured to the screen once more, "That is all Tock's doing."

"Then do something about it!"

"I'm afraid that that is out of my reach. The arena is Tock's realm, not mine."

"That's an excuse- A flimsy one at that!- And we both know it!"

"Perhaps, but, truth be told," Templar chuckled, pulling out a sword and teasing it across her cheek, drawing a thin trail of blood from her as he then leaned in close and said, "I would rather they not interfere."

He stroked a finger over her bloody cheek, smearing it pinkish red.

"I would rather have you to myself."

(Behind them, the Techion on hind legs seemed to flex their hands at this, but did nothing.

Not yet, at least.)

Ruby flinched involuntarily.

She had felt this touch before.

Flashes in her mind. A deceiving grin. A laugh. An intruding hand.

She had been scared then.

No more.

This time, she would be strong.

Be strong.

Be as strong as she could be, and then stronger still.

It was all that she could do.

"What..." Ruby began with, biting her tongue as the fle- metal finger released its grip on her face, "What do you want?"

Templar took a step back, and then spread his arms out wide, in a grandiose display of power- His power over her- And then cried out, "Why, to worship our goddess, after all!" his voice echoed out through the ruined hall around them- A church building, or a monastery- And seemed to send vibrations throughout every surface of the building as he then continued, "To worship you, my dear Rose."

"...What?" Ruby blinked once, twice, thrice, "What are you... What are you talking about?"

 **"She knows not how special she is?"** behind Templar, the Techion asked this out loud, its voice scratchy and scraping as it- He- Walked forwards and waved a hand over her face for dramatic effect, **"Has the false light idol swayed her away from the light that she was born from?"**

Ruby looked at the Techion with an uncertain look, "What are you... What is it that you're saying?"

The Techion queered its head, **"Are you not aware of your silver eyes?"**

Silver... Yes, Ozpin had told her about it. She said as much.

 **"Aha, yes, indeed! Your eyes are a connection to the gods themselves- To the Twin Gods! And that is why you are holy to us, our goddess!"** the Techion threw its hands out and twirled itself around, its fur twisting along with it as its 4 crimson eyes looked back down at her and said, **"It is your eyes that connect themselves to the gods! It is your eyes that we worship, for they are holy and sacred, like the first bible of the Brother Gods, only to be truly blessed with their power- With their touch! It is that which we worship. That which we find divine."**

The Techion then bowed itself, and pressed its hands against the floor.

**"And since you now hold that power, it is in you that we shall once more find divinity."**

Ruby couldn't help but listen to the Techion's voice, hearing the booming rasp behind it, and then couldn't help but ask, "You... You're a Grimm, aren't you?"

To her shock, the Techion nodded vigorously-

_A Grimm Techion. An actual Grimm Techion. This is... This is incredible. Something like that has never happened before... Not that I know of, at least._

-And got back onto his feet, saying (Almost shouting), **"Indeed indeed! I am Attis, the God of Rebirth! I am Grimm reborn into Techion through the sciences of man! I was born of the Ascendant Court, lost to the winds of the Emerald Forest when the slaughter was commenced! But then I was found! Found and reborn by the powers of the Choir of Silver and the light that they bring, and now, because of them, I have devoted myself to their cause, and to yours, in the name of the-"**

"Attis, enough," Templar stepped forward, putting his hand on the chest of the Techion and forcing him out of the way, "Temper yourself."

'Attis' seemed to be slightly frazzled by this, **"B-But, my priest! I was merely-"**

Templar pulled out his sword, and applied it to Attis' neck, "Step. Back. Understood."

 **"I... I... O-Of course, my priest..."** Attis nervously bowed, before stepping back, and balancing his metal frame against one of the rotten pews of the hall around them.

 **"Heh, you want me to kill the little sycophant, O' Great Priest?"** the fiery Scion Grimm asked as it- He- summoned a bright flame in his hands and barked out a gurgled laugh, **"I can make it quick, but I can also make it painful, if you want."**

**"Wha- Wait, no, I-"**

**"Save your- What do the humans call it? Oh yeah. Save your murder boner for something worthwhile,"** the icy Baron Grimm spoke in a feminine voice, folding its- Her- Hands together as she breathed out another blast of cold air and said, **"He's not worth it."**

Attis himself looked to have been cowed by their words, and pressed his 4 hands together awkwardly.

(Ruby could use this to her advantage.)

"Your eyes are the gateway to the gods themselves," Templar ignored the interaction of his lessers as he continued on, "Yours is the power that may grant us power as well, through our worship of you."

 **"Worship! Worship!"** the Disciple guards in the hall chanted out once Templar finished speaking, their ugly voices like nails on a blackboard as they renewed their vows of worship.

"After all, is one not made powerful through their worships of the gods? Is one not saved by them, blessed to join the afterlife when they devote themselves to their cause? Is one not made one with salvation?"

**"Salvation! Salvation!"**

"For when the gods see our work through you, they will know of our great deeds! For when we spread our light across all of Remnant, they will know our strength! And when they return to this world, and see all that we have done, they will thank us, and will create a new heaven on Remnant!"

**"A new heaven on Remnant!"**

"And all of it, my dear Rose," he tilted the flat part of his sword up to her chin, and lifted her head up to stare at his imposing figure, "Begins with you. The powers that you possess- The object of our worship- Are the closest thing to a god that Remnant has, and through them, we shall harvest the light within, and-"

"I am no god."

This got him to pause, as did everyone else in the hall, and they all looked to Ruby as she did her best to look as defiant to him as she could.

"You think I'm some... Some sort of new god, or whatever?" Ruby asked, "I'm none of those things. I'm just- I'm just me..."

She made a show of slumping against her restraints.

"I'm not special. I don't want to be special. I don't want to be the bees knees. I just want to be a normal girl with normal knees..."

Ruby never wanted to be special.

She never wanted to have been born with silver eyes.

If she had known that her eyes were this special... She didn't know what she would've done, but she doubted that it would've been something good.

Ozpin hadn't revealed much about her eyes, but she was beginning to suspect that there was a negative side to them.

A much larger negative side than just Salem...

The Patch Massacre came to mind.

She had lost her home when the fortresses of Scrap, Mend, Forge, and Tool had been blown up from the inside out (Had that been the Grimm themselves, or people working for the Grimm?), And the Grimm had surged into the island at force, purging everything that lived there, and burning everything else. Signal Academy was felled, most of its teachers killed trying to defend the gathered villagers and settlers within, before they were all killed themselves, its former students all being killed to the individual as their ships were torn out of the air and left to shatter and burn on the ground below, every small village and community there was burned and slaughtered, their blood channelling rivers through the mud and muck, she-

Dammit, it was happening again.

She couldn't help it. Patch was now a scorched wasteland, and everything on it had been reduced to ash and cinder. She, Yang, and Zwei... They were part of the 5% of people that had been able to escape the massacre, but most of them had been children that had either escaped from Signal before it was destroyed, or had been sent from their families and small communities to the single ship and few Bullheads that were able to punch through, with so few viable escape vehicles for all of them that they were all crammed in like sardines as they were all made orphans by the battle.

That was a lie. It wasn't a battle. It was a one-sided slaughter.

And her father... Taiyang Xiao Long.

He died, right in front of them.

His leg was torn from its joint in a shower of blood by an Ascendant Beowolf, and had been dragged away into the burning forests.

Drone flights over Patch days later eventually found his corpse.

A single puncture wound through his chest. Nearby, the cliff that once held her mother's grave had collapsed to the ground below, the grave shattering and splintering into a million pieces as it fell.

She and Yang were made orphans of the state after that, with Zwei being one of the only worldly possession that they had left, save for their weapons and the clothes on their backs, but after the incident with Iris-

_**TOUCHING TOUCHING INTRUDING BAD BAD BAD STOP** _

-Headmaster Ozpin took a particular interest in the both of them (Ruby didn't know why then, but now she did, and she wasn't sure how to feel about it) And placed them in much better living conditions, before using their previous training as Huntresses, as well as their position as wards of the state, to pull them into Beacon Academy, where on the first day she met Jaune, and then...

Well, then everything else happened.

Next thing she knew, the entire Emerald Forest and beyond was engulfed by the Ascendant Court's army, her first Crescent Rose was destroyed, Kay Nin died right in front of her, half of her body was scarred, and after all of it, she was finally told of the significance of her eyes, and placed on a team.

A team that wasn't afraid to tell her that they didn't want or need her.

And after all of this, now, after being kidnapped by a crazed group of Grimm cultists and their creepy Techion leader, whilst her 2 closest friends (Even if she wasn't exactly on the best terms with Melanie right now) Were being forced to fight for their lives in a demented blood sport, there was only one thing that Ruby could think to herself...

Was she the reason that all of this had happened?

Was her silver eyes the cause of all of this pain and torment and suffering and death?

Was this all her fault?

* * *

A long time later, she would realise that it wasn't.

The Grimm never cared about her silver eyes in the first place.

* * *

"You are humble, my soon-to-be-goddess," Templar chuckled as he shifted through a bag near him, and pulled out her beloved weapon, Crescent Rose 2.0, "Very humble indeed."

He flicked the weapon into its scythe form, and ran his metal finger across the blade.

Before Ruby could say anything about him touching her baby like that, he said something that shocked her into silence.

"Just like your mother, in fact."

…

"What?" Ruby asked.

Her eyes were stinging.

"Oh?" Templar asked, "Have I finally peaked your interest in what I have to say? Well, yes, I knew your mother. I knew her quite well. In fact, you could say that we were," he chuckled, "Best friends, in fact, back in Beacon."

He knew her mother he knew her mother he actually knew her mother?

"Ah yes, she was the humble sort indeed," Templar nodded to himself, "Very humble, but also bratty, a lot of the time. Very annoying, but also very enduring. Her death... Yes, her death is a tragedy."

Her eyes were beginning to well up. Stop it, stop it. Why was she like this? Why was she always so close to a breakdown whenever someone mentioned her mother? Her good eye flickered a silver light.

"We were sister teams in Beacon Academy. We were practically inseparable. Ours was a tight bond that no one else could break, and it was both of our teams that were informed of Salem by Ozpin himself, and it was Summer Rose whom picked me up out of my depression when I felt like the world was collapsing down around me."

Ozpin? Did Ozpin know about Templar? When was he going to tell her about this? Why didn't he tell her about him?

The Techion laughed again, "Did you know I actually fell in love with her, after that? She was the love of my life, and oh! Such plans I had for the both of us! I still think she was the reason why I began my worship of Silver-Eyed Warriors in the first place. It's a mystery for me even now. But," his laughter became a snarl as he looked downwards towards the Crescent Rose in his hands, "For that worship, I was banished from Beacon, and from the woman that I loved, all for what I believed to be the right thing to do."

When was Ozpin going to tell her about any of this? Dammit, why were her eyes welling up with so many tears?

"I tried to spread my faith to others, but was ruined for it. I encountered Summer Rose again, and expressed how I felt- How I feel- To her, but she called me-" he barked out a humourless laugh, "She called me disgusting! A possessive creep! Can you imagine that? To be dissuaded by the one that you cherished so dearly!? Do be denied perfection! Because she was perfect! She was divine perfection!"

She looked from Crescent Rose to Ruby.

"Unlike you."

"...Wha-"

"Do you believe that I saw your imperfect eye?" Templar marched forwards and threw her hair to the side, revealing the milky white orb where silver should be, "Do you think I am stupid enough to not notice an imperfection like this?"

The thought had crossed her mind, but Ruby didn't say it as she leaned her head back and went, "W-What are you talking about?"

 **"Y-Yes, my priest, what are you-"** Attis was stopped by the other 2 Grimm, one out of cold callousness, the other of pure sadism. They didn't want what was about to happen to be interrupted.

"Such imperfection cannot stand. Our idol- Our figure of worship- Must be perfect, as every idol is, but in order to do that, we must cut away the filth to show the purity within."

He twirled Crescent Rose around in his hand-

"Stop! Plea- Ugh!"

-And pointed the tip of the blade to right under her bad eye.

"And now-"

"Please, don't!"

"-You will be perfect."

And with one single, bloody strike-

{SLASH}

"AAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

-He scooped out Ruby's bad eye.

* * *

Bowing out of sight of another patrolling Grimm drone, much like herself in design, hiding in a broken hole in the side as it passed, Eri quickly flew out of her hiding place, and into one of the nearby rooms. A Grimm Disciple in a silver cloak was maintaining a cobbled together generator. One of the generators powering the coliseum, and connected to the jamming network.

With a long charge of green energy, she zapped the Disciple, and let it drop dead to the floor.

Shuffling the cloak to the side as its owners body faded into nothing, Eri assessed the generator in front of her, and, against the loud cheers of the Grimm crowd above, she plugged herself into the generator and the Grimm network, and-

Dammit, she was blocked out.

It would've been foolish to assume that she would just immediately be able to access the Grimm's network without a dozen firewalls in place, but still, it would've been nice.

Hm, in order to access the network, she would need to spoof an electronic key to pass through the firewalls. Such a task was relatively simple, seeing as how everything was running on a hodgepodge system of old Pre-War electronics, and-

_Spoof-Key progress: 0%_

_Spoof-Key progress: 1%_

_Spoof-Key progress: 2%_

-She had already begun the process of generating that key, but that did not help the current situation with Master Jaune and Mistress Melanie, and she couldn't just destroy the generators, because that would do nothing abut the network itself since this wasn't where they were transmitting it from-

She could destroy the generators, though.

If she destroyed each individual generator, then the entire coliseum would lose power. Heck, if she destroyed them, then the sheer force of the explosions would rip apart the stadium and destroy almost, if not all of the Grimm present, and even the low-hovering Carrier above!

But it might also kill Master Jaune and Mistress Melanie...

…

Floating away to find the nearest armoury, she pinged her plan over to the 2 fighters above.

She liked her idea.

Her very explosive idea.

(She was taking after her mother after all.)

* * *

Dash to the side, block a blow, and then a riposte to his opponent. Roll to the side to dodge a dragon's strike, and then sent a shot into one of the fighters.

Rinse, dry, repeat.

It was a good plan if Jaune had ever heard one, but he found himself growing fatigued as these Grimm- The Undertakers, the Techion had called them- Began to adapt to his strategy, as did the wounded dragon in the arena with them as he and Melanie continued to dodge and weave themselves around the Grimm and their ravaged pet, the dragon in question throwing a wing down and making a sweeping motion with it, catching Jaune with it and-

{CRASH}

"OOF!"

-Sending him crashing into the wall with a loud bang, the crowd cheering as his armour protected him from the brunt of the blow, and his aura began to heal his wounds, only for the dragon to quickly move to pounce on him, just as-

{BOOM}

-Melanie released an explosion of blue fire at her feet, propelling her through the air as she threw her fist back and-

{CRACK}

-Launched another great explosion of blue fire into the head of the dragon, sending it tumbling back as her aura healed her hand underneath her knuckleduster, only for it to burn again under the heat of her semblance as she released a wave of fire into the Undertakers around her, before absorbing a flurry of fire from the Undertaker with the flamethrower, and looking back to Jaune and asked, "You okay?"

"Yep, I'm- Ugh!" Jaune groaned as he pulled himself out of the wall and straightened his back out, before pulling out his folded up shotgun from his lower back, and cocking it in his hand, "I'm doing good. Better than I thought in fact. I had thought that these guy's would've killed us by now."

"I don't think these guys have ever fought a Hunter of any kind before," Melanie theorised as she pulled out another pair of throwing knives and sent them flying into the armour of one of the Undertakers, "Probably spent most of their time killing civilians than fighting actual warriors."

Running up to the Undertaker who's armour she had just impaled, she grabbed the knives in its chest, launched herself off of it, and then threw the knife down into the neck of another Undertaker, imbedding itself in the animal scale armour underneath, but not piercing through until she threw her fist down and unleashed another punch of blue light into the neck of the Grimm, killing it and shredding the skin on her arm as her knuckleduster flared with life.

"See?" Melanie said as she pulled her throwing knives from the Undertaker's armour and fading corpse, before throwing them into another Undertaker- A Cleric Grimm- And then rolling to the side as she pulled out her Mangler Shot-Pistols and fired them into the head of the dragon, "Plus the dragon's so emaciated that I'm amazed that it can even walk, let alone fight."

 _"And with that, an Undertaker's down! Score one fer the Hunters of Beacon!"_ the Techion called out over the speakers around them, and against the boos and jeers of the Grimm around them, she then called out to them, _"But 'old onto yer seats, fellas and fellets-"_

Melanie winced, "'Fellets', that's not even a word..."

_"-'Cause the home team ain't out of the field yet! They've still got 8 fighters and a dragon to their name, so don't expect this match to end without a speck of blood on the floor!"_

"Yeah, our blood preferably," Jaune drawled out sarcastically, to which Melanie gave an equally dry nod, as he-

{KA-CHOOM}

-Unloaded a shotgun shell into the armoured chest of a Cleric Grimm, keeping himself still through the gun's recoil as he pumped it again and fired off another round into the same Grimm, shredding its armour and knocking it back into the ground as it growled in anger, but was supported by one of the Disciples with spears, as another with a hunting rifle took aim-

{BANG}

-And fired at Jaune, hitting him on the right side of the chest, though even if his considerable mass of aura hadn't been up, the extra blackened metal padding on the right of his chest would've stopped it anyways.

Still though, the blow was enough to send Jaune stumbling back, almost falling onto the ground, before a Disciple punted him into the ground via a haymaker to the helmeted face, and winced in pain as its knuckles broke from the impact. But, it was not enough to stop it as it went to throw its electric spear down onto him-

_! ! ! ! \\( ^0^ )/ ! ! ! !_

-Only for Jaune to apply his shotgun to the unarmoured joint in its leg, and blow it clean off, sending the Grimm tumbling to the ground and clutching its bloody stump in pain as he pulled himself back onto his feet, and inspected the icon that had suddenly flashed onto his helmet's HUD, "Eri?"

Melanie looked back to him in the middle of her fight, and asked, "What do you mean, 'Eri'?"

"Pyrrha and Nora's droid! She's texting me!" he paused again and opened his channel to her, "Eri, is that you?"

_d=====(￣▽￣*)b_

"Eri, where are you? Where is everyone?"

_( ‵□′)───C＜─_-)|| (っ °Д °;)っ ( ‵□′)───C＜─_-)|| Σ(っ °Д °;)っ_

_/(ㄒoㄒ)/~~ ᓚᘏᗢ ( •_•)⌐■-■ (⌐■_■)_

"What does that mean? Where the others captured as well?"

_＞﹏＜_

"Right, and you were able to get away before then, yeah?"

Jaune looked over to Melanie, who was still battling against the 2 Cleric Undertakers, as well as one of the Disciples with a hunting rifle, before she dodged a blast of flame from the flamethrower Disciple, whilst Jaune was forced to busy himself with the violent dragon near him as this time, he jumped over one of its sweeping wings, and fired a shotgun round into its beak as he then asked, "Okay, where are you now?"

_(⊙_(⊙_⊙)_⊙)_   
_┗|｀O′|┛_

"You're underneath- You're in the coliseum with us?"

_( •̀ ω •́ )✧_

"Wait, doesn't Pyrrha's drone speak in emoji?" Melanie called out to him as she quickly soothed her hand over a piece of burnt skin on her arms before delivering a swiping kick to one of the Cleric Undertakers and asking, "How the hell are you able to understand her?"

"Oh, one of my sister's is a mute, and she only ever talks in emojis when she's texting. It's a hard to learn skill."

"Bite me, I'm going to learn it."

"Well, that's a whole different conver- Ah! A whole different conversation!" Jaune yelped as he rolled to the side to avoid the flamethrower Disciple, and then sent a shotgun blast into its armoured head, before ducking to the side once more from the dragon, and moving back to Eri's comm channel, and going, "What about Ruby, Eri? Where's Ruby?"

_( ‵□′)───C＜─_-)|| ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ╯︿╰ ᕦ(ˇò_ó)ᕤ_

"The Grimm've got her? Dammit. Well, what'd we do now?"

_( ‵□′)───C＜─_-)|| ┗|｀O′|┛ (⊙_(⊙_⊙)_⊙) \\( ^0^ )/ Σ(っ °Д °;)っ_

"Okay, in layman's terms, what does that mean?"

And then, instead of an emoji, Eri's reply was just a single word:

_ka-boom_

…

Jaune was liking this plan already.

"Heh, well, alright then... But we'll still need a way out of this place before it..."

He blinked, and then looked up at the withered dragon before him.

"...Goes up."

The dragon bayed and croaked out a roar, its electric collar lighting up blue and sending an electric shock across its body once more. It whimpered in pain, before being driven into a frenzy once more.

Jaune knew what he had to do.

Looking over to Melanie, he then jumped over to her side and went, "Hey Melanie? That dragon's collar is the only thing keeping it cooperative. If we destroy it, or at the very least switch it off, it might just attack the Grimm as well-"

"Or at the very least fly off, and give us the chance to escape," Melanie finished for him as she fired 2 scattershot rounds from her Mangler Shot-Pistols into one of the Cleric Undertakers, before going, "That's a good enough plan from where I'm standing. Might as well give it a shot."

Jaune nodded, and then spoke into the comms, "You hear that, Eri?"

(๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

"Well then, let's get to it," he said to the both of them, as he then dodged yet another strike from the dragon, and muttered to himself, "Plans. Who doesn't love a simple plan?"

* * *

"And there we go. Who doesn't love a simple solution?"

"..."

"Oh, don't give me that look. I told you it would be a simple matter of cleaning up the blood around your eye."

"..."

"Now now, my dear, don't look so sullen. You have a presentation to look forward to."

"..."

"...Hey, look at me."

"..."

"Look at me."

"..."

"Now."

"..."

He grabbed her chin, and forced her face up, "Now, look at me."

She stayed silent, but did indeed look up at him. Her single remaining eye was dull and lifeless, but not dead.

"...That's better," he said, letting go of her chin and allowing her to be carted off once more, satisfied with the look that was only meant for him, "Now then, let us hope that you are presentable for the crowd below."

"..."

The curtains in front of them were divided to reveal the harsh light below, and the air around the stage was cold and lonely, reeking of rusting metal and turning wood. Down below was a crowd of only a few hundred. His most loyal followers out of the entirety of his choir.

And she did not react any more.

Twirling the bloodied Crescent Rose in his hand, Templar stood himself behind his damaged captive, Adonai to one side, Ares to another, and spread his arms out wide, "To my most loyal brother and sister Grimm, I present to you, the reward for your sacrifices! Ruby Rose, the first of our pantheon of Silver-Eyed Gods!"

The crowds of hundreds cheered in jubilance and joy, but Ruby Rose stayed slumped in her cross, broken and drained.

Where her bad eye once laid itself, was now hollowed, and left as nothing but an eyeless red hole.

Behind them, hidden away would stand Attis, his loyalties beginning to divide themselves.

(And all the way in the basement of the cathedral, the Tinkerer would watch all of this, and smile at their ignorance.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this chapter was so short. It's not my best when it comes to writing, I know, but I really just wanted to get this written down and released. Next chapter I'm having is probably going to be devoted to Jaune, Eri, and Melanie against Tock and her lot, so it'll probably be a lot longer.
> 
> Or at least a bit longer.
> 
> Probably a lot.
> 
> Then again, I might start doing shorter chapters instead of constantly aiming to break the 10,000 point. I know a lot of you might not like it, but that way I can get content out quicker, and it might actually be healthier for me, because it takes a lot of effort to write these chapters, can I just say?
> 
> Anyways, my university has picked up again now, and I've got online work to do, so I can't promise when precisely the next update will be. Hopefully by the end of February, but again, I can't promise anything.
> 
> But anyways, with all of that said and done, leave a review (I look forward to seeing how many of you write about how much you hate Templar now, because he is supposed to be a despicable villain) Favourite, follow, and with that, stay safe, stay healthy, and I shall see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	34. Jaunedice part 7: Dragon Tamers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaune and Melanie fight for their lives in the arena as the Sleeping City watches on, whilst Eri continues to run and gun and plan their escape.
> 
> Elsewhere, hidden plans are coming to fruition, and rogue elements of the Choir of Silver begin to make their move...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Battle song used: Night City Aliens by The Armed and Homeshool Dropouts (Modified for chapter)

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_**Arc Theme:** _[Through The Valley by Shawn James (The Last Of Us 2 trailer edition)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xunZys4VDMQ)  
_**Theme:** [_Fallen Empire from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbUqujmHdv4)

* * *

_To the masters, they are always the victors. And to the victors, the spoils._

**_Famous saying of slave fighters during the Rights Revolution_ **

* * *

_"Where does this go?"_

**"In storage bay."**

Malcom sifted through the box of scraps in front of him on the screen, and then pulled out a broken aura dampener, _"What about this?"_

**"Also in storage bay."**

_"And what about-"_

**"Also in storage bay. Everything in box go in storage bay of _Pilgrim's Flight_."**

Malcom scowled through the screen, _"Y'know, boss, when the big boss said that we'd be working for these people, I expected us to be, you know, killing more people than we actually are. Not sifting through damaged goods."_

**"Damaged goods good scrap. Good salvage. All salvage good salvage."**

_"Yeah, but what does that have to do with-"_

**"Hired to do job. Collect salvage. Easy job. Get paid when job complete, yes?"**

Malcom looked to the side, _"Well, yeah-"_

**"Then complete job. Get salvage and Nuckelavee on _Pilgrim's Flight_. No fuss."**

Malcom looked up to him, and then frowned, _"Fine,"_ and with that, the transmission was cut off.

The Tinkerer hung up his portable computer, and got back to applying the finishing touches on the effigy before him. The silver and grey metal chamber around him glowed an oppressively bright white as the silver and red clothes of fabric patterned the peeled metal walls. Scraps and shards of technology lost to time littered the floor as he continued to weld together the monument to a dead person in front of him.

A motor servo here, an arm casing there, a screw and a stray optic right up there, and-

Something beeped on his computer.

Looking down at his portable computer, he found the problem. Something had attempted to access his jamming network without permission, and was currently creating a spoof key to access the Choir's systems.

If that spoof key was created, then it could easily access his homemade network, and bring the entire jamming network down, revealing everything that they had been doing in the Sleeping City to the mankin and beastkin humans of the kingdom nearby.

…

He deleted the notification and got back on with his work.

Nearby, a Grimm Disciple of the Choir of Silver looked to him and blinked its single eye, **"What was that?"**

Underneath his helmet, his eye narrowed in amusement.

**"Oh... Nothing important."**

* * *

Many years ago, the Gladiatorial Arena- The coliseum- of the Sleeping City served a very different purpose.

Years ago, it was the Grand Mausoleum of New Fortressa, and served as the centrepiece of the city, standing tall as the most regal and elegant structure in the funeral city, with pillars of pure gold and diamond holding the painted walls and ceilings up as the greatest artesians- Painters, scholars, actors, philosophers, and the like- Made those coloured walls their resting place alongside the richest and wealthiest corpses on Remnant.

The Grand Mausoleum was the resting place for the one percent of the one percent, the best and brightest of the world going there to peacefully die, their treasures and greatest mementos being stored away in grand tombs to die with them, their names and faces painted into the walls, and made immortal through their legacies.

Every single facet of human and Faunus life, and perhaps human and Faunus life itself, owed their existence to the people buried away in these walls.

But then, the Great War came to pass. New Fortressa was continuously ransacked by the forces of the war, and the Moving City made its final resting place, ironically, next to the once biggest graveyard on Remnant.

Almost everyone in the soon-to-be Sleeping City was killed, down to the men, women, and children. Their rotting bodies would litter the grounds around them and join those sleeping forever in the tombs around them, clogging up tunnels with their stench and rot, as colonies of scavengers of all kind, both animal and sapient, made the rotting city their home as they pillaged and raided every single tomb that they could find for riches and valuables, whilst what was left of the Sleeping City's population once known as Dreamer's Edge (A pseudo-kingdom that had made its home within the old Moving City) Turned into Grimm worshipping cults, before finally being driven extinct around a year ago.

During the Colour Revolution, the Sleeping City was continuously vandalised by young artists and adventurous explorers, leaving graffiti and smatterings of rough art all across the graveyards shattered walls and bunkers, and during the Rights Revolution, the corrupt leading families of Remnant had the entirety of the Sleeping City ransacked further for all of its valuables and treasures, and had the Grand Mausoleum hollowed out and turned into the coliseum of the modern day, so that they might have a place for their slaves to battle it out against each other, right until the end of the Revolution during the final uprisings, when what was left of the Mandarin collective known as the Revanchists gave their lives to free all of the slaves locked away in the Sleeping City, and allowing them to flee into the wilds of Solitas, where they all joined the Faunus house that lived out there called the House of the Winter Shore.

Now, the Grand Mausoleum- Now the coliseum of the Sleeping City- Was a dilapidated wreck, just like the rest of the city. Its walls were crumbling and collapsed in on themselves, its walls tarnished and faded, its tombs demolished to make way for the rows of pews and seats that made up the stands overlooking the arena below.

It was a symbol of appropriated history. A desecrated relic of times long since past.

And Eri was going to blow it all up.

Having snuck into the halls of the coliseum through one of the many holes in its foundation, as well as attempting to infiltrate the Grimm's jamming network-

_Spoof-Key progress: 12%_

-Eri had decided that there was a much better plan to freeing Master Jaune and Mistress Melanie available to her.

Blow the entire stadium to kingdom come.

And so, with that plan in mind, Eri had snuck her way through the broken hallways of the coliseum, past all of the Grimm drone guards (Since everyone else was too busy staring at the screens on the walls or were in the arena stands themselves), And into the armoury of the coliseum, pinching as many explosives as her tiny frame, 4 arms, and her twin fans could carry, all in a small sack beneath her as she scurried from generator to generator, trying her best to avoid the cameras all around her as she silently killed the few Grimm that she couldn't avoid, hiding their equipment away as their bodies disintegrated into nothingness, and then wormed her way into the internal structures of the generators, and planting those remote explosives within, linking them with her own systems, allowing her to detonate them whenever she wished.

If Mother Nora could see her now, she would be proud.

…

She really needed to talk to her Mother and Master team about their relationship together.

But, that wasn't the mission. Right now, she had to worry about how to save Master Jaune and Mistress Melanie.

Another Grimm drone passed by outside of the generator room, and a Disciple in a silver cloak looked inside. Eri hid herself within the insides generator, shutting off her optical lights as the Grimm peered inside the room, not looking for anything in particular (Specifically the bag of explosives hidden behind the generator), As it narrowed its eye, scoffed, muttered a few words to itself in its own language, and then walked off. It must've been looking to talk with the Grimm that had been working on the generator, and thought that it's gone on break or something.

Eri wormed her way out of the generator's components, grabbed her bag of goodies, and planted one more remote explosive in the generator internals. Peeking her optic through the doorway, she saw that it was clear, and made her move once more. There were separate generators all around the stadium instead of a single one, each of them powering a different system, so that if one of them went down, not all of the coliseum would be brought offline. Clever on paper, and in practice.

But now, it served more towards Eri's advantage than theirs.

_Spoof-Key progress: 18%_

_Hold on Master Jaune, Mistress Melanie. I'm coming to get you._

* * *

_This's pathetic._

That was what the aging Techion known as Tock thought to herself as she watched the proceedings down below, her boisterous voice betraying the annoyance and lack of approval that she found within herself from watching the two Hunters in training stalemate, and even best her Undertakers and damnable pet dragon as well.

The crowds cheered at the violence as the boy took another swing with his sword at one of her own, almost decapitating it as it jumped back, spear in hand and duelling the boy as the girl summoned flames in her hand and forced back another of her Undertakers, all the while the dragon began to tire itself out, lagging behind the fight as its eyes slowly began to close.

A simple press of a button sent its collar on overdrive, shocking it back into the fray.

If Tock still had the physical capacity to twitch an eyelid, she would. However, her new status as a Techion had denied her that. Instead, she just gnashed her metal jaw together (She didn't really need it for speaking, since she had a voice modulator built into her. She only needed it for biting and ripping apart her prey), Flicked the sharpened nails on her 4 robotic arms, and watched the humiliation of her followers below.

She thought back to the first time that she had met Salem. Or rather, the first time that Salem met her.

As all stories began, it was a dark and stormy night when Salem emerged in her lonely little cabin, and asked for her services, suddenly just appearing out of nowhere and asking- No, demanding that she served her.

Tock, of course, had signed up immediately. The big bad Grimm queen hadn't even needed to pull that whole immortality shtick with her that she apparently pulled on almost everyone else.

After all, why would she ever want to turn down a job that just revolved around killing people as violently and destructively as she wanted?

Get to kill a whole lot of people any way that she wanted?

Score.

Her first task, of course, was to kill one of those fabled Silver-Eyed Warriors that she talked so much about.

No problem. Killed one that called herself the Grimm Reaper. Tore off her arms and legs and let her bleed to death as she scooped her eyeballs out of their sockets and held them between her sharpened teeth as a present to her new master.

Fun times. Fun times indeed.

And so, she was sent off on her quest- In her very long life, all the way up to her old age- To cull the last Silver-Eyed Warriors left out in the world, both when they were a threat, and, heh, before they became a threat.

Some kills were more fun than others, after all.

But then, everything changed when Salem decided to bring that... Girl into the mix.

That was less fun.

Suddenly, everything in the Land of Darkness changed, and the Daughter and her Ascendant Court had taken control of the Grimm. A massive civil war broke out between the Grimm still loyal to Salem- The loyalists- And those loyal to the Ascendant Court- The separatists- And eventually, the separatists won out, and Salem's court were either scattered or repurposed for the new leading figures of the Grimm.

She remembered spotting Salem next to the Daughter, their battle long and difficult for each other.

The Daughter won, and had Salem on her knees, a chain and collar around her throat as she was renamed the Mother Eternal, and knelt before the Daughter like a pet.

Tock had been caught in the crossfire of the civil war, and the few Grimm that were loyal to her personally (All former members of the Ascendant Court's armies, ironically) Had rebuilt her into her Techion form, so that she might lead them to...

Well, to do what they do best, of course.

Kill people.

And as luck would have it, they had found a permanent contractor for their new mercenary life. Sure, Templar and his lot were a bunch of fucking religious nutters, who were always going on about galivanting off on some religious crusade, but if they wanted her to do nothing but kill people, then who the hell was she to complain?

That, and she got to throw people in gladiator arenas for amusement. That was always fun.

(And who knows? When Templar announces their crusade and all of those cells in Vale begin their attacks on the people within, maybe she would be sent to join them for the slaughter as well.

That'd be fun, Atlas' presence be damned.)

And not only that, but her loyal Undertakers had been with her every step of the way, eagerly fishing out the hearts of their victims through their bloody chests, shucking their skin and wearing them like masks. They had truly done her proud.

But now?

Now her loyal minions were nothing more than an embarrassment.

They were loosing to kids. Nothing more than a pair of kiddies! And worse yet, they were being humiliated, at that! She was all up for a good- Gods, she loved a good fight! But this? These were her followers, and they were supposed to have taken these children apart, down to their bare bones, and left them as bleeding messes as they tore them to pieces.

And yet they were loosing.

And even her pet dragon was failing this fight!

She growled, and let loose another shock of electricity into her dragon, sending the beast into a fresh frenzy as the monster practically frothed from its beak with rage and continued its attacks, all the while she continued to fake the enthusiasm in her voice as she made callout after callout about the battle below, the crowd eating it all up as her Baron attendant behind her asked in a barely coherent fashion, **"Frustrated?"**

"Immensely," Tock scoffed as she switched off the microphone before her, and collapsed into her seat, scraping her fingers over her sharp metal jaw and bringing up sparks, before scratching her rectangular glowing gold eyes and going, "These idiots... Me Undertakers're meant to be the best hunters 'n' killers this side of Remnant, and yet 'ere they are, gettin' owned by a pair of kiddies still in their firs' years."

She growled to herself, rubbing her metal face in annoyance, before her jaws snapped together, and she realised her mistake.

"These idiots're good at killin' civies, not Hunters," she groaned in frustration, "Ain't ever had a fight 'gainst 'em. 'Course, these kids are just firs' years, but that makes it even more humiliatin' fer them, and fer me."

 **"Unfair to Undertaker, yes?"** the Baron, surprisingly, spoke up with, **"Children survive Initiation Massacre. Children strong for survive. Children strong than most."**

She scoffed again, "Sure," before cocking her metal head to the Baron draped in a silver cloak, and going, "Y'know, yer a lot more asser'ive than before. Yer usually a lot more meek than this."

**"That other Baron helper."**

"'Other Baron'- How many of you lot are there?! You at leas' 'ave a name?"

**"No."**

"'Ow the 'ell do yer all tell each other apart, 'en? Yer all look the same!"

**"Say same about human."**

If Tock could still blink, she would've. Instead she just paused, before barking out a laugh- Her metal teeth clanging and gnashing together as she did- And went, "Yer a snarky one, aren't you! 'M Startin' to like you already!"

She then folded her metal hands together, and looked back down to the battlegrounds below, watching her Undertakers and dragon continue their duel against the children below.

"Can't say the same 'bout me friends down there, though..."

Suddenly, the boy was forced down by 2 of the Undertakers, before being picked up and thrown across the arena, just as one of the dragon's wings caught him in mid-air and slammed him into the wall, leaving him groaning as another Undertaker pulled him down to the ground, and moved to stab his spear into the boy's gut, armour or not.

Tock's interest peaked up at this.

"Though that might change, soon enough..."

Flipping on the microphone once more, she stood up from her seat and spoke in a boisterous tone once more.

 _"Well, would you look at that, boys 'n' girls! Looks like our home team are finally gainin' the upper hand on 'ese young Hunters!"_ she cheered into the speaker system, as did the crowds around her as they leaped up in a chorus of celebration, _"Looks like we're in the final stretch of 'his fight now! Start placin' yer bets if ya 'aven't already, folks, and let's see who comes out on top!"_

For once, the enthusiasm wasn't faked.

A few seconds passed, before she then looked up and went, "Eh, fuck it! Let's put some music on, yeah?"

**"Er… Yes?"**

"'At's more like it!"

And with that, she began to fiddle and fuddle with the controls in front of her, before-

"Bingo!"

-Pressing the button closest to her, choosing one of the songs in her playlist, and then letting it roar.

"And 'o the fuck says that Vacuoan music is shite?"

* * *

_An oath sworn in scars_

"Who the fuck is playing heavy metal?!" Melanie screamed to herself as she-

_Omni vortex lies_

-Jumped in between a pair of Undertakers and used her semblance-

_Accept the order_

-To boost herself over a swiping dragon's wing as it screamed at her, before summoning-

_Ignore the others_

-A ball of blue fire into her hands and shooting it off into the flamethrower Undertaker, smothering it in blue fire as she dashed in between the Undertakers with hunting rifles, allowing her Manglers to blast them both in the chest as she then went, "Actually, why the fuck do I care? I just need to-"

_The-_

She then spotted him, about to be stabbed in the abdomen by one of the Undertakers.

_-In-_

"JAUNE!" she cried out as she-

{BOOM}

_-De-_

-Created a blue explosion at the bottom of her feet-

_-Cent-_

-And rocketed across the arena grounds-

_-Void_

-Twirling under the body of the ruined dragon-

_Ti-_

-Between another pair of Undertakers-

_-Ny-_

-And then throwing the bladed heel on her foot-

_-Fall-_

{SLICE}

_-En-_

{SPLATTER}

_-Toys_

-Right through the neck of the Grimm, decapitating it and letting its body roll onto the floor in a shower of black blood.

As the heavy metal continued to bleat and rave, Melanie picked up the metal spear that the Undertaker had been using before she killed it, twirling it around in her hand and letting the electricity crackle and burn on its blade, before-

_An oath sworn in scars_

-Using it to duel with the two Undertakers before her, clashing their blades together as-

_Omni vortex lies_

-The smoking Undertaker with the flamethrower ran up to where she was standing and-

{FWOOSH}

_Enforce the mission_

-Moved to roast her alive with its fires, only for hers to win out as she absorbed all of the flames coming towards her, and then-

{FWOOSH}

_Eyes close at the end of a cross hit_

-Returned all of that fire to the fighter, now much more powerful, and much more volatile.

_The-_

The Undertaker began to panic-

_-In-_

-And almost dropped its flamethrower as-

_-De-_

-It began to scream in pain from being cooked alive in its own suit-

_-Cent-_

-Flailing its arms about as the blue fire turned to orange and began to burn away its armour, clothes, and flesh.

_-Void._

The Undertakers near it all had the common sense to run from the flamethrower Undertaker as-

_Ti-_

-It's backpack beginning to crack open with flame and light-

_-Ny-_

-As it did its best to try and seal these patches with its bare hands-

_-Fall-_

-But it was all for naught as the light and fire continued to build and build and built, until-

_-En-_

{KA-BOOM}

_-Toys_

-It exploded in a shower of smoke, flame, and burning cloth and metal.

* * *

As the crowd began to boo and jeer at the slaughter of one of their champions, Tock quickly scowled to herself, and muttered, "On secon' thought, these idiots are idiots, and I hate 'em."

* * *

As the students began to cheer and catcall at the sudden move pulled by Melanie, Skipjack was the one to call out, "Woohoo! Go Jaune! Go Melanie! Go boss and bosset! Show those Grimm bastards what we're made of! Gods above, I love them!"

But as the students continued to cheer and work on their escape route, one of them looked onto the screening with widened eyes.

"Melanie," Neon Katt began to herself, "Was I..."

…

"Was I wrong?"

…

She didn't know anymore

* * *

"Get up, Jaune," Melanie called out to her partner in combat as he pulled himself out of the ground, "You're not out of the fight yet, are you?"

"Ugh, not yet," he shook his head, and looked at her through his helmet, "Thanks for the save. I owe you one."

Melanie laughed, "Guess that makes us even!" and once more, they threw themselves into the fray.

Three Undertakers down. Only six and a dragon to go.

No pressure.

_Cross-country caravans_

As they charged back into the battlezone, the music continued to blare and play, blasting across the arena and echoing beyond its walls and stifling cheers and boos, and creating a cacophony of lyrics, screams, and cries of battle, whilst the outside world remained ignorant of the proceedings of the chaos within.

_Vacuoan aliens_

Jaune pulled out two of his pistols and began a shootout with the two Disciple Undertakers with hunting rifles, doing his best to avoid the stomps and swipes and blows of the dragon above as its collar continued to torture it into a maddening frenzy, its eyes bloodshot and widened with insanity as it continued its relentless assault against the two Hunters in training below.

_I pull the trigger and I feel nothing_

That was a definite lie, through, as Melanie was definitely feeling something past the adrenaline and blood-pumping action.

It was pain. The pain of her arms and skin burning and malting itself from her body as her fires continued to lick past her aura and burn her skin, the increasingly large wings of metal and fire on her back only working to damage her nervous system even more as her aura kicked into overdrive to heal it all. But the damage was slowly being done, chipping away at her body piece by piece.

One day, there would be a reckoning for this, but today was not that day.

_Cross-country caravans_

Jaune rolled to the side as the dragon slammed its beak into the ground where he once stood, cracking the floor and sending dust up as it swiped its head to the side like a morningstar flail and then let out a roar as its chipped beak slammed into the ground once more, Jaune firing his two pistols at the collar of the beast, each round pinging off of the giant metal ring as it shocked the dragon even more and sent it into an even bigger frenzy than more, swiping its claws and talons at Jaune once more.

_Vacouan aliens_

Melanie, meanwhile, continued to duel with the pair of Cleric Undertakers that had been part of the battle, holstering her Manglers and throwing down her knuckledusters as she channelled her energy absorption/manipulation semblance through them, and crafting them into long fiery blades that left blackened burn marks across their armour, melted the leather and animal skins, and turned the cloth covering them into flaming ashes as she continued to duel with them, slowly melting through their blades and burning through the skin on her own arms as they began to peel and shrivel like rotten fruit, the bone becoming more and more prominent in her arms as the flesh was slowly malted away.

_I pull the trigger and I feel nothing_

"Whoever's playing this has decent taste at least," Melanie muttered to herself, "Well, at least for me personally," as she did a backflip and disengaged her knuckledusters, pulling out her throwing knives and tossing them at the Undertakers, throwing herself backwards and creating an explosion behind her- Thanks to her flaming wings- That propelled her towards Jaune, pushing them both out of the way of one of the dragon's strikes as she then yelled out, "Jaune, where the hell is Eri?!"

"I don't know! She's probably busy still planting the explosives!" Jaune shot back to her as he then tapped the side of his helmet, opening up his communications as he then told her, "I'll try to contact her again!" dodging a round from the Undertakers with hunting rifles as he then called out through the comms, "Eri, where are you?"

* * *

_(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿) ~(°°) (°°)～＼(((￣(￣(￣▽￣)￣)￣)))／ Σ(っ °Д °;)っ_

Eri shot back the message to Jaune over their shared communications as she finished planting the final explosive in the last of the generators, the blue glow and hum of the machine commingling with the glow of her own systems as she buzzed out of the internals of the machine with a spring in her flight.

_\\( ^0^ )/ (づ￣ 3￣)づ ● ◉ «◉»_

"Well, it better be a big one! Now get out of there, before the Grimm find you!"

_( •_•)⌐■-■ (⌐■_■) ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ_

She twirled in place, and moved to the door, but was stopped by-

{CI-CLICK}

**"Grr..."**

-A silver cloak wearing Disciple aiming its gun at her.

Aw crud.

* * *

"Eri? What's happened? Eri!?"

"Jaune, what's going on?!" Melanie called out to her as she kicked back one of the Undertakers, and picked up the spear that she had discarded earlier to duel with the Cleric Grimm once more, bullets whizzing past them as the dragon continued its maddening attack, "What's happened to Eri?!"

"She said that she'd planted her bombs and that she was going to sneak off, but she went dark after that!" he pulled himself back as an electric spear scraped his chest in a swinging blow, shocking him with electricity, though his aura protected him from its lingering effects as he then called out to her, "I think we're on our own!"

Neither of them chose to contemplate the meaning of that.

The dragon slammed its head down into the battlefield once more, and kicked up a cloud of dust that dirtied the both of them, as Melanie coughed and then growled out, "Fine, we'll get out of here on our own!"

The dragon howled, and its collar released a crackle of electricity into its systems once more, causing it to wail and shriek in agony as it was driven madder and madder with pain, flailing itself around and increasing its violent outbursts of insanity as the withered thing only continued to bring harm onto itself, whilst the Undertakers around it only worked to weave their way around the beasts and continue their battle against the two Hunters in training.

Melanie and Jaune observed the dragon and the collar around its neck, and noticed one singular part on it. A rounded circle built into the creature's collar that held a giant blinking blue light in its centre. That was the central point from which all of the electricity that was used to torture the beast had been coming from.

The collar's battery. That had to be it.

"Jaune! That blinking light! That has to be the battery for the dragon's collar!" Melanie yelled out to her partner in combat as she continued her fight against the spear welding Undertaker, "If I can drain it-"

"Melanie, no! There has to be another way!"

"I'll be fine!"

"Your arms are not fine!"

"They will heal! My aura will heal them!"

"Your semblance is killing you, Melanie! It's burning you down to the bone! If you use it anymore-"

"Then I will live with the consequence!"

"You might not live at all!"

"Yeah I will. I know I will," she pushed the Undertaker away, and flexed her hands, just as the music began to kick off again into its second half, "My semblance is running out of juice. When I give the word, hit me with the overcharge shot on your Wire Rifle."

Jaune remembered talking to Melanie about using the overcharge addition to his ML-15LE- Or Wire Rifle- As a booster for her semblance, long before Jaune knew of the damages that same semblance would do to her, and went to warn her against it, "Melanie-"

"What other option is there, Jaune?!"

…

"I don't know."

"Exactly, now get ready to fire on my word."

he scowled under his helmet, and pulled Crocea Mors from his waist, "Roger that..."

"Good. Now let's move."

_Blinded without time_

The two of them began to run around the dragon as it continued its flailing attacks, the both of them flanking around the two sides of the beast as they fired upon the Undertakers surrounding it-

_Curated formal yarn_

-Each shot bouncing and embedding themselves in their armour as the two with hunting rifles fired back at them, reloading their weapons before taking aim once more, only for one of them to realise that they had taken too long in reloading as-

_Accept the mission_

-Melanie pulled out her Manglers and-

{BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG}

-Sent a series of rounds rocketing towards its body at almost point blank range, tearing its armour and protection apart, before eviscerating the Grimm within, and splattering its smoking black blood all over the ground, before Melanie used the fresh corpse as a springboard to leap up, pull the spear that she had stolen from off of her back, and-

_Products of indecision_

{STAB}

-Sent the spear through the weakly armoured head of the other hunting rifle welding Grimm, slicing through the rusting armour of its helmet, severing its head in two like a knife through fruit, and cooking the corpse in a giant shock of blue electricity as it dropped dead to the floor, right as she used the spear to swipe through the neck of one of the last Disciples with spears, slitting its throat and letting it die a slow, painful death.

_The-_

Jaune, meanwhile, busied himself with the last three of the Undertakers, as the spear welding Undertaker charged as him, only for him to deflect it with Crocea Mors and his shield, before, with his free hand, pulling out one of the knives connected to his shoulder (He really was a walking armoury) And pressing it through the weak leather armour around its neck, and into its throat, black blood leaking out as it dropped to the floor and drowned from its own blood filling its lungs-

_-In-_

-Just as the last two of the Undertakers charged at him- The Cleric Grimm- Welding four swords in their four hands, to which-

{CLASH}

{CLANG}

-They then began to duel with him, sending flurry after flurry of wild, manic attacks towards him and forcing him on the defensive as he was pushed further and further back-

_-De-_

-His sword and grip waning and lessening in strength under the constant barrage of attacks from these two Grimm, until he was finally able to twirl around one of the blows of the Cleric Grimm and-

_-Cent-_

{SLICE}

-Sent a swinging blow into the burnt armour and skin of its chest, knocking it back into its fellow Grimm, just as-

_-Void_

{BOOM}

-Melanie once again made herself known to the three of them as she came rocketing forwards, covered in splatters of fading Grimm blood, and launched her feet into one of the Cleric Grimm, sending it spiralling to the floor, and leaving the last one to Jaune as he twirled his sword in hand and sheathed away his knife, just for the Cleric Undertaker to launch itself into a reckless frontal assault once more, swinging its blades around with abandon as Jaune did his best to avoid them, before-

_Ti-_

[SLAM}

{CRACK}

-The dragon slammed its head down again, almost crushing both Jaune and the Grimm to death, before Jaune suddenly came up with a idea, and gestured to the Grimm with Crocea Mors to come at him, goading it into attacking him, to which it took the bait, and-

_-Ny-_

-Charged at him, swinging its swords with reckless want for blood, only for Jaune to block each barrage of blows with his shield, almost tripping up as the Grimm applied a swing of one of its swords to his legs, but stepping back in time to avoid it as nearby, Melanie applied a single hand to the now burnt and nude chest of the other Cleric- Thanks to all of her attacks- And-

_-Fall-_

{BOOM}

-Sent a burst of blue fire through the Grimm, leaving a giant hole in its chest where a heart would be located, killing it immediately, and using up most of the energy in her semblance in the process, while nearby Jaune continued his fight with the last of the Undertakers, deflecting blow after flow, before-

_-En-_

**"RAAAUGH!"**

"Augh!"

-The Grimm was able to get a successful swipe at his legs and trip him up, making him fall to the floor, the Grimm letting out a laugh as it raised up its swords, about to deliver the finishing blow, before-

A shadow loomed overhead.

Jaune smiled, _Bingo._

He rolled to the side, seconds before the shadow came down, and-

"SQUAAACK!"

-Revealed itself to be the dragon, slamming its head once more into the ground and-

_-Toys_

{CRUNCH}

-Crushing the last Undertaker to death in a smoking black pile of broken armour and fading gore.

Jaune winced at the sight, and then smiled once more, Just as planned.

However, neither Jaune or Melanie were given any rest as, in a possible fit of rage from whoever was commanding the beast, a massive shock of electricity encompassed the dragon, burning its skin and remaining feathers and leaving smoke dancing from its body as its eyes shrunk once more in maddening rage.

Jaune and Melanie looked at each other. It was time to end this.

_Cross-country caravan_

The two of them charged at the dragon, its head coming down for another blow before it threw itself up into the air-

{FIZZLE}

 _A hardlight dome?_ the two Hunters in training thought to themselves as the back of the dragon skimmed against a suddenly shimmering blue field above, _Shit. That just complicates things._

How the hell were they suppose to get out now?

-Before speeding back down and-

{CRASH}

-Slamming its feet into the mud and dust covered floor below, cracking it as it then-

_Vacuoan aliens_

-Spun itself around to use its tail like a whip, slamming into Melanie and almost breaking her aura as she-

"Woah, this thing really moves!"

-Clung to the end of the dragon's tail like a lifeline, whilst it threw its wing forearms back into the ground and-

{SLAM}

_I pull the trigger and I feel nothing_

-Almost caught Jaune in its wake, before swinging its head down and-

{CHOMP}

-Attempting to bite down on him, its beak jagged, yet sharp, like cleaver blades, but not quick enough to catch the young Huntsman-to-be as he jumped out of the way and deflected a glancing talon blow with his shield, scraping across the paint and metal and bringing up sparks as it growled and screeched once more at him, its eyes rattling in its skull and riveting from side to side.

_Cross-country caravan_

On its tail, Melanie began to crawl up the dragon's body as it swung from side to side, slamming itself into the wall as its tail curled up instinctively, allowing her to let go of the tail and-

_Vacuoan aliens_

-Fall onto its back, clinging to it tightly and digging her burnt and blackened arms and hands into its feathers and skin as the dragon roared and wept, flying through the small air that it was allowed to occupy, trying to shake Melanie off as it-

{CRASH}

-Slammed itself into the wall once more, dislodging ancient brick and stone as Melanie continued to cling to it, crawling closer and closer to its collar with each passing second.

_I pull the trigger and I feel nothing_

Down on the ground, Jaune ran around the dragon as it slammed its body into the ground and skidded across the arena like a tidal wave, before it swung its wings at him once more and-

{SLAM}

"Ack!"

-Whipped him with its tail, flinging him to the side and smacking him against the wall, leaving a dent in the stone as it cracked and crumbled around him.

_Cross-country caravans_

The dragon roared, and charged at him as the sapphire light swirled around it once more, its jaw snapping open and dulled against the light as it reached the wall-

{CHOMP}

-And clamped its jaws down onto the armoured boy, pulling him out of the wall, and beginning to squeeze down on him as his armour began to crack and crinkle underneath the slowly increasing pressure.

_Vacuoan aliens_

Jaune screamed as his aura and armour continued to crack and wither from defending against this creature's endless onslaught as it continued to clamp its beak down on him and crack him open like a can, but found enough purchase within himself to rip his arm free and wiggle his Wire Rifle out from his back as he balanced it against his chest, all the while the dragon took to the air again, and-

{CRASH}

"Augh!"

-Threw its head back into the earth, rattling him immensely, and almost causing him to let go of his Wire Rifle, but his grip held strong, then stronger still as the dragon took to the air once more.

_I pull the trigger and I feel nothing_

The song was nearing its end, as was this battle.

As the dragon twisted and turned in the air, trying to shake its passenger off as it continued to clamp down on the prey in its jaw, Melanie was thrown around on its back as it continued to slam and crash itself onto every surface of the arena, including the hardlight dome above as it tried to grind her into paste.

Before, suddenly...

She lost her grip, and was thrown off of its back and into the air.

_Cross-country caravan_

Her deadening arms flapped uselessly in the air as her semblance ran out of energy to use. She found herself flying through the air, and then falling towards the ground once more, moving quicker and quicker by the second as the dragon looked up at her and narrowed its eyes, sapphire light dancing all over it as it spread its wings out and prepared for the final confrontation.

Melanie wouldn't give it the fight that the spectators wanted.

She wouldn't kill the dragon.

She would save it.

"JAUNE! NOW!"

"But-"

"DAMMIT JAUNE, DO IT NOW!"

She could tell that Jaune was scowling underneath his helmet, but still didn't waste a second as he levelled his Wire Rifle against his chest, charged up a great big shining blast of golden electric light, and then-

{CHOOM}

-Sent it rocketing out into the sky-

{CRACK}

-And right into Melanie, smothering her in a golden glow.

_Vacuoan aliens_

Melanie let out a war cry as her semblance channelled the energy that was now covering her, and pushed as much of it into her back as she could, before pushing her aura to her arms and legs, and-

{BOOM}

-Letting the ball of energy explode behind her, throwing her downwards towards the dragon like a rocket, before she reached the dragon's neck and-

{SLAM}

{CLANG}

-Slammed herself into the giant beast's collar, right where the blinking blue circle was located.

Letting out a roar of her own, Melanie threw all of her aura into her fist, wretched it back, and then-

{SHATTER}

-Threw it back into the circle, shattering it.

Melanie and the dragon screamed as-

{BOOM}

{CRACK}

{FIZZLE}

-They were both covered in electricity, but Melanie's eyes turned from their usual olive green once more to a bright shining blue as she drained the collar of all of the electricity within it and channelled it back into herself, her arms flaring with sapphire fire and burning away more of the skin on her body as she roared in unison with the dragon (Dropping Jaune from its mouth as it did) Against the pain, before she levelled her hand to the sky, and-

_I pull the trigger and I feel nothing_

{KA-BOOM}

-Released a great beam of bright blue light into the sky, clashing the the hardlight dome overhead, and filling the world around them in an almost blinding sapphire light, as if the sun was opening up around them and swallowing them whole, burning away the world in its hot, never-ending gaze.

And then, as soon as the light began...

It faded away, and the world was revealed once more.

The end of the song marked the end of the long, exhausting battle for the two of them, and they had emerged victorious in the fight against them, to the boos and jeers of the crowd around them.

* * *

In their holding pen, the students looked onto the victors of this battle and cheered their hearts out, arms in the air in celebration.

Blake just shook her head at it all, and looked to the side, uninterested in it all.

Leadpipe looked to her in suspicion and worry.

* * *

Tock, meanwhile, was angst at this loss. Angst, and enraged, as she muted her microphone and yelled out, "Oh, those fuckin' idiots! Absolutely useless, they are! How could they lose to- AUGH!"

She looked back to her assistant, and pointed a finger to it.

"Get security down there, and kill 'em! Kill the both f'them, and send the dragon down to the fuckin' pen! I'm gonna carve it up for fuckin' snacks for this!"

 **"Security already on way,"** the Baron assistant replied with, **"Deal with problem downstairs. Rout to arena field now."**

* * *

Back in the arena, the dragon's collar broke in twain, and fell to the floor below.

So did Melanie.

Having been freed from the jaws of the dragon, Jaune ignored the cracks and dents in his armour as he ran to the side, and caught Melanie before she hit the ground. Carrying her bridal style, he looked down to her, and saw-

Oh, gods...

Her arms were black and scabbed with first, second, and third degree burns, her skin peeling and malting away like shells from the heat, revealing the white fat layers underneath as her aura began to refill the holes in her body and string her nerves back together like laces, as if they were worms reaching out for each other. The skin across her body was red from the heat, and covered in white patches where the skin had flaked from the fires. Her back looked like someone had been using a heated scoop to spoon out her reddened flesh before applying a lighter to it, and her tired eyes were bloodshot and dulled as blood began to pour out of her wounds and smother her arms and back in a shining red, her clothes burnt and ruined and revealing the blackened armour plating and Kevlar pads underneath.

She gave him a weak smile, "T-Thanks..."

"Never do that again. Never make me do that ever again."

She chuckled, "No promises," before sniffing the air, "...Why does it smell of burnt chicken?"

"That would be the dragon."

"Oh... Why does it smell of burnt bacon?"

"That would be you."

"Oh..."

Then, behind them, the dragon let its head fall to the ground once more.

Melanie and Jaune jumped in place, and the girl in his arms pushed herself out of his arms as she looked to the dragon and went, "Okay, okay! Bad joke, bad joke! I get it, okay, I-"

The dragon let out of soft groan, and its eyes looked at the both of them in thanks.

Its clear, healing eyes that shone a healthy forest green.

Its shock collar was gone, and with that its torture.

And it was grateful.

"...I get it."

Melanie reached forward, and put her hand on its beak. Jaune succinctly did the same afterwards, as the dragon closed its eyes and let out a sigh of relief.

Freedom was in sight.

Then, behind them, one of the grand gates in the wall burst open, drawing all of their attention, and a red, black, and bronze drone with a little blue light in the middle burst through, waving its four arms about in a panic as it sped right towards them as fast as its 2 fans could carry it.

"Eri?" Jaune asked, to which he got a long winded set of whistles and beeps from the little drone in response, "Eri, you're okay! I thought we'd..."

Then, he finally saw what had been chasing her out into the open.

"Oh... Aw crud."

Dozens of Grimm swarmed out of the gates and into the field. Disciples, Barons, Scions, Life-Givers, Long-Shots, Rocketeers, Juggernauts, Lashers, Pumas, Lancers, Clerics, Marauders, Guardians, little Grimm drones, and so on entered the arena and surrounded them, training gun after gun on them as they lined up in sections and rows around the dragon and those next to it.

From another gate, dozens more Grimm began to file out as well.

And then another.

And then another.

And then another.

Soon, every single one of the gates had been forced open, and the Grimm had swarmed out of them in the dozens each, aiming each and every one of their guns at those in the centre of the ring, ready and eager to avenge their now dead champions.

"Well... This isn't good."

* * *

Down below, two Disciples gathered by one of the generators, toolboxes in hand as they looked over the glowing blue machine before them.

 **"That little drone did something to this thing,"** one of the Disciples said to the other as they pointed to the machine, **"We don't know what. It could've been hiding in there for all we know, but I seriously doubt it."**

 **"So take it apart, and see what it's done to the generator?"** the other asked.

**"Basically."**

**"Right on, then,"** the Disciple flipped its wrench in its hand, **"I'll get to work."**

* * *

_"Well then, can't say that this is how I imagined it all goin' down, but boy, does it make me just a right wee bit cross!"_ the commentator above spoke to the crowd, as well as the two Hunters in training below, as a threatening, oily growl could be heard in its voice, _"And hoo boy, you would not like me when I'm cross with yer! So here's what's going to happen! I promised 'is crowd 'uman blood, and by the fuckin' gods, 'M gonna give it to 'em! So why don't the both of you just lay down and die already, yeah?!"_

Jaune and Melanie looked around at the dozens upon dozens of guns pointed at them by the Grimm. They were completely surrounded, and would be shot to death as soon as the overseer above ordered them too.

To any other person, this would be their doom.

But Jaune and Melanie were not any other person.

They were Hunters.

And Hunters did the impossible every single day.

Jumping onto the back of the dragon, they latched their hands around its fur and feathers as Eri attached herself to Jaune's back, the dragon in question stretching its wings out high and mighty as it looked up to where the speaker was in her stand, and let out a defiant roar to its former master.

All she and the crowd did was laugh.

"Are you- AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Are you serious?!" the speaker asked incredulously as she waved her four arms about, "You are underneath a giant fuckin' dome, you muppets! Yer got nowhere to go, yer ain't gonna get anywhere at all, and yer got a hundred guns pointed at yer that'll tear yer both new assholes as soon as I say the word!"

Another condescending laugh. Jaune could practically feel the giddy, manic smile that this woman was given off behind her Techion features as her jaw gnashed together.

"Tell me: Do you really think that you can escape from all of this?!"

And then, from Eri, Jaune got a message:

_( •_•)⌐■-■ (⌐■_■)_

Showtime.

"...Heh."

[5]

Jaune looked up to Tock, and underneath his helmet, he gave her a smug grin, "Oh we're going to get out of here, O speaker mine."

[4]

"The real question, though, is this:"

[3]

"Are you?"

[2]

* * *

"What the hell?"

The Disciple peeked his head into the open vent of the generator, and looked at the blinking red light in confusion.

"...Is that a bomb-"

* * *

[1]

* * *

{KA-BOOM}

Part of the coliseum leaped upwards into the sky as a massive explosion tore up the foundations and destroyed everything in its wake, a flower of orange and yellow and black blossoming as it reached the sky, raining down hot death onto anyone that got in the shadow of its deadly petals and thorns. Rockets of flaming brick and metal rained down like a typhoon onto the world below, killing dozens upon dozens of Grimm as they crashed and detonated upon impact, spraying their victims with shrapnel wounds and riddling them with stone shards like bullets from a loaded gun.

{KA-BOOM}

Another humongous explosion tore apart the world around them as the coliseum was being ripped to shreds, Grimm spectators sent flying left to right as they were burnt to death by the flames.

{KA-BOOM}

And then another explosion tore apart another section of the wall.

{KA-BOOM}

And then another.

{KA-BOOM}

And then another.

{KA-BOOM}

And then another

{KA-BOOM}

{KA-BOOM}

{KA-BOOM}

The ground beneath the dragon began to burst, then collapse into flame and smoke, burning the feet of anything still standing in the arena, Grimm or dragon.

And overhead, the hardlight dome faded into nothingness.

"FLY!"

The dragon soared up, and-

* * *

**"WAIT! MISS! SAVE I!"**

"SAVE YERSELF, YER USELESS TWAT! I'M OUT OF HERE!"

**"BUT MISS! I-"**

Tock used her claws to decapitate the annoying attendant, before retching one of her other arms up to fire the harpoon in her hand at the dragon flying away, just as the fires reached up and almost got her.

{BANG}

{STAB}

Right on target.

* * *

-Flew right out of the fresh smoke and fire, its passengers aboard clinging on for dear life as the Grimm carrier above swerved itself out of the way, just as the fire grew...

Grew...

Grew...

Grew...

And then...

It bloomed.

_**{KA-BOOM!}** _

The entire coliseum was engulfed in a massive explosion, killing every last Grimm within, the resulting fireball so big and so devastating that it toppled nearby already fragile and ruined buildings, shattered the cliffside that it had been built on, sending the burning remains tumbling down into the bottom of the Valley of Giants, and could be seen and heard from Vale itself.

* * *

The shockwave of the explosion hit the students trapped within and sent many of them tumbling to the ground as the windows around them shattered and splintered from just the deafening sound alone, the winds carrying the noise for miles on end, all across the Sleeping City and beyond.

One student blinked, and then looked up at the static television, having lost all signal to the coliseum, "Are... Are they..."

 _Are they dead?_ was the unspoken question that no one wanted an answer to.

DJ was the first to reply as he picked himself off of the ground, and tapped his own systems to track their scroll signals, "They're okay! They're alive, and they're moving out of that place, with the help of that dragon of theirs!"

This elicited a cheer from almost everyone in the room, roaring in celebration once more, but was silenced as DJ queered his head curiously to the side.

"They're just... Being really erratic about it."

* * *

"I said it once, and I'll say it again: This thing really mooooooooOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Melanie's sentence was lost in a scream of fear as the dragon that they were riding on twisted itself around in the air once more as it flew through the Valley of Giants, the massive skeletons and skulls of the giants looking down on them judgementally as they flew in between their exposed ribs and bones, swerving past the stain white bone and calcified remains of these ancient beasts, weaving in and out of them in a rabid, almost manic like fashion.

"Oh god why is this thing flying so crazy!?"

"I DON'T KNOW! JUST DON'T LET GO!" Jaune screeched out as they were flown into a loop once more by the feathered dragon as it swerved upside down, almost hitting the wall of ancient bone next to them, before swerving out of the way of it and then-

"Oh god oh god oh god oh god why!?"

-Sent itself into a downwards spiral towards the ground-

"OH GOD WHY!?"

-Before, just before hitting the ground, swinging itself back up to avoid the lakes and rivers etched into the stone down below at the rested feet of the giants, etching so close to the waters below that both Jaune and Melanie could see their own reflections in it, right before the dragon soared back up into the air-

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I REALLY HATE THIS!"

-And spun itself around once more, intent on swinging something off of itself as it flew wildly through the buffeting winds around them.

"What the hell is making it act so mad?!" Jaune screeched out, "Does it not like us for beating it up earlier, or is something else latched on-"

A bullet whizzed past from behind them.

"-To it as well... Well, that answers that question!"

It was the Techion from before, latched onto their dragon via a harpoon connected to one of her four hands, pulling herself closer to the both of them as she raged and growled against the winds.

"Are you kidding me?!" Jaune yelled out to the Techion as she finally latched a cold and hurting metal grip to the dragon's tail, drawing blood as she herself roared at them, her metal jaw gnashing together and bringing forth black oil and a hint of red blood.

Melanie just growled at the sight, "As threatening as a fucking kitten!" and pulled out one of her Mangler Shot-Pistols, aiming it at the Techion woman and firing, Jaune doing the same with one of his own pistols, as the Techion returned the favour with the giant cannon that she pulled from her back.

Soon, it was a shootout between the three of them as the dragon continued to swerve and fly manically through the air, with no coordination or purpose other than to loose the unwanted intruder connected to its tail, each bullet and blast either embedding itself or bouncing off of her armour as she-

{ZIP}

"OH SHIT!"

-Pulled herself right towards the two Hunters in training on the dragon's back, thanks to the harpoon in her arm, lifted up the glass faceplate covering her mouth, and went to bite her jaw down into Jaune neck and tear his head clean off in a bloody mess of gore-

{CLANG}

{SCRAPE}

-But was stopped as Jaune wedged his Crocea Mors in place between her monstrously sharp jaw, all the while her cutlasses, honed and empowered by electricity dust, continued to swipe at him and claw out parts of his armour and aura each and every second as she screamed out at him, "I'M GONNA SKIN YOU ALIVE FER WHAT YOU'VE DONE, BOY!"

He just growled back, "You think I'm ever going to let you?!" right as-

{SLICE}

{SPLATTER}

"AAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!"

-He swung his sword out of the Techion's jaw and cut it clean off, spraying him with black oil and red blood as the now severed lower jaw fell to the ground below and the Techion devoted one of her hands to pawing at where her mouth once was, piercing itself on the sharpened metal teeth present there, before-

{CI-CLICK}

"I'll see you in hell!"

-Melanie pointed her Mangler straight into the Techion's head, and let it roar.

{BANG}

The first shot impacted with part of her throat and where her missing jaw was, shredding the armour and bring forth a torrent of black and red liquid and blood.

{BANG}

The second shot went right through the lifted up glass shield and embedded itself into one of her rectangular optics.

{BANG}

The third shot went right into that same optic, and tore the metal and components apart, revealing the real organic eye held in a metal vice within, darting from side to side as-

{BANG}

-The final shot came in, and impact with the middle of the Techion's head, the final blow of the impact causing her to loose her grip on the dragon-

"NO!"

-And fall to the ground below.

She screamed out in rage and fear as she fell to the hard floor below, crying and flailing her arms about for naught as she fell and fell and fell.

Jaune and Melanie looked at each other, and the both of them smiled as Melanie cried out, "Ha! I think we got her-"

A long, frightened whistle from Eri silenced them, as the hum of an ascending engine caught their attention and convinced them to look behind themselves, and at what was now chasing the dragon.

"No..."

The Techion that they had just fought was picking itself out of the roof of an ascending Grimm Carrier- The same one that had been hanging above the now destroyed arena, its weapons primed and loaded.

The Techion roared, "FIRE!"

Jaune and Melanie shouted, ""NO-""

But it was too late.

{RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA}

{CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM}

The carrier's guns roared, and the dragon did its best to turn and swerve around the raining red death coming towards them, but-

{BAM}

"SSSCCCCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

-It was all for nothing.

The dragon was hit in its wing-

{BAM}

-And then its abdomen-

{BAM}

-And then its chest, the once majestic creature coughing up blood from its beak as its eyes began to close, and it began to die.

"NO NO NO NO NO NO NO PLEASE DON'T DIE PLEASE DON'T DIE PLEASE DON'T DIE!"

The dying dragon began to swerve out of control, swinging from side to side as blood began to soak its fur and feathers, right before-

"HOLD ONTO SOMETHING!"

{SLAM}

-It crashed itself right into one of the massive skeleton ribs of the giants, and continued to tumble downwards, right into the wall.

"BRACE YOURSELF!"

The dragon swerved around, and Melanie and Jaune lost their grip.

With the last of its strength, the dragon took Jaune and Melanie into its own sharpened claws, holding them close to its chest and using its wings to shield them as it-

{CRASH}

-Hit a cave dug into the mountains, and fell still, its saviours weakened, and then knocked out cold.

* * *

DJ's head retched back from his readouts, and all he did was mutter, "Oh no..."

Skipjack and the rest of High Command looked at him, "What? What's 'Oh no'?"

"..."

"DJ!"

"...Jaune and Melanie... Their readouts are still here, but... But they've gone still..."

Everyone froze in shock, and in horror.

"I think... I think we really are on our own."

* * *

On the top of her carrier, Tock savoured the sight of these annoying human children and her disobedient little dragon crashing into the walls of the Valley, burrowing itself into one of the old caves that the old dragons used to hide away in before the Choir of Silver and performed their little extirpation and culled them all for fur and bone.

Oh course, they didn't get them all, but hey, if she got a pet dragon out of it, then who the hell was she to complain?

Well, apparently she was definitely one to complain, as not only had those two annoying kiddies killed her old fan club and revealed it for the incompetent idiots that they were, but they had also ruined her gladiatorial arena, massacred her adoring fans, and thereby ruined one of her favourite past times!

So she was allowed to complain.

And she was definitely allowed to take this just a little bit more personally than she usually would.

But now, it was easy picking for her. Their dragon was dead or dying, they were weakened and trapped in a cave with no way out, and if Tock had her way, then she was going to be skinning them both alive, and using their still living corpses as torture toys for the rest of their lives!

She could be very petty whenever she wanted to be.

With a slam of her foot, the Carrier beneath her began to glide closer to the cave which they had crashed in, closer to her mark, closer to making sure that they were either dead of alive, closer to getting her revenge for ruining her face and her hobby and her followers and, most of all, her pride-

Her communications began to buzz, and a line opened up to Templar, _"I must say, you really do know how to have the most explosive parties. Pity that they always end in someone dying."_

She growled, "I ain't in the-"

_"Where it any other day, Tock, I would've executed you for getting so many of my followers killed in such a needless display of incompetence. But unfortunately, preparations are already underway for our great crusade, our agents in Vale are ready to begin, and I need a big dumb weapon to throw at the apostates of the world."_

Another growl, "Templar, I ain't-"

_"Return to the Cathedral. I may still find some good use for you yet."_

"But-"

_"Now."_

The comms were switched off, and Tock let out a roar of anger at the mere possibility of her prey escaping from her grasp, black and red liquid seeping from where her jaw once was as she threw her four arms out in a fit of rage.

Nevertheless, the Carrier beneath her flipped itself around, and began to head back to the Cathedral in the middle of the Sleeping City.

Her prey would have to wait for another day.

Oh, but it would come, that day.

It would come, indeed...

* * *

…

…

…

…

How were they still alive?

Being thrown off of the dragon like that and hitting the face of the cliff and the ground below... Aura or not, it would've killed them. It should've killed them.

So how were they still alive?

Jaune felt himself being gently placed against the floor next to Melanie, as nearby, something big rolled onto its side, and-

Melanie!

Jaune scrambled to her side, his aura already healing his wounds from the battle, and looked through the darkness of the cave around him against the circle of light from the hole in the ceiling above that shaded the giant cave around them in a deep shade of grey, and traced his hands over her body, watching her aura slowly begin to recharge and heal her wounds, closing up gaps in her skin and threading torn muscle fibres together as she winced and forced herself awake.

She was alive!

She was alive.

Good. Great. Awesome.

Melanie winced against the light pouring in from the hole in the ceiling above, and muttered, "Are... Are we dead?"

"No..." Jaune replied, "No, we're- We're alive."

He did his best to ignore the, "Dammit..." that she muttered.

Placing his hands gently on one of her arms, he then asked, "Can you still feel your arms? Can you still use them?"

"Can we just skip that part where I say that everything hurts?" Melanie winced as she flexed her hands and fingers, and then her legs and toes, "Because- Did I tell you?- Because everything really does hurt," at Jaune's nod, she let out a cough at all of the dust in the air, and asked, "How are we still alive? I don't think- I don't think we were supposed to have survived that."

"I-I don't know," Jaune replied, his memories still recollecting themselves as to what happened as he then said, "I mean, all I remember is being thrown off of the dragon, and then-"

A soft whine of pain filled the air around them, and their eyes widened.

""The dragon!""

The two of them scurried up onto their feet, wincing and groaning all of the way through, as they looked towards the creature wheezing and taking its dying breathes in the middle of the cave, bathed under the golden glowing light of the sun shining through the hole above.

The dragon.

It was on its side, and also on death's door. Three gaping gunshot wounds riddled its body, and sent rivers of crimson blood pouring out and staining its once majestic fur. Its eyes were closing and sleepy, and its breathes were shallow and short.

It was dying. It was about to die.

"It... It saved us," Jaune muttered as they walked up to their dying saviour, "It could've done anything else- It should've tried to save itself, and yet... It... It saved us... It actually saved our lives..."

Melanie looked to him in shock at the revelation, and then up to the beast above, "Is that... Is that true?"

The dragon looked at her, and gave a soft whine, as if in agreement.

"Oh... Oh, you... You didn't need to... You really didn't need to do that," Melanie said as she let her forehead rest against the chipped and worn beak of the dragon, "You didn't need to- To save us... You should've just saved yourself..."

The dragon let out another groan, this time of disagreement.

"Please... I don't... I don't need anymore people dying one me... I don't want anyone else dying for me..."

An image flashed in her mind. A girl almost identical to her, but with short hair and in a pure red dress, throwing her arms out wide and inviting the Brothers Grimm to tear her to pieces.

She hadn't wanted her teammates to meet the same fate.

That's why she had always been tough on them. That's why she had always been harsh on them.

A tear trickled down her face, and onto the beak of the dragon.

She just didn't want them to die like everyone else...

…

…

…

…

{FWOOSH}

Melanie lifted her head up, and looked towards Jaune.

He was covered in pure white flames.

His aura.

"Jaune," she slowly began, "What are you doing?"

"...Aura can heal all wounds, right? Or most wounds, at least, right?"

"...Jaune, no one- No one has ever been able to use their aura to heal another person."

"Well..."

He looked at her.

"Well maybe they just haven't tried."

Looking down at his hands, he refocused all of his aura into his hands, forming miniature suns in the palms of his hands, as he looked at the dragon before him, and then-

"Let's hope this works."

-Pressed his hands against the animal's chest.

{FWOOSH}

The dragon let out a rejuvenated roar, and a bright white glow came over the beast as Jaune's aura spread itself across its entire body, closing up wounds and hiding away great scars that stunted and held it back from becoming the great dragon that it once was before. Bone fractures were sealed, muscles were threaded back together like cloth, fur grew back once more, and the gaping wounds in its body itched closer...

And closer...

And closer...

And closer together...

Until...

They were stitched shut, faded pink spots and streaks stained into its fur being the only proof that it had ever existed.

Every single wound on the dragon was filled, paved over, and healed completely.

The dragon was saved.

And Jaune, for his part, was almost completely drained out aura, and collapsed to the ground.

"Jaune!" Melanie cried out in fear and shock as she ran to his side, pulling him back onto his feet as she then said, "How did you- Are you okay?"

"Yep. Just... Just a bit tired, is all," he muttered to her as he began to regain his footing, "I just- Wow, that took a lot out of me."

"Yeah, I imagine it... How did you do that?" Melanie blinked as her friend was soon able to stand on his own two feet, "I don't think... I don't ever remember anything like that-"

She stopped, and blinked, a memory playing before her mind.

"The Air Bus... When our Dropship crashed into the Air Bus, a giant white glow came over us, and we were able to survive."

She looked at him and both of their eyes widened in surprise.

"Was that... Was that you?"

Jaune paused, staring at her in equal confusion, before looking down at his hands, and pausing in deep though.

"I... I don't... I don't know."

Behind them, the dragon let out a groan once more, but it was one of healed rejoice rather than pain now, as it tilted its head down and let its healed beak tap against the floor.

Melanie and Jaune couldn't help but smile as they went to pet the once more majestic beast in all of its glory, their hands gently patting the dragon's beak as Jaune then said to it, "Thank you... For saving us... Thank you so much..."

The dragon let its eyes close in satisfaction as it hummed in agreement, before-

"RAUGHR!"

-Whipping its head around at the sudden roar from behind it, as something began to-

{STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP}

-Walk towards them from the darkness, three pairs of blood red eyes peering out from the blackness towards them, as a trio of growls filled the air around them, followed by the scampering of many feet behind it, as a flood of commotion began to fill the darkness of the cave around them, hundreds of new creatures surrounding them like a crowd- Like spectators to the main event.

Jaune and Melanie just growled and readied their weapons, pointing them towards the red eyes in the darkness ahead. They really weren't in the mood for any more of this to...

The creature stepped out of the darkness, and into the light, revealing a creature with black skin and shards of metal growing out of it like armour, with four legs and deep black and bright white wings, a long barbed tail that ended like a flanged mace, and three heads connected to three long necks, a glowing orange heat emanating from the darkness of their jaws.

A Thunderstorm dragon, supposedly just a story- A myth. A type of dragon so rare that it was considered nothing but a legend.

And Jaune and Melanie had just stumbled into its home.

With a unison of three roars, the three-headed dragon conjured up a torrent of flames from their mouths, and readied to send them right into the intruders below and burn them alive for trespassing, before-

"Raugh!"

-The dragon that had saved them got in the way of the Thunderstorm, and began to roar and shriek at it, almost barking like a dog guarding its master.

"What?! What are you- Hey!" Melanie yelled out to the dragon before them as she pointed her guns to the floor, "What are you doing?!"

"Please, stop it! You've already done so much for us!" Jaune cried out to their saviour, "Don't martyr yourself just for us!"

But neither dragon cared about them anymore, as the two of them continued to trade barbs and blows in whatever language that they were speaking, like dogs trying to assert themselves as the alpha of the pack, the two of them- The mythical and the ordinary- Snapping at each other and letting out roars and growls, before-

"RAUGHR!"

-The Thunderstorm lifted up all three of its heads, and-

{FWOOSH}

-Covered the ceiling above in a torrent of fire, bring full light to the room around them, and leaving no more secrets to hide.

And against the heat, as Jaune and Melanie looked around, they saw what had been hidden from them.

Dragons. All of them of different shapes and sizes, and all of them looking battered and bruised.

But more than that, it was what was underneath them- What they had to climb over and trip up on that horrified them.

Bones.

Dragon bones.

Dragon bones that had been picked apart and pulled to pieces, barbed and cut into shreds, not by dragon claws or bites...

But by precision weaponry and bullets. Swords and guns and bayonets had massacred most of the dragons that once made the Valley of Giants their home, all of their remains pulled apart by their hunters and predators above for rugs and jewellery, before being piled into the corners and hidden away in the darkness by those that had once called them their family.

And the two Hunters in training knew who was to blame for this slaughter.

"That Techion monster and her Undertakers... And the Choir of Silver... They did this, didn't they?" Jaune said as he put away his weapons and waved a hand over the desecrated bones that surrounded them, looking up at the Thunderstorm dragon above him as he then asked, "They killed your packmates, didn't they?"

All that the Thunderstorm did was let out an affirmative growl.

"Yeah..." he nodded, "They tried to kill us too, for their own sick amusement, just like they did with your kind," he gestured to the dragon next to him, the one that had saved Melanie and he, "They tortured him as well, but we healed him," he summoned what little aura that he had into his hand, and let it form a small white ball of fire, "We saved his life, and he saved ours."

The dragon that saved him snorted and let out a roar once more, stretching its arms out wide as if to back up his point.

…

…

…

…

"Please," Jaune pressed his hands together and began to plead with the Thunderstorm dragon before him, "Our friend is in danger, and so is probably every other person in the Sleeping City. If we don't do something soon, then they are surely all going to die."

The Thunderstorm snorted again in dismissal.

"Please, if the Undertakers and the Choir aren't stopped, then they'll kill everyone in the Valley of Giants, both all of us," he gestured to himself and Melanie, representing mankind, and then to the Thunderstorm, representing the dragons, "And all of you. And once they are done slaughtering everything here, they're are surely going to move on and kill even more people! They will move on to kill both dragons, humans, and Faunus! And they will keep killing and killing and killing and killing until we're all dead! If we don't do something, then so many more of our kind are going to die!"

The Thunderstorm regarded him in silence.

"Please... We need you... More than ever..."

Silence even more.

"Please..."

Next to him, the dragon that saved him snorted, and gave out a groan of... Something. Whatever it was definitely caught the Thunderstorm's attention.

…

…

…

…

A snort from the Thunderstorm, and then-

"RAUGHR!"

{FWOOSH}

!

…

…

…

…

Jaune looked around, and saw that only the roof had caught flame once more.

The Thunderstorm let out one last roar, and flew outwards, through the cave's entrance, past the many ribs of the giants outside, and into the open, a massive flock of its lesser dragon pack following in its way, right towards the Sleeping City.

It had agreed to honour his request.

Jaune paused, and stopped in place.

He had..

He had actually done it.

He had somehow-

Somehow!

-Convinced a mythical dragon to listen to him, and help him take down a giant faction of Grimm that had been hunting its kind down for who knows how long.

How had he...

How had he been able to do that?

That shouldn't have even been possible.

So how did he do that?

(Faraway, a girl in a red dress looked down at him and smiled.)

"JAUNE!"

He felt Melanie pull him towards her as she smiled at him and manically went, "That was incredible! How did you- How were you able to talk to that dragon like that?! How were you able to do that?!"

"I don't... I..."

He looked down at his own hands.

"I have no idea."

Near them, Eri chirped back to life as the dragon that saved them tilted its head down for them, so that they may climb atop it and ride it as their steed once more.

Melanie looked at Jaune, and Jaune looked at Melanie.

Their questions would come later.

"You ready for this?" Jaune couldn't help but ask.

Melanie just smiled, "Hell yeah."

They climbed atop their new dragon, were flown outside, and joined the fray once more.

"That psycho Techion wants blood? Fine."

Melanie and Jaune looked to each other, and gave a feral smile.

"We'll paint the walls red with hers."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter done, and the other main villain of this arc has revealed herself: Tock! Originally she wasn't supposed to have this large of a role, but now I've just decided, "Screw it! Let's give her a bigger role than before! I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't!"
> 
> Anyways, once more, please leave a comment, follow, kudos, stay safe, stay healthy, and I shall see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	35. Jaunedice part 8: Godhood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby's plan moves into motion, and it immediately begins to bare its fruit...

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Arc Theme:** _[Through The Valley by Shawn James (The Last Of Us 2 trailer edition)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xunZys4VDMQ)_  
 **Theme:** [_Reckless from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_QuTflD2wc)

* * *

_"If I could have everyone's attention, please? Thank you._

_"Now, I am aware that many of you are confused as to why we are here, in Vale, and not back in Solitas, defending Atlas and Mantle from these Grimm armies. I am aware that many of you are questioning why we should be 'Sticking our necks out' for Vale, as you so put it, and I am also aware that many of you are wondering why we are assisting the Valerian council in safeguarding Vale, instead of flying out to battle the Grimm in the wildlands of Vale._

_"Allow me now, to put those questions to bed, when I say this: What we are doing here is more important than any single battle may ever accomplish._

_"We, the Atlesian military, are here, in Vale, as well as Mistral and Vacuo, to protect them, and we do so because they are all our allies, and they are all our fellow kingdoms. We are all of the same people, and are just as equal to the same protection as our own homes, wherever we are man or woman, human or Faunus._

_"We are here, and not in Atlas, because Atlas is strong enough to defend itself in our absence. Its armies and strong and mighty, and will strike down any foe that dares to turn its blades against it, just as we turn ours on them._

_"We are safeguarding the people of Vale, and not fighting on the frontlines with the Hunters of Remnant and the other soldiers of Atlas sent outwards into this strange new world, because it is in the hearts and minds of the civilian- Of the average person- That we will find victory._

_"As much as I would like it to be, because it would be a much easier, and simpler, end to our dire situation, shock and awe will not win battles alone. A wise man told me that, and he was, and is, right. It is the will of the people that shall bring about the ends of our enemies, not just our guns and bayonets._

_"The Grimm feed on negativity. They eat it and grow stronger from it, and if we do not curb this feeding frenzy, and end the fear of the people, then the Grimm will just grow stronger still. The average person needs to remember that through this darkness, there is light, and there is hope for a better day, less they fall to their worst instincts, and allow the corruption to take hold of them, and lead them to anarchy._

_"So when they look up to the sky, and see our great ships- Our staunch defences, and the brave men and women that serve alongside you to keep them safe, then they will remember what it is like to be safe, to be happy, to be content, and through them, the Grimm will be weakened, and they will be repelled._

_"And that is why we are here. We are here not just to protect the lives of the average man and woman..._

_"But also their hearts, their minds, and their souls..._

_"I hope that this has been able to clear up any lingering questions._

_"Thank you."_

**_Transmission from General James Ironwood to the Altesian military police contingent in Vale_ **

* * *

Ozpin looked down at the silent communications coming out of the Sleeping City in worry.

From what Ironwood had told him, the leading officer of the Atlesian detachment in the Sleeping City, one Lieutenant Malcom Croft, had been reporting in all clear signals routinely back to their command centre in Vale, and similar reports from all of the soldiers present within the monolithic city were saying the same as well, reporting that the first years that had been sent to the dead city and the Valley of Giants were getting along well, and were only encountering the scattered few pockets of Grimm and human scavengers that were still hidden and spread across the massive tomb to all things lost to history.

Everything was well.

Everything was supposedly well.

And that made Ozpin worry.

Glynda Goodwitch wasn't picking up her scroll. Neither was Arthur Watts. None of the first years were responding to any messages sent to them as well, and for some reason, as of just when they arrived in the Sleeping City and Valley of Giants. All of his personal cameras and sensors were showing a constant stream of information as well that reported that everything was going well within the old city, but still...

Something didn't seem right.

He shouldn't have let them head out to the Sleeping City. Not when their teams were so volatile. Not when Miss Rose and her team were so fractured and unable to cooperate with each other. They were her best options in this new war against Salem's latest pawns, and yet they were unable to work together as a team, and he had sent them out into the Valley of Giants and Sleeping City without much consideration.

It had been his best bet to get them to communicate together, since obviously, as evident from last night, talking by itself wouldn't be enough to get them to open up to each other. Most of the time, Hunters of all shapes and sizes tended to speak through the blade, and the environment of the Sleeping City was filled with enough dangers and perils (But not too many to possibly risk their lives in any meaningful fashion) To necessitate teamwork and cooperation within their ranks.

It's a shame that Forever Fall had been overrun by those new Grimm and declared unsafe. The forest was a much safer place for them than the Valley of Giants.

And now, he was beginning to suspect that that fear held much more truth to it than he originally presumed.

He should call James and ask for one of his ships to do a flyover of the Sleeping City. As much as he hated the idea of armies, Atlas' legions had some advantages considering how there was hardly, if not no more Hunters left in Vale at all, having all been deployed by the council to the constantly shifting frontlines of this new war, so all of these soldiers were especially useful, now more than ever against the rising hordes of Salem's new armies.

(Salem's armies, not anyone else's, because it had to be Salem. It couldn't be anyone else. The Ascendant Court couldn't be a new player on the field. It just couldn't be.)

Of course, if he requested this, then surely the council would take notice as well.

Ozpin's position as Headmaster was currently in the crosshairs of the council. A lot of them, as well as Miss Nikos' annoying persistent father, Morado, had been eager to remove him from his position as years on end, and now, with everything that had happened in the Emerald Forest and the beginning of the Second Great War, he was now in a more dangerous position of loosing everything that he had worked to build, and the only real way that he could work to protect Remnant from both Salem and itself.

He had to play this game carefully. He considered asking James to send over Miss Schnee (The specialist, not the soldier) Or that Ace-Ops team that he had brought to Vale as well, but considering what had happened with their former team member, Miss Harriet Bree... Well, to say that they were still smarting from it was an understatement, and it wasn't like they could replace their losses anymore, what with almost every Hunter available from all kingdoms being sent out across the continents to fight these new Grimm, or just simply running scared and going into hiding from them.

They were loosing more Hunters than they could replace, and that meant that the Hunter Academies were more important now than ever.

But it wasn't like Ozpin could use that fact to his advantage. The council wanted fresh Hunters, and they didn't care who trained them. As long as they had fresh new superpowered bodies to throw at the problem, they didn't care about the quality of those walking corpses.

Ozpin leaned back into his seat, and went to make a call. If he played his cards right, he could play off an overflight of the Valley of Giants as a simple reconnaissance patrol, despite the Sleeping City already having been cleared of any major threats months ago (At least, according to the standards of the council, to which his opponents in the government would no doubt try to pin on him if there were any more slipups in security around Vale). If he could get a word of reassurance from James about it, then that would at least be enough to-

Far in the distance, beyond the hills and mountains, a mushroom cloud of fire and smoke could be made out, flaring its light against the world and drawing long shadows on the earth below.

Some time later, the faint crack of an explosion could be heard across Vale.

In a panic, Ozpin pressed one of the contacts on his scroll, and held it to his ear. It answered almost immediately, _"Ozpin-"_

"Are you seeing this, James?"

 _"And heard it, too,"_ the voice on the other end of the line answered.

He looked down to his cameras and sensors, and saw that nothing had changed on them. Nothing at all, "All of my personal systems are reporting nothing happening within the Valley of Giants. I believe that they've been hacked."

A growl escaped from James on the other side of the call, _"Lieutenant Croft lied to us," before he recollected himself and went, "I'll gather up my teams. We'll head for the Valley of Giants as soon as possible."_

"I shall do the same here. We will be needed all hands on deck to rescue our lost children," Ozpin finished before hanging up, and looking out towards the rising column of smoke far in the distance.

The children of Remnant were in danger once more.

* * *

**_"Explosion was heard from Vale. Seen from Vale as well. Not long until Ground-Mantle responds in force."_ **

"The actions of the Atlesians won't matter. They don't matter. They'll be distracted by your efforts soon enough," Templar spoke through the communication's set before him to the Grimm on the screen, its single eye blinking as the giant of a Techion asked it, "Are your forces in place within the city?"

 ** _"All in position, yes. Spread out in different cells and divisions. Ready to strike when word given,"_** the Grimm responded in broken basic, its six neck vents opening and closing in breath as it then hummed out, **_"Things getting antsy, though. Not everyone get along well with each other."_**

"I don't care if your people don't like each other. I couldn't care less about that. As long as they can complete their mission, and bring chaos upon the apostates of Vale," Templar glared at the monitor in front of him, "So make sure that they do what they are told, and do it well, because if not, then they will answer to me."

He leaned forwards, and pressed his finger against the monitor screen, his other hand holding Ruby's scroll (Just recently turned off), Before crushing it in his hand, and letting the shards clatter against the ground into splinters and fragments.

"Don't forget what I did to the traitor legion whom tried to defect back to the heretic court. I would hate to have to repeat the process... But I won't hesitate to do so. Understood?"

The Grimm on the screen quickly nodded in fear and replied, _**"O-Of course. Understand! Understand perfectly! No failure! No failure at all!"**_

"Good. I should expect so," Templar leaned backwards as he then finished with, "Don't make me repeat myself. I don't give second chances," before hanging up on the Grimm in Vale, and then switching to another line, where the shattered and broken visage of another Techion filled the screen with an angry glare, "Tock. I can assume that-"

 _"That'm angry? Oh, yer better fuckin' believe!"_ the once-Faunus-now-Techion growled as a pair of Grimm Disciples continued to run scalpels and welding torches across her broken face, her missing metal jaw continuing to leak black and red commingled liquid down her throat and staining that which she wore as she continued to growl and snarl as she continued, _"First, those little brats 'scape and blow up me personal hobby like it's fuckin' nothin', but then yer call me off like a fuckin' dog before I can make sure that they're dead! Fer fuck's sake, they stole me fuckin' dragon! I deserve ta get som' payback fer that!"_

Templar's hands balled into fists, "You best watch your tongue, Tock, before I cut it out."

_"I don't 'ave a mouth. idiot."_

"Then I shall cut out your still beating heart and wear it like a necklace. You are lucky that I still have a purpose for you, but do not think that it will spare you from my blade, less you mouth off against me once more. Understood?"

_"..."_

"Tock."

 _"Fine,"_ Tock looked to the side as she growled, _"Fine. As long as I get ta- ACK! FECK OFF!"_ she yelled out to the Grimm next to him, who was holding a bionic optic in its hand and applying a welding torch to where her old eye once was, the wiry end of the optic wriggling around like a worm, whipping in place as the Disciple connected it to the Techion's broken optical lens, and-

{FLICK}

{CLICK}

{WHIRL}

-Attached itself to the broken hole in her helmet, the optic wriggling and moving in place before connecting itself to the broken cables and systems of Tock's metal head, shining a bright red in contrast to her other optic's golden glow.

Strange optics, those were. Strange technology that had been built into them. Hephaestus, the God of Machines- Or the Tinkerer, as he called himself- Never said where he got the technology from. He had only said that he had stolen them from a scientist in Atlas. Of course, Templar didn't care where he had stolen this tech from. As long as it was useable, that would be fine by him.

Tock growled and rubbed the newly placed optic with a metal hand, before cranking her head to the side, and looking at Templar through the screen that they shared. She was about to ask something, but was stopped as Templar then ordered, "Gather what is left of your Undertakers, Tock."

 _"There ain't any left, Templar,"_ Tock growled, _"The idiots were too weak ta stop 'emselves from gettin' killed!"_

"Then gather whomever you can, and prepare yourself. Your incompetence in the coliseum has accelerated our plans," Templar chuckled to himself, "But... It has given us a much needed opening."

Tock looked like she would've raised an eyebrow if she had any, "What opening?"

Another chuckle, and then he elaborated, "If the Altesians are coming here to confront us and," he rolled his now opened hang mockingly, "'Rescue their children'," and then let it rest, "Then at means that they will be turning their attention to this place, instead of keeping it on the city of Vale. And if they are coming here, then there is no longer any reason to stay here. We have gathered our forces, and our timeline has been discarded. We are prepared. We are ready. There is no need for us to wait for our glorious crusade to begin."

He rose from where he stood, and looked down on the computer screen below, his form tall and imposing and casting a shadow on everything below him, like an angry reaper, in opposition to the heavenly angel that he thought himself as.

"Gather our forces. Muster the thousands. We march on Vale tonight."

Tock looked at him sharply, before barking out a harsh laugh and going, _"As long as it makes up for me losses earlier,"_ before hanging up on him. He would be having a 'Word' with her about that later.

Behind him, he could hear the one in his Silver Court known as Ares, the God of Battle, bark out a frenetic laugh of his own at the thought of the coming slaughter, the fires in his chest contained by the blackened ribs in his exposed skeleton and caramelised flesh and blood, like a nacre shell holding within itself a withered crab, whilst Adonai, the God of Worship, raised her icy hands to him and cautiously went, **"My priest, I must ask: Are you certain that we are ready for this? I know that we are strong, but we have just lost a fifth of our number to a pair of children in the coliseum. Should we not-"**

"Wait? No, we will not."

**"But-"**

"We have more than enough to begin our crusade, and our followers are strong and ready. More will join our banner when our holy journey begins- When the silk veil over their eyes is lifted, and they see the light of our cause, the people will proffer themselves to our cause, and know that we are in the right. It is the will of our silver eyed gods, after all."

He pulled his great sword out of his sheath, and gestured it lazily towards Adonai.

"Enough questions. It will take some time for Atlas's forces to arrive here, but we will be long gone by then, and so will their children," he tapped his communications once more, and opened a line to the Tinkerer downstairs, "Hephaestus, this is Templar. Take Croft and your soldiers down to our guests in the Sleeping City and kill them. They serve no greater purpose for us now."

A long pause gave way to silence, before a voice came through with its reply, _**"Ah, at once, Priest Templar. Effigy completed now. Ready for use."**_

Templar sighed happily, "Good. I shall be heading down in a moment. Now, take your mercenary and do what you have been told, understand."

_**"Of course, Priest Templar. On way now."** _

* * *

Stepping back from the effigy and out of the silver and white lit room, and down the bare and quiet hallways of the cathedral, the Tinkerer raised his portable computer to his head, and let out a chuckle.

**"Malcom, begin final preparation of _Pilgrim's Flight_. It time for us to make move."**

* * *

Turning to the side, he pointed his sword to Adonai once more, and went, "Adonai, begin rallying our crusaders below. Ready them for the battle that is to come," at the female Grimm's nod, he then turned to Ares as she left, and instructed, "Ares, you are to stay here with Attis, and prepare our silver eyed goddess for departure. I shall be downstairs, doing the same for the effigy. I would rather that last task be done by my hands than anyone else's."

Ares railed against this as he growled, and went, **"What?! I should be down with our warriors, getting ready for the fight, not here guarding this quivering moron!"** he pointed a burnt finger to Attis nearby, the Techion Grimm shifting his feet and looking nervously between the fiery creature next to it, and the idol of their worship.

"It is because of who he is that I am ordering you to guard him," Templar shot back with as he moved to leave as well, "Not do what you are told. You know how I feel about failure, now more than ever."

And with that, he left, the goddess' main weapon stored on his back as he did, leaving Ares fuming next to the quailed Techion as he began his work.

 **"...To hell with that,"** Ares scoffed as he turned to leave.

Behind him, Attis poked his head up and went, **"Where are you going?"**

 **"To prepare myself for the coming slaughter. I don't care what that idiot metal man says, I shall have my war, and I shall have my blood,"** to punctuate his point, he pulled out another bag of blood from his cooler, and emptied it out into the vents on his neck, hissing and steaming against his superheated skin as he finished his crimson drink, and picked up the cooler to take with him, before pointing to Attis and threatening, **"And you aren't going to tell him what I'm doing, will you?"**

Attis quivered as he was said to have done, and then went, **"You would... You would go against the words of our Priest? Invite heresy onto yourself by going against his will?"**

Ares let out a gurgled guffaw, **"You wouldn't?"**

**"..."**

**"You should try being a little rebellious sometimes. It might do you some real good."**

Ares barked out another laugh as the blood that he spilled dried and steamed against his skin, throwing the doors aside as he marched out, not noticing the discarded, and damaged, dull eye on the floor, leaving Attis in the room with their idol alone.

He scratched his hands together and tilted his head down, before looking up at his item of worship, and using a wipe to clean away the blood that had stained her face.

And Ruby Rose remained as still as ever.

(But inside her mind, gears were turning...

And a plan was coming into formation.)

* * *

"Are you ready?"

 _No,_ "Yes," Nora went, before looking to the side, at an impatient looking Yang (Whom was tapping her feet against the ground as she alienated her gaze between Nora and the deadened screen on the wall), And then at the rickety and fragile piece of technology that the first years had just been created, as she then asked, "Are we sure that this is going to work? I mean, I know that me and Voltage can take it, and our semblances are strong enough to overload the gate, but... Are we completely sure that this is going to work?"

"No," well, at least DJ was honest, as he continued to tap away on the makeshift piece of technology before them, as he then said, "We know that the aura suppressors are old and easy to trick, and aren't even working at that," he looked up at her, rhetorically asking, "How do you think that I can still use my semblance?" before going back to work, "So we know that the suppressors don't work well against Headmaster semblance, and if this equipment does as its intended, then I can use it to boost my own semblance and manipulate the electronic signals within the suppressors to falter, at least for a few moments, giving you both enough time to use your semblances to overload the electric fences, and free us."

"Yeah, I know that, but, well, couldn't we use Pyrrha's semblance to do this? I know we agreed to do this, but are we sure that we can't use Pyrrha's semblance to, I don't know, shift the metal around us or something?"

Nearby, Razor shook his head, "Something like that would take a lot more concentration for her than it would for you, and besides, that blast from earlier has shaken the foundations of this place, and the pillars keeping the roof up are all fragile and made of metal. If we try to do anything to them now, then we'll end up bringing the entire building down on top of us, and not all of us would survive that," as if to punctuate his point, the roof above them creaked and shuddered underneath its own weight, as if nothing more than a gentle blow of the wind would topple it over like a stack of cards.

Nora bit her lower lip, "Alright then," and then looked down to Voltage, whom was kneeling down and holding his hands out in preparation to the azure electricity before them. Like the rest of the Techions in the first years, his mechanical frame had been cannibalised for parts and pieces, panels opened up and wires flayed out, missing pieces and parts of himself as the internal lights of his body were exposed and opened across his arms, legs, and back.

"I'm ready," the Techion hummed out as his internal components autotuned themselves, before looking behind himself, to Nora, and going, "What about you?"

* * *

_"Now where are you going, little boy?"_

_"Remember who you belong to!"_

_"Dance, little boy! Dance for me!"_

_"Run, Noah! RUN!"_

* * *

"...Nora?"

* * *

_"It's time to clip this little birdy's wings."_

* * *

"Nora."

"Hm?" the girl in question was broken out of her thoughts as she looked down at Voltage, "What?"

The Techion paused in turn, and then asked, "Are you ready to do this?"

She nodded shortly afterwards, "Yeah. Yeah I am."

Behind her, Ren goes, "Nora-"

"I'll be fine, Ren."

He went to say something, but Nora cut him off once more.

"Ren," she waved him off with, "I will be fine. Trust me."

He looked to her, his eyes hard with concern, but, finally, he acquiesced, and stepped aside, his arms folded in front of him, and his hands gripping against his sleeves.

Nora looked back towards the bars of sapphire electric before her, and supressed the urge to grimace, merely putting on that same smiley face that she always would, as she gave off a chirpy, "Let's do this!" and pressed her hands against Voltage's back. Between them, their semblances would produce enough electricity to overload and knock out the electric fence around them when DJ sent out his signal towards them.

For a moment, she thought back to her life, before she had ever met Ren- Before Kuroyuri fell. She had been born in Solitas, and had... Well, she had not had a good life, if anything.

She resisted the urge to rub her back.

She didn't like to talk about it. Nor did she want to.

If there was one thing that she had learnt from her past, it was, well, to bury it. Bury it deep down, and never let it out. Sad memories only brought up sad thoughts, didn't they? And she never liked being sad.

She never liked the pain of it all.

(Nor the nightmares...)

But now, she suspected that, yeah, she was about to go through a lot of pain from getting shocked by all of the energy in the electric fence, as well as overcharging her own semblance to god knows what degree (An amusing thing to say, considering how she was an atheist).

Ah well. It wasn't like she hadn't felt worse pain before.

Small sacrifice.

"I'm ready," she said more to herself than anyone else, and before her, Voltage nodded in agreement. Kneeling down in position, they kept themselves connected together as DJ and another Techion by the name of Scrapster worked on the makeshift signal amplifier device that they had cobbled together behind them, wires leeching from the device into every Techion surrounding it, powering the machine as DJ pressed his hand against it, and inserted a series of wires into his arm, boosting his connection, and hopefully his semblance as well.

"Alright then... Thanks everyone for helping us put this together, before I forget. Good team effort," many of the Techions surrounding him gave him a thumbs-up (Or a claws up, depending on what type of appendage for a hand they were using) As he then flexed his head from side to side, and said to himself, "About to use untested technology, built from pure memory... I'm starting to have second thoughts."

Nearby, Yang asked, "Why now? Why're you having second thoughts?"

"Because this might either work just as intended, or...

"'Or'?"

"Or it might just explode and kill us all."

…

"Either/Or."

Everyone paused.

Everyone blinked.

And it was Nora who broke the silence, "Well, what are you waiting for then?"

She smiled.

"Let's see if this works."

Ren stepped forwards, "Nora-"

DJ pushed his hand into the machine, "Activate."

The machine lit up into a bright white light, and with that-

{VWOMP}

{FTWOOM}

-The aura suppressors around them fell silent for but a few moments-

"GO!"

-Which was long enough.

Nora and Voltage's semblances finally kicked back in, and they immediately overcharged themselves with electricity, before sending it-

{CRACKLE}

{FIZZLE}

-Directly into the electric fence before them.

All around the first years, their cage lit up in a mixture of blue and pink, cracking and snapping as lances of burning energy were shot outwards from each hot bar of light, whipping themselves at anyone who got too close to them as the first years pulled their still unconscious teachers closer to them and huddled themselves into the middle of their prison cell, blinding lights flashing around them like cameras taking pictures of their plight, as their clothes and skin and armour were lashed and burnt by the cages' fresh tendrils of hot light. Smoke began to pour out of the metal columns around them as the old energy generators within began to burn themselves out, burning with heat as the components began to melt and fuse together into a simplistic block of metal, as nearby-

""AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!""

-Nora and Voltage were being cooked alive by the energy that they were channelling.

Torrents of electricity poured off of the electric fence as it began to overheat, streaming into Nora and Voltage as they screamed in pain, their own semblances overheating and charring them. Voltage's components began to burn and slag, turning red-hot to the touch as the flesh on Nora's hands began to fuse themselves to his metal hide, burning and melting under the touch, all the way down to her bones as underneath her armour, her skin was burnt and fractured with channels of scars and rivers of burnt flesh, like a spider weaving its webs over her skin. Smoke poured from the both of them as they were scarred and marked, white and black and grey as skin cracked and burst underneath Nora's armour and metal peeled shattered and melded together within Voltage as his mechanics failed and fused together, his life support coming closer and closer and closer to failing, until finally-

{VWOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM}

-The energy generators in the pillars finally overloaded within their metal cages, fizzling in a trapped shower of sparks, and then shut off.

The electric fences dissolved into nothingness, and the stun cannons in the pillars lowered their sights to the floor, their lights flickering off, just as did those of the aura suppressors, letting the smothered souls of the first years flicker to life once more.

And before them all, Nora and Voltage, the armour around their bodies crackling with fresh static electricity, smoking and hot to the touch, collapsed to the floor, their minds slipping away into nothingness.

* * *

Attis squeezed the wet rag, and let the water drip out into the bowl below with a soft {PITTER PATTER} of sound. Flaking off some of the water that had seeped onto his metal hands, he then applied the wet cloth once more to the face of the limp Silver-Eyed Warrior- A goddess amongst mortals- Clamped to the cross above him, and wiped off more of the blood that had run and dried down her cheek, turning the rag the colour of rusted metal as he then cleaned the blood from her hair, and washed the rag once more, the water within turning a faint murky red as he continued his worshipful task. Nearby, a blue bin of broken scroll pieces and wet rags sat lonely in the middle of the room, leaking rust-coloured water down its side and onto the floor.

Because this was all that he could do to show his worship. This was all that he had allowed to do, anyways. His High Priest had commanded it of him, and who was he to go against his high priest?

…

_**"You should try being a little rebellious sometimes. It might do you some real good."** _

Ares' words continued to haunt Attis like a dead spirit over the living. A nagging, intrusive thought that refused to leave him be as he continued on with his mundane work, whispering treasonous words into his ear that would make him a heretic.

Would it?

He used to be so sure. He had been born young- Very young- By the harvested channels of black Grimm liquid in the tunnels of the Emerald Forest, just days before the Initiation Massacre, and he was barely even a week old when he had almost been killed, his body withering and fading into nothing as he slowly bled to death underneath the black smoke and the oppressive blue sky.

But then, as he was about to die, he was found. Found and rescued by the Choir of Silver. His body had been rebuilt, forged from smoking obsidian-black flesh and shattered bone to steel skin and a mechanical body, four-armed and powerful, armed with new makeshift technologies that granted him a semblance of his own, an artificial power through the glowing purple claws of his arms, known as the power of telekinesis (The ability to manipulate the gravity of specific objects through gravity dust and a powerful set of magnetic devices built into his systems, according to Hephaestus).

With his new gifts given to him, as well as a new lease on life, he had given his life to Templar, his saviour, and pledged his eternal loyalty to the Choir of Silver as the order slowly leaked its way into both Vale and the Sleeping City, eventually slaughtering the Ground-Mantle forces that had gathered there once they had been granted access to the networks that had watched over the city of mausoleums.

But now... His High Priest openly disrespected him, as if he was less than trash, threatening him with death for his slights, and openly showing little care for those in their number who had died... His fellow Silver Court members showed the same level of disrespect towards him, and now revealed themselves to not care about him at all...

But worst of all...

His idol of worship had been hurt.

Templar had said that it was to rid a blight from their idol, like one would wipe away a stain from a treasured artefact, but it had... It had caused their goddess pain. It had caused her to bleed. It had brought her pain, and it had caused her to cry.

And now, she had gone limp, and lost all motion in her body. It was like she had gone braindead. She was like a living corpse, most likely easily mistaken as one by others if they couldn't feel her heart beat against her chest, or see her vital signs blink against their HUD.

…

What was he to do?

Here he was, performing a menial task on his own, his idol of worship broken and battered, leaking blood from an empty eye socket, acting as if she were truly dead against her cross, a black and red living corpse before him as he continued to clean the blood off of her with his reddening rag, dipping it back into the bowl before him as he knelt before it, his mind jumping between questions and possibilities as he continued his grizzly work.

What was he to do?

"Indeed, Attis, what are you going to do?"

Attis jumped in place, his mechanical hind legs scraping against the ground as his four red optics stared up to the idol of his worship- His goddess- Looking down on him- Actually acknowledging him!- With her single silver eye, glowing bright and hot as she stared down at the devotee kneeling before her.

**"You... You heard me?"**

The silver eyed god nodded, but did not smile upon him, "Indeed, little one. Your thoughts are loud, and clear for all to hear."

**"Did... Did you read my thoughts? Did your divinity grant you sight into my mind?"**

She tilted her head to the side, and replied with, "If that is what you wish to believe, then let it be the truth."

(She didn't tell him that he had merely been talking out loud. That might ruin the whole 'Divine god' image that she was trying to construct for herself.

 _C'mon, Ruby, c'mon_ , she thought to herself, _Be divine. Be that weird god thing that this guy wants you to be. It might just be the only way for you to get out of this place and back to Jaune and Melanie._ )

His silver eyed god rolled her head to the side, and licked the blood from her lips.

"Tell me, Attis, God of Worship... Is this what you wish your life to be?"

If Attis could blink, he would've, **"What... What do you mean?"**

"The lack of respect from your peers, for one. They care not for anything about you, if what I have seen of them is true."

**"..."**

"Am I correct?"

 **"...I..."** he looked down, **"Forgive me, for I am unsure, myself."**

"Ah," she smiled, "Steel yourself, my friend, for you have done nothing that demands forgiveness."

He looked back up to her, optics gleaming and shining against his silver, white, and blue carapace. Had he really... Had he truly done nothing wrong in the eyes of his goddess? Had he been absolved of his sins by that which he knows is divine, hands washed clean of the blood spilt upon them, directly or otherwise?

(A lie on Ruby's part, of course, but it worked. Appealing to his sense of belief in him, nurturing his loyalty to her, making it seem like he had been redeemed for what he had done.

Weiss hadn't done that stuff to her, but now that she thought back to it, the heiress had taught her a valuable lesson about her role as a leader:

She really did need to take a firmer hand in leadership. This was her doing just that.)

"But," a pause for dramatic effect, "Your fellows, on the other hand... Templar, for what he has done to me and the one that birthed mine mortal coil," her words changed from gentle, and mesmerising, to thinly veiled anger, "Theirs are hands that I shan't not forgive."

(She winced internally. Oh god, she knew that she had to ham this up as much as she could to sell the whole divinity god thing, but this reminded her of her poetry phase... Gods, she unironically cringed at the memory of it.)

Attis paused, **"The Silver Court and the High Priest? You think of them as sinful?"**

"They are nothing but sinful," her silver eyed goddess growled, "They haft spilt blood upon these grounds of tombs and lost angels, mine and others."

A pause on his part. One that he was ashamed of himself for, **"But... Our High Priest, Templar... He said that their blood needed to be spilt, for the betterment of our cause-"**

"Templar is but a narcissistic madman," his silver eyed goddess growled, "He is a coward glorying in his own self image, as are his lackies. Those that feed him his own ego, and those that follow in his footsteps for their own ambitions and bloodlust. There is nothing holy about him and his gang of Grimm."

**"But-"**

"If Templar truly was holy... If he truly saw me and that which I was born from as divine-"

She tilted her head to the side against her cross, shifting her hair to the side and revealing the empty socket where her imperfect eye had been.

"-Then she wouldn't have taken my eye."

Attis took a step back, and felt his four hands twitch at her words, **"Templar... Surely he was clearing a blight from you, like-"**

"Are you telling me that, or yourself?"

A good question. Attis said nothing of it, for they both knew the answer.

"If Templar truly cared... If he truly loved this mother of mine... If he truly loved me, as the god I am and more... Then he would never have brought me harm."

She sneered.

"Templar does not want a god, mine follower dearest... He merely wants a doll. A piece of meat to force his own desires upon. And if he truly did care about me... If he truly believed in the divinity of the Silver-Eyed Warriors... Then he wouldn't be seeking to shed the blood of those that we are meant to protect. He would be working to save people, like all Silver-Eyed Warriors, not seeking to exterminate and enslave them."

Another step back, **"I... I cannot... He-"**

"He 'Saved' you?"

**"Yes."**

"Did he do it because he truly cared about you, Attis? Or did he do it for the satisfaction of having someone indebted to him- Of having someone praise him, and wax his own ego?"

**"I-"**

"He saved one person. Congratulations. How many others has he murdered in cold blood, as if saving one person against dozens, if not hundreds, will ever make up for it?- Will not label him as nothing more than a hypocrite?"

**"He... He saved me..."**

"And in return, you became his obedient little slave."

**"No..."**

"How many of your brothers and sisters in the Choir has he killed?"

**"...Many."**

"And he has threatened you, and the rest of his own inner council with death... Do you not think that he will deliver unto them- Unto you- The same punishment?"

He said nothing, for nothing more needed to be said.

"And now... It is time for you to make a decision."

**"About... About what, my goddess?"**

"About where your loyalties lie."

Another step back, **"What- What do you mean?"**

"Tell me, Attis, mine most faithful follower, whom cared for me when no others did... Who deserves your loyalty?"

**"Who... Deserves my... Loyalty?"**

"Yes... Who deserves you? Your high priest? Or your goddess?"

**"What? But... But I-"**

"Do you serve a deluded narcissist, Attis?!" she was shouting now, "An abomination to all that is good in this world?!"

**"I-"**

"Or do you serve your goddess?!"

**"I cannot-"**

"He brought harm upon me, Attis! He brought pain upon that which he should worship!"

A low growl escaped from her lips.

"If I am God... The creator of all things... Then what does that make him, but the devil himself?"

**"...Why show me this side?"**

A pause from his silver eyed goddess.

**"If you truly are divine... Then why didn't you show that divinity to the High Priest? Why didn't you show him your holiness?"**

"Because he was unfit to see it-"

(Another lie. She just hadn't thought about this plan back then. Hindsight was twenty-twenty, after all.)

"-But you are."

**"I... I am?"**

"Templar is a sinner. A servant of evil draping himself in the robes of light."

**"..."**

"But you... You are truly a follower of the light. I know this from the core of my being, and the infinity of my wisdom, that you are a true believer in the light of silver! You understand the light, and you seek to follow it, and all that it values! You are merely a lost lamb, led astray by the wolf. But worry not, for your shepherd has come to lead you back on the path of righteousness."

**"..."**

"Choose, Attis."

**"..."**

"Choose."

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Attis' hands balled into fists.

The Grimm Techion walked up to her, and released the clamps on her bonds, freeing the silver eyed goddess from her cross, and letting her fall onto her feet with a stumble.

(The plan was successful.)

Attis assisted her in standing herself up right, and with a look of sincerity upon her, her single argent eye looked up at him as she said, "Thank you."

 **"Of course, my goddess,"** Attis replied, **"Thank you for helping me see the light,"** before turning to an opened box of spare parts nearby, and pulling out one of the optics from inside the box, its wires dangling from the end, the tips of them like snapping claws as he turned the optic on, letting the optical lens glow a crimson hue as it activated.

His goddess blinked at the sight as the wires of the optic continued to snap and whip at the air around it, "What... What is that?"

**"An optical device. A more advanced model produced by a scientist in Sky-Mantle. Hephaestus said that he stole a shipment of these devices from a human cargo vessel not too long ago. He says that the wires on the bottom of the optic act as substitute optical nerves. They connect to the severed optic nerve of the eye, as well as burrow into the nerves and bone to release the Black Ether into the bloodstream, and replicate the electrical signals that the eye would send to the brain, tricking the subconscious into thinking that it is a real eye."**

"Ah, to starve off Mecha-Dissociative Rejection, I see."

**"Indeed."**

(Mecha-Dissociative Rejection, or MDR for short. Ruby remembered reading about it whilst Yang was being treated in the hospital after the Initiation Massacre. In essence, MDR meant the rejection of mechanical implants by the human body, leading to seizures and body spasms, and at the very worst, death. During the first days of the Techions, when the technology to make them was being rediscovered after the Great War, MDR was exceedingly present within the first prototype Techion cyborgs, and were created out of the brain's inability to process the lack of feeling or functions in their new metal body, like the ability to eat or drink, or the ability to blink, or even feel any kind of physical contact in the body.

In short, the lack of humanities within these new cyborgs led to their brains to believe that they were trapped inside of their new mechanical forms. Body dysphoria, essentially. The brains of the first Techions believed that they were, in a sense, both alive and dead at the same time due to the lack of humanities that they felt, leading to seizure, phantom pains, and eventually death from the brain eventually rejecting these mechanical implants. It was only with the invention of a medical solution known as Black Ether (The oil that flowed through Techions like blood) That allowed the next generations of Techions to simulate a sense of conscious being and mental acceptance of their new forms through chemical stimulations, starving off MDR and creating the first stable generation of Techions.

None of this had helped Ruby's nerves when Yang had been receiving her own mechanical implants, and it certainly wasn't helping now.

But still, no real time to think about it. She didn't want to be walking around without any depth-perception, and this was the best solution that she could think of.

No time like the present, then.)

There was a long pause, before Attis' goddess moved a hand through her hair and revealed her empty eye socket to him.

"Do it."

There was a shameful pause in hesitation on his part, but he eventually pulled through and approached, opening her eyelid wide, and allowing the snapping tendrils of the optic to worm their way into her empty eye socket, soft squelching noises accompanying it as the wires connected to her optic nerve and burrowed into her skull, blood vessels, and nervous system, the optic itself slowly slithering into her eye socket like a slug as the wires pulled it along, blood weeping down from her soon-to-be new eye as she hissed from the pain.

"Are you-"

"It will pass," she hissed once more, before sucking in a long breath, and saying, "Templar talked about going on a crusade, earlier. What does he mean by that?"

Attis replied as he continued his work, tilted her head back as the optic continued to burrow into her head, **"Priest Templar has an army assembled within the Sleeping City. Once five thousand, now four thousand strong. He has a fleet of ships, including a cruiser- The _Pilgrim's Flight_. Now that Sky-Mantle is assuredly coming to the Sleeping City, this has allowed him to accelerate his plans."**

"And what is he planning?"

**"He is planning to march on the human city of Vale, and take it by force. Put it to the torch if he has to."**

"What!?" the goddess flinched in place as she looked at him in shock, "He wants to invade Vale?! But that's impossible! Not with his numbers! Even if he has a cruiser, Vale's been so heavily militarised since the beginning of the war that'd he'd need a lot more than four thousand to break into the city! He'd be slaughtered!"

 **"He has a plan to counter that,"** at the goddess' request for him to elaborate, he continued, **"There were humans that were helping the Choir before they died. Carmine and Bertilak, their names were, as well as several other mankin and beastkin that I do not know of."**

Her eyes widened, "I've met Carmine and Bertilak before."

**"They say that the both of them died."**

"I didn't kill them."

**"Ah, apologies for accidently insinuating that you did, my goddess."**

She waved it off, "What were they doing? What were Carmine and Bertilak helping Templar with."

**"They were helping him to smuggle his followers into the city. Right now, there are around a hundred Grimm belonging to the Choir of Silver within the walls of Vale, all armed and eager for battle. At Templar's word, they will begin a guerrilla war all over Vale and conduct terrorist attacks across the city, bombing hospitals, governmental buildings, everywhere of strategic importance. And once Vale's authorities are distracted with their efforts, Templar will march his forces in, and burn the city to the ground."**

Her mouth dropped, "His crusade..."

**"He believes that others will join his efforts along the way, so numbers are not a problem to him."**

"He's mad."

**"Now that you have said it, I know it to be the truth."**

"What's the point of all of this?" his goddess asked, "I mean, why? Why is he doing all of this?"

**"To establish a new world order. Templar plans to repeat what he shall do to Vale onto every single one of the kingdoms. First Vale, then Vacuo, then Mistral and its cities, and then finally Sky-Mantle and Ground-Mantle, growing in strength and power along the way. And if he can't have it-"**

"He'll burn it."

**"Indeed."**

"We need to stop him," his goddess finished with, "Even if that psychopath losses this fight, he's going to kill hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of people along the way. Vale's suffering from one of the biggest refugee crises in history. The streets will be packed with people. It's all just going to be one big target range for them."

She pushed Attis away, and took a step back, her head still tilted up as the optic continued to dig into her eye socket.

"Where's a communicator, or a scroll or something? We need to warn Beacon, and Vale. Maybe contact Atlas while we're at it. And since he just crushed mine, we'll need some other way of contacting the city," she paused, before asking him, "Does Templar have a list of all of the places which his Grimm are using to hide in the city? Like, bunkers and safehouses and stuff?"

**"Yes, but they are on his person, not store away in a database online, and even then, communicating with the outside world will be impossible without Templar's personal communications. There's a jamming field all across the Sleeping City. The only transmissions that will get through to Vale are overseen by Templar. There's no way he'll let us get a word out to the city in time."**

"Can we break through the jamming field?"

**"That's outside my field. I have no idea how it works."**

"Then we need to find Jaune and Melanie, and the others still in the Sleeping City, and then we need to grab that list. I know for a fact that they wouldn't have let a mere explosion and a death match kill them, and the others will be strong enough to hold out until we get to them as well."

Attis then paused, and looked the side.

"What's with that look?"

 **"My goddess,"** he slowly began, **"There are... Elements, within the Choir of Silver that do not completely support Templar."**

"...Go on."

**"Some factions within the Choir are more loyal to the Silver-Eyed Warriors than to Templar, or even to their own ambitions. I know for a fact that the forces within Vale's walls are only being held together by the High Priest alone. If we tell them of what has been done to you, then it will split the Choir in half."**

"They'll fall into civil war?"

**"Templars army will fold in on itself, and we will have our own army at our call. The problem will be solved before it has even begun."**

The optic finished implanting itself into the goddess' skull, and shone a bright, harrowing red.

The goddess (Ruby) Smiled.

"Get me in front of a camera."

* * *

Templar grazed his hand over the effigy before him, and placed the little Rose's weapon in her hand, extending it outwards, and letting the mimicry hold it in its hands. Not an exact replica, but it would do.

Nearby, Adonai crossed her hands over her chest as a Disciple quickly ran out of the room after having delivered its message to her, and cocked her head to the side, **"The effigy pleases you?"**

"Of course it does. As much of a facsimile as it is... It will do."

His hand glided over its own.

"It will do nicely."

Adonai looked away, and said, **"Hephaestus should be rewarded for his efforts, then?"**

"Once he is done with his task, and we have completed our crusade in Vale, he will be, as will all of you," Templar stood tall, and flexed his arms, "Assuming that he is successful in his tasks, of course. If not, then he shall receive nothing-"

He grabbed at the sword on his back.

"-And shall become nothing."

He looked to Adonai.

"The same goes for you, and the rest of the Choir of Silver, understood?"

 **"Of course,"** Adonai added after a moment's hesitation, before steeling herself and going, **"About Hephaestus... Our forces are almost prepared to load up onto the _Pilgrim's Flight_ , but I have been told that he isn't responding. Nor is the ship. They've both gone dark."**

Templar paused, and then growled, "Hephaestus... What is he doing? I know that he had his 'Side project' in play, but..." he clenched his fists, and then pulled the sword from his back, "I will see to him, don't you worry. If he so much as tries anything against us, he shall answer to me."

 **"Ah, of that, I have no doubt, my Priest,"** Adonai nodded, before unfolding her arms and letting them dangle to her sides, **"In any case, even if the _Pilgrim's Flight_ is rendered out of commission for whatever reason, we still have enough manpower and resources to just march to Vale-"**

"No," Templar began to reprimand her, "Even if our associates in Vale were able to cause as much destruction as they could, if we march on foot, we will be seen by Vale's guns and obliterated before we can even get in range of the city. For our crusade to be successful, we need the _Pilgrim's Flight_ , and the rest of our fleet."

Adonai looked like she wanted to say something, but relented, as she nodded her head in agreement, and went, **"As you say, my Priest. Shall we prepare the effigy for transportation, and-"**

"I will be the one who touches the effigy, Adonai, not you, or anyone else," he reminded her, before going, "That said, you are right. Bring me the tools needed. I shall-"

{FTZZZZZ}

"-Place- What is that noise?"

The two of them looked up, to see the TV screens placed up on the walls, and scattered all over the Sleeping City, turning themselves on, and connecting to a live feed of-

_"Hello there, mine children scattered. Your time, as they say, is come."_

There was Ruby Rose, head, chest, and shoulders filling the screen, no longer bound to her cross, her singular silver eye blaring with raging defiance as a red glow emanated from underneath the hair covering the upper left of her face.

"What?! Who released the idol from her cross!?" Templar cried out as he pointed to the screen, fury building up within him at this heresy of defiance against his person.

"It- It must've been Attis!" Adonai added as she stepped back, "But Ares wouldn't have let him! He was supposed to have been watching them both!"

"Oh, those two incompetent fools!" he roared in answer, "When I get my hands on them, I am going to skin them alive for-"

 _"As you can see,"_ Ruby continued on, oblivious to the reaction that she had garnered, _"Your silver eyed goddess has arrived to deliver you from your mortal purgatory, onwards to salvation."_

"-This... Hold on... Is she... Has she embraced her divinity?"

 _"But, perhaps, you think me a liar, no? You think me a false god, proclaiming herself to be true,"_ she leaned her head towards the screen, and let her face envelop the screen, _"Then look into my eye. My good eye. Look into my argent pools, and know my words to be the truth. Let the shining light of my sight be that which proclaims my words to be gospel."_

"...Ah, so she has finally seen my light. Good."

Templar waved Adonai down.

"Let it play, Adonai. She is going to proclaim the righteousness of our mission, and who are we to stop her?"

* * *

"Um", Yang pointed up to the screen, "Is that... Is that Ruby?"

The first years stopped running down the long hallways before them, carrying Nora, Voltage, Professor Goodwitch, and Professor Watts between them, as they turned their gazes to the screens around them.

"Ruby... What are you doing?"

"Better question is, who is she referring to?" Razor Azure added in next to her, the military dressed boy rubbing his masked chin as he asked, "This new Grimm faction that Croft works for?"

"Most likely," Tusks put in, "Maybe she's being forced to make an address for them."

"She doesn't look that forced to me."

"And her eyes," Yamana threw in, "She's talking about her silver eyes again. Remember yesterday, in the auditorium?"

"Yeah, hard not to."

Weiss and Leadpipe looked away. Blake didn't.

"Seriously," Skipjack began, "What is so important about her eyes?"

 _"You know of the importance of these eyes, correct?"_ Ruby began once more on the screen as she leaned herself back, _"You know of what they are?"_

"Oh, looks like you're going to get your answer, Skippy."

_"These eyes of mine, and of all Silver-Eyed Warriors like me... They are gifts. Links to the God of Light himself. With but a stare and a flash, these eyes will bring even the mightiest of Grimm to their knees, be it Salem or otherwise. With nought but a stare, these eyes will turn a Grimm to stone, and bring purity to where corruption once and still lingers."_

That got them all to pause. Her eyes... What was she was saying true? Were people with silver eyes somehow linked to the God of Light himself, giving them powers of... What? Purity? What did that even mean?

And that 'Salem' reference again? So she is real? But what was she to begin with? A Grimm? Ruby indicated that that was the case, so she must be a member of the Ascendant Court, or some other Grimm faction, yes?

One thing was for certain, they were going to have a lot of questions for Ozpin once they got back to Beacon.

_"This divine connection that I share to the Gods themselves... That all Silver-Eyed Warriors share... This is our own divinity. Our own claim to the heavenly and mortal realms. This is what sets us apart from the rest of humanity."_

Her eyes flickered and shone, if only for a moment.

_"This is what makes us gods."_

"Okay, either she is acting, or she's suddenly developed a god complex."

"If it's the latter, then hot damn, that's some quick character development."

"What?"

"What?"

* * *

In front of the camera, Ruby internally blanched. She hated this. She hated proclaiming herself to be a god. She was wanted to be a normal girl with normal knees, for goodness sake!

But, Attis had brought her act solidly, and if he did, then so would so many more Grimm in the Choir of Silver, if his words were to be believed.

So, she had to put on this act of divinity. She had to pretend to be something that she really wasn't, nor did she ever want to be.

Still though, at least Attis' trick of the light had worked as from behind the camera set that they had been given access too via Attis' orders and her persuasion of the guards (Whom worshipped her, of course), As he fiddled with the mirror plane near him and gave her a thumbs up. She had explained to him that her 'Mortal vessel' was not yet suited to the powers of the silver eyes, so he had helped her in faking the illusion that her eyes were shining, which was good, as it helped to sell the act.

Outside of the room, she could hear chanting and bays of worship in the corridors. Good. They were listening to her.

Attis held up a scroll to her, with text that he had silently written on it: Now make them want to worship you directly. _Even more than they already have done. Give them praise, or something along those lines._

Ruby felt disgusted by the notion, but stayed her hand. It was to sell the act, after all. She could choke back her horror at all of this for but a few minutes.

And so, with a smile on her face, she then went, "And, as all gods do, we wish for worship from our beloved followers. Fortunately, you have done just that, haven't you, my Choir of Silver?"

* * *

"Oh yeah, she's definitely acting," Yang went urgently as she began to march along once more, "There is no way she would ever want anyone to worship her."

"Indeed," Weiss said, "She doesn't seem like the type to want any sort of praise at all."

"Oh, and you should know?"

"Blake," Leadpipe began, "For once in your life, can you please not try and start a fight just for the sake of it? It's getting ridiculous at this point."

"Hey, it's just how I operate."

"No, it really isn't."

 _"You have been diligent in your worship, haven't you?"_ Ruby continued, _"You have built up so much in the name of the Silver-Eyed Warriors. You have crafted so much, in so little time. An army of crusaders, forged in mine name, ready to forge upon this world a new kingdom. A new world, free from the corruption of old. Free of the madness that plagued us once more. Free from evil itself. The old orders of the world will lay discarded and broken beneath your feet, as you raise a new world order into the sky, and create a new heaven upon Remnant."_

Everyone stopped, and everyone paused.

Is that... Is that what this was all about? Is that was this Grimm faction were after? Establishing a new world order?

Just like the Ascendant Court...

They needed to stop them. Now.

Outside, the cheers of the this 'Choir of Silver' grew more ravenous, joyous, and wanting. Ruby was vindicating them of any wrongdoings, and deluding them into believing that they were on the path of all that was good.

Maybe that was the point.

_"I look upon thou, so bright and fervent, so ready for battle, your blades sharpened and your guns loaded, all of you guided by our eternal wisdom, our holy divinity, our ethereal light. I look upon thou, hardened and toughened by enemies sent against you, enemies that have tested you, enemies conquered and toppled, sharpening yourselves like whetstones upon the blade, shaving away the blunt edges and leaving you so much stronger from it."_

She held her arms out wide, and smiled.

_"I look upon my people, and am proud."_

* * *

Templar looked to the screen in silent happiness. Their goddess- The one worthy of being his bride- Was finally acknowledging their triumphs- Their grand crusade! With this, Summer Rose's progeny had granted them a divinity of their own.

They were on the side of the angels.

As he always knew them to be.

_"I have just one question, though, for those whom adhere to the banner of the Choir of Silver... All those who worship mine eyes, and the holy light that weeps for them, when all that is righteous is lost..."_

Hm, what was she referring to now?

Perhaps a question of wherever they felt worthy of following him into the fires of war that their great crusade would thrust them upon. Perhaps a question of wherever they felt themselves worthy of swimming within the argent light that she would cast forth.

No matter. Anything she said would surely vindicate their goals, and set them once more on the path of-

_"Who deserves your loyalty?"_

…What?

_"Your... 'High Priest', Templar?"_

What?!

_"Or me?"_

WHAT?!

"What is this?!" Templar screamed out to the screen as Ruby's face turned to a violent snarl, teeth blaring as she blared out her next words like a tidal wave crashing against the shore.

_"Tell me, do mine followers, once Grimm now pure, followed a bloated narcissist!? A madman with delusions of grandeur, driven insane by his own lusts!?"_

"Cut the feed!"

_"Or do you follow your goddess?! Do you follow that which will save you?! Enlighten you?! Redeem you?!"_

"I said cut the feed!"

 **"I can't- I can't do it from here! I can't contact the filming studio!"** Adonai called out to him as she looked away from her communicator.

_"Because if you do not, then you are to be cast off- Shucked from our holy writ of union like meat from the bone, and damned to the nine circles of hell, just like your abominable priest, to be condemned with the lustful and the prideful and the vainglorious!"_

Templar typed in a code into his scroll, and yelled into it, "Hephaestus, I know you are listening to this, you insolent little rat, no matter how many times you do not answer! You will cut the feed to the screens across the Sleeping City, or so help me god, I will have your head on a pike, AND SKIN YOU ALIVE!"

* * *

_"DO YOU HEAR ME, YOU PETULANT RAT! CUT THE FEED OR-"_

The Tinkerer did just that.

Well, one of the feeds at least, as he hung up on Templar, and let the girl continue her speech to the entirety of the Sleeping City.

He chuckled, _"We seem to have lost the connection."_

He looked back from his seat to the rest of his crew, and motioned for them to get to their stations.

It was time for them to take their leave.

* * *

_"And if you do proclaim that you would willingly follow the likes of Templar, then tell me: Would you follow the likes of a man that would sup upon a mortal woman so many years younger than him, bringing sacrilege upon mine mortal flesh for his own lustful, sinful urges!?"_

"Okay, this Templar guy seriously needs to die," Jolie Kobal quipped as the first years continued to run down the hallways around them, still carrying their wounded as the sounds of cheering, roaring, arguing, and fighting continued to grow, grow, and grow even further outside, distant sounds of clashing swords, scraping claws, and blasting cannons echoing all around them as the Sleeping City began to erupt into violence once again, after so very long.

"From the sounds of it, these guys will be doing it themselves, ribbit," a frog Faunus by the name of Tessa Ansel said as she leapt from wall to wall like the species that she took her traits from, a girl by the name of Uma Ousel following close behind her as she used her antigravity semblance to glide herself through the air, whilst the rest of the first years followed with them on foot.

Around them, against the growing sounds of battle outside, Ruby's voice continued to scream through the speakers and screens around them, as she then yelled out, _"And tell me, truly tell me-"_

She reached for something offscreen, and took the hair on the left side of her face into her hand. No one wanted to think about why there was a red glow behind the black and red strands.

_"-Is a so called 'High priest' truly worthy of divinity- Truly deserving of worship and the role of leadership- When he would desecrate a goddess such as I-"_

She pulled her hair back, and brought her opened hand back into the screen.

In her hand, was a mangled, bloody eyeball.

On the left side of her face, atop a weeping trail of fresh splattered blood, a glowing red optic nested itself within her eye socket.

_"-By cutting out her eye?"_

Yang's hair lit up, and her eyes turned red. She roared in a flurry of rage, and darted past the rest of the first years, the crowd following closely behind in equal, unspoken fury.

Templar was going to die today.

This was not a declaration, or a promise.

It was a statement of fact.

_"So tell me, will you join a lecherous leader whom kills his own at the sight of failure!? A hypocrite that destroys everything that he supposedly finds sacred, just to satisfy himself?! Or will you follow your goddess, your divine saviour, and be granted passage into the heavens that you deserve?!"_

Outside, the sounds of battle suddenly grew even more fierce then before. Animalistic roars of anger and rage filled the air as screams and dying cries leapt up and echoed through the hallways, the sounds of fire growing more ferocious as they continued to sprint down the dilapidated and rotting corridors. Sounds of explosions and battle roared beyond the walls as the Sleeping City began to consume itself.

However, whatever was happening right outside the maze of corridors that the first years found themselves in, it was growing even more violent and ground-shaking than ever before. The world was clattering and shaking around them, spilling dust onto the floor and the first years below, covering them in a fine layer of soot as the battles outside grew louder and louder and louder, until...

Until it all fell silent.

_"Let this be my call to you: Cast off your darkened morals and corrupt leaders! Shuck off the evils of the world around them, and answer my call! The time has come to claim what is yours! The time has come to throw away the malicious madness of those whom lie and cheat you of the heaven that you deserve! Throw away the lies of Templar, and join me! Join me in overthrowing the tyrants whom rule you! Let us be joined together in our choir once more, and sing our song for all of the world to hear! Let that me my call, and let the bark of your cannons and the swing of the sword be your answer!"_

And with that, she was gone, her message finally over.

 _Wow_ , all of the first years thought to themselves, _Where the hell has this Ruby Rose been all this time?_

The first years rounded a corner, and saw the door to the exit, back out into the open air of the Sleeping City. Shoving themselves through the rusted and breaking doors, and then through the blinding light and rising smoke of the outside world, they charged through-

"Yo."

-And saw before then Jaune and Melanie, sitting atop a strangely healthy looking dragon, as over a hundred more of all types hovered in the air and sat around them.

"J-Jaune? Melanie?!" DJ called out as he and the rest of High Command met with their once missing now found leaders, hands waving around as he cheered, "Aha! I knew you were still alive! I just knew it!"

"How did you- How did you escape the coliseum?" Razor asked as he reached out to touch the dragon beneath them on its beak, but a quick snort from the beast convinced him not to, "That explosion must've consumed the entire arena-"

"It did," Melanie shot in with, before patting the dragon below her on its head with a smile, "Luckily, we had some help from our new friend here."

The dragon let out a happy chirp, and raised its head to the sky momentarily, showing the world its sudden lack of scars and deformities.

"What- This thing?!" Skipjack called out in surprise, "You mean that this is the same dragon that was trying to kill you earlier?"

"But it was emaciated! It was so wounded, I wouldn't have been surprised if it was declared to be a walking corpse," Yamana called out as she looked over the dragon that the two had taken as their steed, "How did it heal so quickly? Does it have an aura of its own?"

Jaune just laughed, and waved his hands with a smile, "Magic hands."

"What?"

"We'll explain later," Melanie commented as Eri flew off of Jaune's back, and twirled in the air, "Eri's got a lock on Ruby's location. She was using the same method that we used to find you guys: Tracking scrolls," she waved hers for show, "Her scroll was transmitting from the middle of the Sleeping City, in an old cathedral straight in its centre, but the signal's gone dark. Whoever this Templar guy is, he must've smashed it, or just turned it off. And since we know she's not dead, as the giant screens across the city have shown, then we know that she's probably still in the middle of that maze."

"We know. The aura suppressors that the Choir had used to imprison us were faulty, so I could still use my semblance," DJ pointed out to them, before going, "You saw the transmission? You saw what Ruby said?"

"And what she looked like?" Jaune asked as his eyes narrowed, and Melanie's face turned into an angry snarl, "Oh yeah... We saw it, alright."

"Templar's dead," Melanie declared to them, "And I'm not going to let anyone- Much less that psycho crocadile Techion- Get in the way of me killing him."

"Er, that's all well and good," Razor began to point out, "But how the hell are we supposed to get to her? In case everyone's forgotten, the Sleeping City is currently in the middle of killing itself, thanks to Ruby, everything from here to that old cathedral has turned into a warzone, and even if it wasn't, we're miles away from where she is, right in the middle of enemy territory. It'll take us hours to get there-"

"Nope."

Razor looked at Jaune, "Er, as I was saying, it'll-"

"Nope."

"What do you mean, 'Nope'?"

"I mean 'Nope', because it's not going to take us hours to get there. Only a few minutes."

"Okay, and how is that going to work?"

Jaune patted the dragon beneath him, "Because these guys and gals are going to help us get there."

"...No."

"Yes."

"You can't be serious."

"Oh, but I am."

"Hold on, you want us to ride a dragon?" Skipjack asked incredulously, "Like, actually ride a dragon? You want us... To ride... A dragon... Into battle?"

"Yep."

"...This is the greatest day of my life."

Overhead, a three-headed dragon roared, and shot a plume of fire out of each head as the dragons around the first years bowed to them, resting their heads on the ground as they waited for their riders to claim their steeds.

Everyone looked up, and their mouths dropped at the sight of the dragon above them, "Is that.. Is that a Thunderstorm-"

"Save it for later and get on the dragon."

"Once again," Skipjack reiterated as he scuttled to the side to take a Wyvern dragon as his ride, "This is the greatest day of my life!"

Turning to the side, Jaune then pointed his sword to Ren and Shadestep, and went, "Is everyone okay with you guys?"

"Miss Goodwitch and Mr Watts are unconscious, and Nora and Voltage injured themselves helping us escape. They're all unconscious, but they're stable," Shadestep answered as Ren winced and looked away.

"Right then," he responded, before going, "Ren, Shadestep, you, Lavender, and the Vultures, stay here and protect the injured. We'll take care of the Choir."

"Jaune-"

"Ren. Stay here, and guard the others. Got it?"

He relented for a moment, before giving a nod, and then slinking to the side. Lavender and the Vultures followed afterwards.

"Everyone else, take a dragon, and get ready to move!"

Nearby, Neon locked eyes with Melanie, "Um, Melanie-"

"Get on one of the dragons, Neon."

"But-"

"Neon, for once in your life just do what you're told."

Neon flinched at this, and let her hands ball into fists. Some flash of memory came before her eyes, but she then relaxed herself, gave a shy nod, and then took one of the land based Dragons, a Drake, as her steed. Yang, meanwhile, didn't hesitate at all as she claimed a Wyvern dragon as her own.

With a nod from Jaune and Melanie, the dragons took flight, and charged over and across the battered and broken remains of the Sleeping City, now once more engulfed in fire and smoke and blood.

"Hold on, Ruby."

Melanie's eyes narrowed.

"Your sister's coming to get you."

* * *

With her revolting play over, Ruby opened the bag that Attis had brought with him, attaching her Silver Bloom blade-gun bracelets to her wrists, and twirling her swords, Wither and Blossom, in her hands. Templar had thought that she was such an insignificant threat that he had left a bag full of her weapons next to her.

A massive mistake.

She was considered a projeny back in Signal Academy, before it was destroyed, for a reason.

She looked at Attis as he stepped away from the camera set and pulled his weapon- What he called the Flame Belcher- Off of his back as he asked, **"What now?"**

"Now?"

Ruby cracked her neck, and readied herself for the battle to come.

"Now, we grab the list of Grimm in Vale, defeat Templar, and save Vale."

Templar wanted her to be his angel? His goddess?

She'd rather be his devil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter wasn't my best, I know, but we're getting to the finale, now.
> 
> Who's going to live?
> 
> Who's going to die?
> 
> Find out soon!
> 
> And for now, as always, leave a review, follow, favourite, stay safe, stay healthy, and I shall see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	36. Jaunedice part 9: Dragon Riders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Battle of the Sleeping City rages, and all sides converge on the cathedral of the dead city.

**Main theme:** _[Metro Exodus rap by Jt Music, featuring Andrea Storm Kaden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfa24afEBM)  
_ **Arc Theme:** _[Through The Valley by Shawn James (The Last Of Us 2 trailer edition)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xunZys4VDMQ)  
_ **Theme:** [_Replicate from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFVhdHuH1YI)

* * *

_Scout reports have confirmed recent suspicions about the Sleeping City's current residents: The traitors known as the Choir of Silver are falling apart. Their order are currently in the middle of a civil war, and the warlords of the group are most likely either scrambling to gain and maintain power for themselves, or are simply indulging themselves in the slaughter._

_From what our scouts have reported, it seems that the one known as Ruby Rose, the Grimm Reaper- One of the Hunters Triad that we have been warned so much about- Is responsible for this split. If the Grimm Reaper is here, then we must assume that the King of Kings and the God Killer are within the city as well._

_To that ends, I suggest that we leave the Sleeping City alone, and allow the Hunters Triad to deal with these traitors themselves. Despite the possible use of the old human city as a staging ground and headquarters for our troops, our own forces are not prepared to enter a protracted siege over the Sleeping City. And with the presence of the Hunters Triad within the city, the warring Choir of Silver factions, as well as the approaching Sky-Mantle forces from Vale, there is no point in drawing out a battle for the scraps of an old realm. Not with our plans in Mistral coming to fruition._

_And besides, if the Hunters are able to divide the Choir of Silver into the wild, then we can take our time in picking off the survivors._

**_Discarded written message between high commanders of the Ascendant Courts forces in Vale, intentionally left behind by said commanders_ **

* * *

Below her, the Sleeping City was burning all over again.

In the streets and buildings, above, below, and in the middle, the forces of the Choir of Silver were collapsing in on themselves, killing each other by gun and axe and blade, spilling black blood into the streets as the air was choked by ask and smoke, from Grimm and fire alike. Orange lights began to glow around the broken skyscrapers and shattered buildings, before the old foundations finally began to give way and collapse into the fields of fire below as the Choir's civil war continued to grow and grow, divided between those that believed in that little brat's speech, and those that remained faithfully loyal to Templar's cause.

And Tock was looking over it all, impressed by the little girl and the destruction that she had caused.

Standing atop her personal Carrier Grimm, hovering in the air as the carnage below continued to grow, she looked over the madness of the Sleeping City, and couldn't help but feel proud of that little girl that Templar had dragged into the cathedral with him. She had always found her fellow Techion to be incredibly annoying, what with his delusions of religious grandeur, so it was nice to see him get taken down a peg every now and then.

Definitely a much needed catharsis, after what happened in the coliseum. It really did help.

She cracked her partly repaired head (Still missing the jaw) Left to right, and then looked downwards. On the ground below, the one on the Silver Court that called himself Ares was busying himself giddily in the growing battle, sending out plumes of fire from his hands into the rebelling crowds of Grimm before him, not bothering to distinguish between who were loyalists, and who were separatists, laughing all the way as he culled entire crowds of warring Grimm all on his own.

Tock liked him. Maybe she should invite him to join her Undertakers when she reformed them. He would be a much better fit than her previous crew, and she doubted that Templar would have much use for him soon. Or Ares would have much use of Templar, for that matter.

{BZZZ BZZZ}

Ah, speaking of which.

Tock opened her communications once more, and the raging voice of Templar filled her audio receptors once more as he yelled to her, _"Tock! I know that you're out there! Help our loyalists to regain order in our forces, and find Hephaestus! I want his head on a stick for even daring to disobey his High Priest!"_

Tock gave off a guffaw, and pointed to the ground, "Might wanna git a leash on Ares before ya do anythin', Templar. Ol' boy's running rampant downstairs. Killin' everyone he sees. Guess he got bored of waitin' for a fight, 'n' just decided to make one fer 'imself."

"Dammit!" Templar seethed, _"Augh, I'll handle that! Your orders remain the same! Recover our forces, sort our loyalists from these traitors, and execute them! I will not allow them to jeopardise our grand crusade- Our new world order!"_

Another amused laugh, "Alright, fine. If it gets me back into killin' things, then I'm not goin' ta complain. But what 'bout the original plan? We still-"

_"The plan remains the same."_

"You serious, mate?"

_"Excruciatingly. We will recover our forces, signal our people in Vale, and commence our war! I will not allow anyone to deny me my rightful world! Not Summer Rose's bastard offspring! Not Hephaestus! NOBODY!"_

And with that, he ended their call.

Riveting conversation, as always.

Oh well, if it got her back to killing, then who was she to complain?

Like she said, she needed something to take her mind off of her previous failure, and those two little runts that had done her in before as well.

And so, she flexed her arms, pulled her cutlasses from her back once more, and then readied to jump down into the fray below, crouching down and-

Wait.

What was that in the distance?

Were those...

Dragons?

A flurry of rounds and missiles shot out from the air and into the remaining air force that surrounded the central cathedral of the Sleeping City, bringing down Vetols and Carriers alike as down below, the ground cracked open and split apart, bringing forth looming Drakes and swarms of Amphipteres as they scattered the Grimm below and brought low so many of their number, kiddie Hunters riding on their backs and firing with abandon into the crowds of Grimm, whilst up above, Dragons and Wyverns flooded the air and brought low any flying Grimm in their way, anti-air gunnery flying through the sky towards them as the head Dragon let out a roar, and revealed its two riders to her.

Being the little white dressed girl and the armoured boy that had escaped from the coliseum earlier.

If Tock could smile viciously, she would. To slaughter those below would surely one hell of a party, but to kill the two little brats that had ruined her fun earlier?

Oh, it would be a treat!

* * *

{BANG}

"And again!"

{BANG}

"And again!"

{BANG}

"And again!"

{BANG}

"That's four down for the count!"

"Great shot Razor, but don't get cocky!" DJ yelled out aboard his Drake dragon as it crawled across the ground and took a bite out of a Juggernaut Grimm, flinging its head to the side and throwing the corpse into a crowd of Grimm as on its back, DJ fired his guns into the warring hordes of blackened soldiers and monsters as a Long-Shot crawled high up on the wall of a nearby shattered building and aimed its sights down onto him-

"ROOOOOAAAAARRRRR!"

{CRUNCH}

-Only for a Wyvern Dragon to bounce by and clamped its jaws down on the Grimm, splitting it in half in a splash of black gore, and let the bisected Grimm fall to the floor as Skipjack clung to its back, sending beams of energy out from his claws as he happily cheered and whooped whilst gunning down Grimm after Grimm.

"THIS! IS! AWESOME!" Skipjack yelled out as his Wyvern jumped high into the air, thanks to its wings, and bit into the engines of a Carrier Grimm, letting the oversized gunship spin out of control and into the ground as the Dragons and first years scattered from the resulting-

{KA-BOOM}

Before them, the central cathedral- A tall, imposing tower coloured in a faded blue, beige, and yellow, with a hasty coating of silver paint messily added to several patches of the building, and was surrounded by several smaller, squatter towers with square anti-air cannons on top of them- Shuddered and shook from the explosion, one of the smaller towers surrounding it falling to the side as the Carrier smashed into the bottom of it, tilting to the side and-

{CRASH}

-Smashing into the side of the cathedral, kicking up smoke and fire as it tore open a giant hole in the metal and stone of the cathedral's foundations, allowing more Choir of Silver Grimm to flood out and into the battlefield below.

But, as the three headed Thunderstorm Dragon ( _Oh my god, those two actually found a legendary and almost mythical dragon what the hell that was amazing!_ ) Soared down and breathed out a triad of fire into the crowds of Grimm below, DJ saw the hole in the cathedral for what it was, and yelled out, "We've got an entrance into the cathedral!" as a swarm of tiny Amphiptere Dragons swarmed a pair of Clerics nearby, tearing them to bloody pieces, DJ pushed by atop his Drake, and tapped into his internal communications to the higher ups in High Command, "Jaune, tell Melanie that we're going to push through the Grimm and into that new entryway up ahead! With any luck, we'll be able to find Ruby before-"

{FWOOSH}

{KA-BOOM}

A plume of violent fire flew by DJ's head, drawing his attention to their newest opponent. Up ahead, a malformed and mutilated Scion Grimm, with an opened chest burning like a furnace, burnt skin, armour, cloth, and fire dust crystals poking out of him, and a glowing orange cross in the middle of his burnt helmet, stood before them like a devil straight out of hell, his body covered in wet and dried blood as he dropped an emptied cooler box onto the ground, and lifted a-

_Is that an eyeball in its hands?_

Indeed, the Grimm had a bloody human (Or Faunus) Eyeball tweezed between its smoking fingers, and crushed it into gunk, before smashing it against the vents of its neck, and groaning (Or more accurately, moaning) As the blood and gore of the broken eye wept into its vents, the Grimm tilted its head back and it let out a gurgled laugh, before tilting its helmeted head up to look at the first years and dragons before it, and spread its arms out wide as it called out, **"Ah, like sweet treats, they are! Ahahahahahahahahahaha! This slaughter... This war... It is like heaven on Remnant!"**

"What the fuck are you?!" nearby, Mixer, now disembarked from his Drake, yelled out as the cannons on his back sang with a loud pair of bangs, and shone with bright purple lights as twin beams of energy shot out and towards the monstrous Grimm, only for-

{FWOOSH}

-A wall of fire to arise in front of the Grimm and absorb the blow, reflecting it back towards the Techion, only for his Drake to scoop him out of the way before it hit him, sparing him from am assuredly painful death.

 **"AHAHAHAHAHAHA! The name's Ares, the God of War!"** the Grimm called out to them as its fire shield dissipated, cackling madly as red blood and black smoke and ash flowed from the vents in its neck, flames dancing across his body and singing his fur coat as he cracked his blood soaked neck, and went, **"I heard that you children of Vale are mighty warriors! Survivors and victors of the Initiation Massacre!"**

He flexed his claws, and created a circle of flames around him, like a demon summoning hellfire from the depths of the underworld.

**"Prove to me that you are worth my time, because if you are not, then I will eat your eyes like candy!"**

"...Alright then, fine," DJ looked to his fellows and peers, "This guy wants a fight?"

Their weapons primed, and their steeds roared.

"Let's give him one."

Nearby, Yang jumped off of her dragon and landed on the ground, hair ablaze, eyes and cybernetic glowing patterns across her body shining a crimson hue.

She stared down the Grimm and cracked her neck, pounding her fists together as she let out a bitter laugh.

"Truer words have never been spoken."

* * *

Their Dragon twirled in the sky as Melanie shot out another ball of blue fire from her hands into a Vetol that was passing by them, the fragile fighter breaking apart at the impact of the blast, and spiralling down to the ground below, a trail of black smoke trailing behind it as it crashing into one of the shattered buildings in an orange and red explosion of light.

Now being boosted by Jaune's massive reserves of aura, Melanie's energy attacks were more powerful than ever, her skin not only healing itself underneath a blanket of his aura, but also negating the harmful effects of her own semblance, allowing her to use the flames of her semblance without causing anymore damage to her arms as they slowly began to heal themselves.

Her fingers involuntarily twitched, and she released another supercharged fireball into yet another Vetol, watching it crash into the ground below as their Dragon twirled in the air to avoid-

{CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM}

-Twin streaks of yellow anti-air fire from hitting them.

The towers around the cathedral continued to spit AA rounds into the air with abandon, spreading out the Dragons in the air as the remaining air force of the Choir of Silver did their best to repel the attacking first years and dragon horde, the sky filling with red and blue and yellow and orange lights and flashes as the first years and the Choir of Silver battled with each other, the former slowly overtaking the latter as the two sides as the Choir continued to consume and destroy itself down below.

Three sides were fighting this battle, and it was the first years who were winning.

Another string of anti-air fire tore through the air, scattering the dragons around it as Melanie called out to Jaune, "Those AA guns are going to keep tearing into us unless we take them out!" and their Dragon flung itself to the side as it clamped its talons around another flailing Vetol, swinging it around in the air, before tossing it down into a nearby dilapidated skyscraper as the dragon roared in victory.

"Then let's take them out!" Jaune pointed out the obvious as he kept one hand connected to Melanie, and the other one singlehandedly holding his ML-15A carbine rifle and firing it off at the Grimm ships around them, his aura like white fire as it flowed in Melanie's own aura, dancing across her arms as patches of skin began to heal over, nerves and muscles threading together like strings in cloth, blood leaking out and painting her arms a rusty red as they continued to repair themselves.

"Yeah?" Melanie yelled back to him as their Dragon soared past another spat of ground fire, and charged through a column of smoke to roll around a passing Carrier as she continued on, "Well how do we do that, then?!"

Then, he tapped the side of his helmet, was silent for a moment, before calling out, "Melanie! DJ just commed me, but the transmission cut out before he could finish! He and his guys have made a hole in the side of the cathedral, and he's planning on busting through the Choir's remaining forces and storm the building!"

Melanie chuckled, "Suppose that negates that plan!"

"Agreed!" Jaune yelled out, "Right then! Tell him that we'll be down there in-"

[BWEEP BWEEP BWEEEEEEEEEEP] Eri chirped out in a panic from Jaune's back, just as-

{RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA}

-A storm of bullets began to rain down onto them from behind, red streams of light whizzing past them as Jaune and Melanie looked behind themselves to see-

"THERE YER ARE, YER LITTLE BRATS!"

-That psychotic Techion from before chasing after them atop of a Carrier Grimm, giant cannon in one of her four hands and spraying bolt after bolt after them as her arm blades shone violently, the cutlasses in the hands of her lower arms burning with fire as blood, oil, and Black Ether dripped out of her missing jawline and broken helmet as the Carrier beneath her continued to spit hot red fire at them.

"There she is!" Melanie cried out as their Dragon swerved around the red hot death that the Carrier behind it was spitting at them, "And it looks like she's out for blood!"

"Well, it's like you said, then!" she could sense Jaune smiling underneath his helmet as he aimed his ML-15A at the Techion behind them, "Let's paint the walls red with hers!"

Melanie smiled, "Now that's a plan if I've ever heard one!"

Their Dragon roared in agreement, and with that, they were off, diving downwards and towards the rows of broken and tilted skyscrapers of the Sleeping City, the Techion's carrier following closely behind as it continued to hound on them, firing reddened blast after blast at them as the Dragon swerved around the broken buildings that populated the once moving city, explosions shattering the world around them as the dragon folded its wings into itself-

"Wait wait wait, hey, what are you-"

-And flung itself through a thin gap in one of the buildings-

"-What are you doing HOLY SHIT!"

-Threading the needle as it rolled its body through the hole in the building, a storm of dust rising up from the wind left in its wake as the Dragon flew towards the light at the end of the gap in the building-

{FWOOSH}

-And shot out of the other end of the building like a missile, unfolding itself outwards and flapping its wings in the air as a massive cloud of dust as the Carrier behind them-

{SLAM}

{CRASH}

-Simply crashed into the building that the dragon had flown through, impacting into the cracked surface of the building, and charging through like a raging bull, before-

{KA-BOOM}

-Smashing through the other side of the building in a giant explosion of rubble and fire, the Techion still clinging to the top of the Grimm ship as it continued to chase them down like a predator after its prey, continuing to spill hot death into the air around them as the Dragon continued to swerve and twirl through the winding air, swooping downwards and flying just a few feet above the shattered and cracked ground below as-

{RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA}

{KA-BOOM KA-BOOM KA-BOOM KA-BOOM KA-BOOM KA-BOOM KA-BOOM KA-BOOM}

-Explosions continued to trail behind them, filling the ground with fire and smoke as the Dragon swerved hard to the left, around a junction in the street as its wings drew up clouds of dirt from the ground below, the Carrier always following closely behind as-

{BANG BANG BANG BANG}

-Jaune continued to fire his ML-15A at the Grimm ship-

{CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM}

-And Melanie threw out ball after ball of blue fire at the Techion on the top of the ship, the Carrier keeping pace with them all of the way as the two of them got the Dragon to pull itself up into the air once more and into a barrel roll, flying right over the Techion and her ship as-

Melanie remembered a trick that she had learnt around the _Grimm Tidings_ when she had unlocked her semblance and fought against the Brother of Darkness.

-Its female rider forged the energies of her semblance into a long whip, lashing out at the Techion as she sliced through the blue fire with her own burning cutlasses, Melanie lashing at her again and tearing open a gash in the ship, black smoke trailing outwards from the ship's wound as the dragon rounded to behind the Carrier, and Melanie-

{CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM}

-Unleashed fireball after fireball at the Carrier's engines, breaking several of them, though the Grimm ship was swinging from side to side and evading their blasts as the Techion continued to fire her cannon at their Dragon, yellow streams of light flying past them as Melanie and Jaune continued to fire back their own volleys of bullets and blasts at the Carrier, caved in buildings and tilting skyscrapers flying by all around them as the Carrier slinked back to behind the Dragon and its riders, and-

{RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA}

-Continued its chase of the Dragon, throwing round after red round at them as the Dragon continued to swerve and twirl in the air to avoid the blasts that the Techion's ship was sending to them, the world around them colouring into a red blur as bullets continued to fly past them, the wind bellowing through Melanie's hair as her hands continued to heal themselves under Jaune's aura, and yet also glowed with blue light and fire as she growled in frustration.

"Dammit, we're not getting anywhere like this!" Melanie cried out as she threw out another fireball at the pursuing Techion, "We need to take her out, now! Then we can find Ruby and deal with the Choir!"

"Yeah, well we'll need a better plan than this!" Jaune called out to her as he continued to fire his ML-15A at the Carrier behind them, "Because if we keep this chase up any longer, then we'll be leaving Ruby and everyone else down on the ground to die!"

[BWEEP BEEP BEEP BOOP]

Jaune turned his helmet to the drone attached to his back, "What?! Eri, what are you talking about!?"

[BWEEP BEEP]

"What do you mean?!"

Without a shred of hesitance, Eri disconnected herself from Jaune's back-

"ERI!"

-And allowed the winds to pull her away from the both of them, sending her spiralling down towards the ground below.

"What the hell!? Where is she going!?" Melanie cried out as the dragon turned to the side to avoid another hail of bullets from the Carrier behind them, "Jaune, where is she going!?"

"I don't know!"

"But what did she say to you?!" Melanie shouted over the howling winds and screaming bullets and blasts, "Jaune, what did she say to you!?"

There was a long moment of hesitation from him, before he finally answered.

"She just said, 'Trust me'!"

* * *

Another slice of Wither and Blossom, and the Disciple before her joined its fellows down on the floor, in the smoky hallways that were painted black with smoking, fading blood and gore. Grimm carcasses were strewn across the rusted and battered corridors as fire licked at the cloth and fabrics placed on the walls and draped across the floor like red carpets, colouring the darkening hallways a glowing orange as what was left of Templar's loyalists within the cathedral gathered by the dozens, if not the hundreds, and divided themselves between the separatists outside, and the rogues inside.

Ruby's attempts at creating a division within this... Cult, had been successful, it seemed.

Now, all that was left was to reap the rewards.

Ruby charged forwards once more in a flutter of rose petal, and reformed behind a pair of Barons, letting her blades slice through their necks as Attis telekinetically picked them up with his gravity dust machines, and threw them into a gathering crowd of Disciples with enough force to either kill or disable them. One of the Disciples was able to roll out of the way and charge Ruby, shifting its gun into a sword and swinging it down at the red themed girl, cracking against the ground before bringing it up to block a blow from Ruby's sword, and then swinging it back at her as she burst into petals and reformed behind it-

{STAB STAB}

-And then stabbed it in the back with her swords, before ripping them out, letting the Grimm corpse collapse to the ground, and then severing the hands of another pair of incoming Disciples before kicking them back into an approaching Baron, the larger, horned Grimm raising its cannon and sending a volley of fire towards her, before she jumped out of the way of the flames and-

{STAB}

-Ran her blades through the Grimm's head, turning it into a bloody black paste of fading gore and bone as she threw herself off of the corpse and aimed her Silver Bloom blade-gun bracelets down the corridor at an approaching Cleric and-

{BANG BANG BANG BANG}

-Letting the guns roar with silver flashes as the rounds stretched down the hallways and into the head of the Cleric, popping its head and dropping the Grimm to the floor.

Ruby was momentarily stunned by the loud bangs that ran through the hallways, her ears ringing as her aura healed her eardrums, only for her to look ahead of herself and-

It was those Grimm from before, back in the tunnels before she was captured- One being a floating wraith-like Grimm draped in a black cloak, with a single black tendril instead of a pair of legs, long arms and claws, glowing red patterns covering it like tattoos, and a blank bone-white faceplate with a single red eye in the middle. The other Grimm being that spider-droid like Grimm with ten legs, a half-flattened sphere, and a dozen robotic red eyes encircling its entire body- She didn't know if they were the same Grimm specifically, or just of the same variant of Grimm, but at the moment, she didn't care.

They were in her way.

If she wanted to get to Templar, and get his list of Grimm cells within Vale, then she'd have to go through them.

The wraith-like Grimm screeched at them, and the spider-droid Grimm charged forward, its front two arms raised in attack as it brought them down onto Ruby, the girl jumping out of the way as the Grimm disintegrated into a hundred tiny spider-bots and swarmed the floor, walls, and ceiling, before jumping down and-

"AUGH, GET OFF ME!"

-Began to jump onto and crawl all over Ruby, swarming over her body and beginning to dig into her arms and legs, intent on burrowing underneath her skin and into her bones, before-

{BURST}

-Ruby burst into rose petals once more and shook the spider-bots off, shooting the Grimm droids on the ground with abandon, before-

**"RAUGH!"**

-The wraith-like Grimm grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up, the girl struggling against its grip and stabbing her arm blades into the Grimm's arm, but it didn't change anything as the Grimm's faceplate opened like a pair of mandibles, revealing a glowing blood red void underneath as it began to leech outwards and suck her aura away in a red stream of sticky light, eating away at her soul, this time intending to kill her as her eye grew dim and her limbs went limp, until-

**"Get away from her, apostate!"**

-Attis jumped in, reaching a metal hand out and crushing the wraith-like Grimm head in his grip, splattering black blood and gore over the walls and Ruby as the corpse let go of the girl, dropping her to the ground as the aura that it had consumed began to violently ripple and burst within itself, expanding outwards like a balloon, before the Techion Grimm threw the corpse into the hallway of swarming spider-bots, and then shielding Ruby with his body as the corpse-

{KA-BOOM}

-Exploded in a burst of red and blue light, commingling into a purple fire that consumed every single spider-bot Grimm in the hallway, singing Attis' fur cloak and fabrics, and burning his armour, whilst the corridor behind them was shattered and broken, stone and wood cracking and burning as the roof collapsed and the walls gave way, purple fire fading into orange as the insides of the cathedral began to burn from the inside out.

Ruby looked up to Attis in disbelief. A Grimm had... A Grimm had actually saved her. It took her a few moments to finally come up with a response, "Huh... Um, t-thanks," and there was that nervous stutter from before.

 **"Of course, my goddess,"** Attis said as he let her get up onto her own two feet, **"Your protection is all that I wish for, and I am happy to provide it."**

It wasn't the worshipping that got her this time.

It was that feeling that others felt around her.

That need to protect her, as if she couldn't fight for herself.

It was the same with Attis, it was the same with Yang, and it was the same with Melanie.

Ruby wasn't ignorant of herself. She knew why they felt this way about her. She hadn't exactly been doing them or herself any favours in trying to dissuade their notion of her. Yang saw her as a vulnerable little sister (Especially after what happened with Iris), And Melanie saw her as the same, what with everything that happened to Miltia, and then with RSBL. Attis, meanwhile, saw her as a god, of all things, and felt the need to protect his deity from that which might harm her, especially after she tricked him into freeing her by proclaiming herself as his god, so she really hadn't been doing herself any favours in that aspect.

All of them had good reasons to want to protect her, and she knew that she had given them those reasons on a silver platter by just- By just being as weak as she always had been.

But she still hated it.

It was time that she changed. That she became better. That she learnt how to protect himself.

This would be where she started.

Nearby, a Disciple dug itself out of the smoking rubble, its skin bubbling and burning underneath the heat, its silver cloak singed and on fire as it panicked and threw it off of himself.

In a flash, Ruby was in front of it, and pointing her swords at its neck, "You want to live? Tell me where to find Templar."

 **"In effigy chamber,"** the Disciple croaked out, **"Having his way with his beloved scrap metal toy."**

She turned to Attis, "You know where that is?"

**"He never trusted me with the information of where it was."**

**"Rightfully so,"** the Disciple quietly chuckled.

"Do you know where this 'Effigy chamber' is?" Ruby asked.

 **"Downstairs,"** the Disciple answered, **"Big chamber with sliding doors. Templar has his most loyal followers guarding it."**

"We'll worry about that," Ruby replied, before tilting her head to the side, "You know, you're awfully compliant for a Grimm."

**"Hey..."**

"Not you, Attis."

The Disciple hmphed, **"You've got a sword to my neck. What else am I supposed to be if not compliant?"**

Ruby's eyes narrowed, but sighed. She didn't have time to dawdle. They were surely running on a time limit, and Templar still had to be stopped.

Another problem for another day.

She gestured her swords to the side, "Go on then. Get."

The Disciple got up onto its feet, and slinked off through the orange and golden lit hallway, the flames kept alive by the occasional zephyr of air.

…

Yeah, another problem for another day.

Ruby looked at Attis, and nodded, "Let's get going."

And with that, they were off once more.

* * *

Nearby, the Disciple tilted its head to the side as it watched the girl and the Grimm cyborg sprint down the burning hallways of the broken and breaking cathedral, its single eye narrowed in curiosity as it watched the pair run towards this final confrontation.

Towards the Choir of Silver's end.

Such a foolish girl. Truly, truly foolish.

Perhaps he should teach her about how the world truly worked.

He always did fancy himself a teacher, after all.

But that was a prospect for another day.

For now, he had to make his escape.

He removed himself from his perch on the hallway corner, and began his own sprint towards the exit of the cathedral. No down that Hephaestus- Or the Tinkerer, or whatever he called himself- Had already escaped with the _Pilgrim's Flight_ , and from what he could already tell, half of the entire Choir was dead, with the rest either scattering into the wilds of the Sleeping City and beyond, or performing a suicidal, and frankly pointless, final stand against whomever was attacking them outside.

He prayed to whatever god was listening that he wouldn't be one of them.

* * *

 **"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"** Ares loudly guffawed as he unleashed a burst of flame into the gathering first years and Dragons, a swarm of Amphiptere Dragons were incinerated in the fires as the first years pushed through, their aura negating the heat of the flames as they continued their assault, **"This is what I wanted!"** the Grimm cried out as he released a wave of fire into the first years, the Hunters in training tanking through the blows as he laughed even more, **"Battle! Conflict! War! THIS IS WHAT I WANT! THIS IS WHAT I AM!"**

"WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP!?" Yang cried out as she charged at the raging, burning Grimm before her, Ember Celica remakes primed and ready as-

"Yang!

"Where're you going!?"

-Her teammates of Team RXOR, Omega and Rancor, chased after her, guns and cannons aiming and blazing at the pretender god before them as he burned the ground around him with a ring of fire, the Grimm swinging his cutlasses through the air and unleashing strings and waves of fire through the air and into its allies and enemies alike, Grimm being cut down and turning to smoke and ash as they were felled, and the first years, protected by their Dragons and aura, continued to dodge and weave their way around their opponent before them as Yang used her Ember Celica remakes to propel herself to the side, her purple tinted sunglasses shielding her eyes from the heat, and her pigtails fluttering in the wind as she quickly avoided a burst of fire from the Ares, the heat from the mad Grimm bombarding her with fresh aura blows and burns, so much so that-

[BEEP BEEP BEEP]

-Her cybernetic spine and nervous system began to short circuit underneath the intense heat.

Seriously, how hot was this thing burning?!

Yang growled as she felt her arms and legs begin to lag behind her, and she forced herself to jump backwards and out of the worst of the heat, and into the awaiting arms of Rancor, his juggernaut armour hard and singed against her back as he said to her, "What the hell was that, Yang?! You can't just run out like that! How're we suppose to make sure that you don't get hurt when you go off and almost get yourself killed like that?!"

"You know, I don't need you to coddle me so much!" Yang protested as she wormed her way out of Rancor's grip, "I can fight my own battles, you know!"

"Ah, less yammering, more blasting, you two!" Razor called out nearby as he and Omega continued to pour bullets and blasts into the false god that was Ares, whom had summoned a dome of fire to smother himself with, before throwing his hands out and letting the dome of fire expand outwards into a wall of flame, burning and consuming-

{FWOOSH}

"AUGH!"

-And washing over the first years and dragons, smothering them with searing heat, burning and marking them, smoke pouring off of the first years as their aura slowly began to heal them, as nearby, Jolie ran forwards, took in a deep breath and then let out a ear-deafening scream, waves of sound made physical as her semblance kicked in, the waves of noise slamming into the Grimm as it was forced back, only for the burning monster to tank the blow, roar with laughter at the attempt to kill him, summon a ball of fire around itself, and then-

{CHOOM}

-Shoot it forwards, right into Jolie.

{BOOM}

The girl screamed as the ball of fire exploded against her, and sent her flying backwards. It wasn't a strong enough blow to kill her- Most likely intentional. This Grimm seemed like the type to drag on a fight just for the hell of it- But it was enough to shatter her aura, burn her clothing and skin, possibly down to the fat layers, and send her down to the ground nearby. She would live, but not without serious scarring across the front of her body.

Up ahead, the Thunderstorm Dragon flew down, roared, and then open all three of its mouths.

Ares just looked up, held its arms out, and yelled, **"You- A simple minded beast!- Believe that you can kill the likes of me?! A GOD AMONGST GRIMM!? THE PERSONIFICATION OF WAR ITSELF!?"**

Fire emerged from the Thunderstorm's three heads, and it roared once more.

**"Well then..."**

Ares laughed once more.

**"SHOW ME YOU HAVE THE STRENGTH TO SEE YOUR INTENTIONS THROUGH!"**

Three jet streams of fire erupted from the mouths of the Thunderstorm, and-

{KA-BOOM}

-Directly impacted with the false god, smothering him in a thick cloud of flame that looked more like a miniature sun than just an ordinary fireball. The first years and Dragons had to look away and shield their eyes as the Grimm was consumed and eradicated by the flames, burnt to a crisp as the fires shed his flesh down to the bone and left him as nothing more than ash and nothingness amidst a torrent of flame.

Yang just smiled at the sight.

They got him.

They actually got-

The fires began to remould itself.

…No...

It began to congeal into a new shape, growing and changing around what should have been a dead Grimm.

No no no no no.

The Grimm was still alive. The flames around him has been absorbed by his power- His semblance- And had turned him into a raging inferno, a devil wrapped in hell flame, burning everything around it into a crisp.

The infernal devil that was Ares, God of War, narrowed its eye on the first years in front of it, and let out a screeching, earth-shattering roar.

* * *

Nearby, Eri finished her journey through the fires and flames of battle, weaving her way through the waning dogfight in the air, and found herself above one of the anti-air towers that were continuously firing shells into the air.

Step one of her totally awesome and practical plan was complete. Now, it was on to step two: Seize control of the anti-air gun.

Checking the progress that her internal subroutines had been making on the spoof-key needed to break through the jamming field around the Sleeping City- _Spoof-Key progress: 87%_ \- She found the hatch to the top of the anti-air gun's control room.

As soon as she opened it up, the two Disciples within fired at her.

Quickly sending in two bolts of electricity, the Disciples dropped dead, allowing her to zoom in, take the controls, and assume command of the AA guns.

Step two was complete. Now onto step three: Clear all of the other AA guns on this side of the cathedral.

Rotating the cannon to the side, she spotted three other anti-air towers to her right. Turning her new toy to face them, she pulled down on the trigger, and-

{CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM}

-Let loose twin streams of yellow fire into the towers, each one-

{KA-BOOM}

{KA-BOOM}

{KA-BOOM}

-Exploding in a satisfying ball of smoke and flame, and collapsing into rubble on the ground.

Swinging the cannon around once more, she spotted two more AA guns to her left, and-

{CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM}

-Repeated the process on them.

{KA-BOOM}

{KA-BOOM}

Every other tower on this side of the cathedral were all gone, left as smoking piles of rubble on the ground below.

Step three was complete. Now, it was time for-

Down below, a fireball congealed and reshaped itself around a monstrous mutant of a Grimm.

Time for step three point five, it seemed.

* * *

Ares, the God of War, took a step forwards, his flesh bubbling and then healing itself all over again as he marched forwards, breaths shallow and jagged, sounding like nails against chalkboards as he- It- Roared and screamed in pain and joy.

It sounded like it was in hell, and yet in ecstasy at the same time.

The first years stepped backwards, as did their steeds, the sheer heat being given off by the Grimm melting the ground underneath it and burning away their aura in waves and slashes of knife-like hot air against their skin. The Grimm continued to step forwards, its insides churning like a volcano, dripping magma-like blood and gore onto the floor, twitching uncontrollably as it moved, laughing madly and continuously as it inched closer and closer.

 **"IS THAT ALL!?"** the mad Grimm called out, flames bellowing around it as the world was scorched black around it, its cutlasses melting underneath the heat, **"IS THAT ALL THE STRENGTH THAT YOU CAN MUSTER!**

**"I AM WAR PERSONIFIED!**

**"I AM CONFLICT IN ALL ITS MAJESTY!**

**"I AM GRIMM, IN ITS PUREST FORM!**

**"MY VOICE IS BATTLE!**

**"MY HOME IS SLAUGHTER!**

**"AND FOR AS LONG AS THERE IS WAR, I SHALL SURVIVE!**

**"FOR AS LONG AS THERE IS CONFLICT AND BATTLE, I SHALL KNOW LIFE!**

**"AS LONG AS THERE IS WAR, I SHALL BE IMMORTAL!**

**"WHO ARE YOU- MERE CHILDREN PLAYING AT GODS!- TO DEFY ME-"**

{CHOOM}

A twin stream of yellow light slammed into the side of the burning Grimm, and shredded the side of its body into pieces.

And yet Ares did not die.

The mad thing playing at god screamed in anger at the unwanted pain, and turned to the anti-air tower that had attacked it, raising a ball of fire to attack whomever was now controlling the cannon, before-

{BANG}

-A bullet slammed into the thickened skin and armour on its shoulder, and embedded itself into the Grimm.

"Kill that fucking thing," ordered Razor as the first years raised their weapons, aimed, and opened fire.

{BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG}

{RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA}

{SHOOM SHOOM SHOOM SHOOM SHOOM SHOOM SHOOM SHOOM}

{CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM}

Bullets and blasts slammed into Ares, ripping the Grimm apart piece by piece as lances and flashes of light broke the god pretender down to the bare bloody skeleton. Ares tried to deflect the torrent of attacks against it by summoning a wall of fire before it-

{CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM}

-But was stopped by the cannon atop the anti-air tower, ripping the tough Scion Grimm apart even more, flaying it alive and cutting apart ribbons of blackened, toughened meat and essence from the monster as it continued to break down into a shattered, still living mess.

Soon, its fires fading and withering into nothingness as the air began to finally cool, the floors around it steaming and smoking from the old heats that it once generated as ash flickered from its living corpse like remnants of the power that it once held within itself.

Ares collapsed to the floor, now reduced to a ruined skeleton of a creature, stray bits of flesh still clinging to its dripping corpse as a cocktail of crimson red and smoking black blood pooled at its feet, its internal organs continuously churning and working to keep the pretender god alive as it tried to pull itself off of its knees and back onto its feet.

From its neck, six rivers of blood and fire leaked out of the broken, mangled necks, and the horrid, ruined thing that was more of a corpse than a real thing, finally choked out a response to this transgression against itself.

 **"N-No... I... I am war,"** the creature pretending to be a god stuttered as it crawled back onto its feet, **"I... I AM CONFLICT! I AM BATTLE PERSONIFIED!"**

It coughed, and then fell back onto its knees, crawling across the ground as it continued its bad rant.

**"In... In battle... I am IMMORTAL! INDESTRUCTIBLE! UNSTOPPABLE!"**

It reached a skeletal hand forwards, and conjured a weak ball of fire into being.

**"I... Cannot... Die...**

**"I... WILL NOT-"**

{SLAM}

{CRUNCH}

{SQUELCH}

"Die."

The Grimm looked down at the hand that had punched through its heart, and then up at the girl that had done the deed.

Yang Xiao Long, having pushed all of her aura into her arm, pulled Ares' burning heart out of its chest, and crushed it within her hand.

The creature gave off one last gurgle, reaching out a hand to try and kill her once more, only for it to fall limp, as the self-proclaimed personification of war fell to the ground, and faded away into ash, and then nothing.

As it showed, even gods can die.

Nearby, the anti-air tower turned its cannon away from the ground, and up into the air.

* * *

The Dragon flew above the carrier, and Melanie and the Techion came to blows once more as their blades of fire clashed and flared against one another, the cyborg growling with rage as its cannon flared to light once more, yellow strings of light stretching outwards towards them as their battle in the sky continued, Jaune and Melanie trading blows with the Techion atop their dragon as they swerved and weaved through the sky and the ruins of the Sleeping City, trailing dust and smoke and fire behind them as their battle continued on, colouring the sky red, yellow, and blue as they flew.

Another shout of defiance from the Techion sailed through the air, audible against the howling winds and waning screams of battle above and below, and the Carrier that it road on answered this call as it raised its many guns to the Dragon, and-

{RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA}

-Rained fire onto the first years' Dragon once more, the feathered beast twirling through the air as the Techion laughed and roared in her supposed triumph against them.

"Yer really think that yer can take me on!?" the Techion yelled out to them as she continued to fire upon them, adding to the blasts from the Carrier as Jaune and Melanie's Dragon continued to weave through the needles of light like a thread through silky cloth, "Do yer even know who I am!?"

"Don't know! Don't care!" Melanie called back as she unleashed a trio of blue blasts of light into the Carrier, each one landing with a satisfying-

{BOOM BOOM BOOM}

-As the Dragon beneath her continued to fly through the sky, its wings swinging from left to right, up to down to up all over again, swirling through the air with finesse and majesty, as compared to the ugly flight of the Grimm carrier behind them.

"YOU FUCKIN' DARE!" the Techion screeched back as she continued to blare her cannon at them, splitting the sky apart with each lance of yellow and red light as her Carrier continued to chase after them, "The name's Tock, ya little brats! Remember it, 'cause it's going to be the last words that you ever hear!"

"Yeah, sure thing, psycho!" it was Jaune who's voice echoed outwards this time, as he continued to empty his ML-15A into 'Tock' and her ship, until it ran dry of ammo, and forced him to swap it out for one of his pistols as he then called out to her, "What about your boss!? That 'Templar' guy!?"

"Templar?! 'The fuck should I care 'bout Templar!?" Tock screeched out as they flew between a pair of shattered towers that had collided into each other, weaving underneath a ruined bridge across a low road, continuing their battle with each other as she continued, "Deluded fucker thinks that he's a god, and yer want ta waste ya time with 'im!?"

"Templar thinks himself a god?!"

Melanie smiled.

"He won't be the first I've killed!"

"What makes yer think that I'm gonna give yer the chance?!"

{BANG BANG BANG}

A trio of shots landed against the dragon, one in its wing, and the other two in its body, sending the Dragon spinning out of control and twirling in the air as Jaune-

"Ah, shit!"

-Refocused himself into pushing all of his aura into the Dragon, allowing it to heal itself and turn to face Tock's Carrier, only to see-

"Oh no..."

-The Grimm ship bearing down on them, guns raised and pointed straight at them.

Tock growled, and they could tell that underneath all of that metal, she was surely smiling.

Smiling at her newest kill.

"Goodbye, yer little pieces of-"

{CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM}

Yellow streaks of light ripped through the air, and struck the side of Tock's Carrier, ripping it apart with a fiery-

{KA-BOOM}

-And sending the remains plummeting to the ground beneath them, a smoky trail left in its wake as it, and the Techion, fell like stones to the ruined metal world below.

Melanie looked at Jaune, and Jaune looked at Melanie.

"Was that... Was that Eri?"

Jaune paused for a moment, and then, once a message bounced into his helmet, he laughed.

"Yes... Yes it was."

* * *

Tock growled as she pushed a fading piece of wreckage off of her, and clawed her way out of the smoking ruins of her old ship, and onto the scorched black ground below. Her body was a mangled mess, dripping red blood, oil, and Black Ether onto the ground below as she moved, ruined by heat and the impact. Her ship had done a good enough job of protecting her from the crash, but not good enough as she crawled across the ground, her legs gone, replaced by loose wires and shards of metal, and her arms had been shot and twisted in unrecognisable stumps.

Worthless thing, that Grimm was. If it couldn't even keep her safe, then what the hell was the point of it?

Something thudded against the ground nearby, and a shrill cry sounded out, but Tock didn't care as she continued to pull herself across the ground, looking for something- Anything- That could get her out of this city. To hell with Templar, and to hell with his Choir. The former was a deluded narcissist, and the latter was dead or dying. She'd get out of here. She'd make her escape out of this dead city. She'd repair herself. And then- And then!- She would find out where those two brats were sleeping in Beacon, and skin them both-

The thudding against the ground grew closer behind her, and she turned herself around to see what the hell was approaching her, and-

It was the Dragon.

The brats' Dragon.

The Dragon that she had once taken as her own.

The Dragon she had tortured, and turned into a weapon for her own amusement.

And now, it was the Dragon that was staring her down, its riders atop its hide as the beast looked down on her with angry, vengeance fuelled eyes.

"Oh..."

Tock raised her arms in surrender-

"Oh please-"

-But it was the last thing that she would ever be able to do as the Dragon roared, threw its head down, opened its beaked jaw, and-

{CHOMP}

{CRUNCH}

{SPLATTER}

-Bit its old captor in half, black and red liquids spilling out from the metal and organic body as the Dragon released its grip on the two halves, and let them clatter against the ground.

And that was the final end of Tock, former member of the Court of Salem, and the slayer of silver eyes.

(Above them, Jaune and Melanie looked down upon their former captor's corpse, and let out a shared sigh of satisfaction at her death.

"Burn in hell, you psycho."

Their eyes narrowed.

"It's what you deserve.")

* * *

"Ares, answer me!" Templar called out into his communications as he and Adonai protected their hunched effigy within their chambers, "Dammit Ares, respond now!"

No answer from Ares.

"Tock, report!"

No answer from her, either.

"Hephaestus!?"

And yet again, he was met with silence.

Outside, the fighting grew louder and louder, reaching the other side of the door to the chamber that they stood in like sentries to their charge, as the icy cold Adonai approached Templar, holding her hand out for effect as she then said, **"My Priest... I think... I think that the others might be dead."**

"Impossible!" Templar began to retort, "They are my Silver Court! They have been blessed with my divine will! My divine providence as speaker for the silver eyes! They cannot die! My will does not allow them to die!"

 **"My priest,"** Adonia began as calmly as she could muster, **"I believe that we must face the facts: Our entire Choir has just turned in on itself. Most of our forces are dead, and the rest must've followed the way of Hephaestus' treachery and abandoned us to-"**

Templar pressed his sword against her neck, "Choose your next words very carefully, Adonai. You know how I feel about insubordination."

Outside, the sounds of battle ceased, and the door to the effigy chamber was overcome by a subtle purple glow, which went unnoticed to the two conversing Silver Court members within.

Adonai put her hands up in surrender, as she then slowly said, **"My priest... I believe that the time has come to activate our agents within the city of Vale."**

"NO! Not without my crusaders! Not whilst there is still chaos, disunity, and dissent within my Choir!"

**"My priest, most of our crusaders are either dead or scattered! We have no army for which to wage an effective war! If we wish to survive, then we must sow as much chaos within Vale as we possibly can, and rework our strategy! Present ourselves as the saviours of Vale in times of chaos, and rebuild our powerbase from the ground up!"**

"Subvert the wills of the people, and use them to rebuild our armies once more?"

**"Many will flock to our banner if we guise it as one of friendship, and not one of hidden conquest."**

Templar paused for a few moments, then retracted his sword from her neck, and looked downwards to the ground, "Hm, a good plan... Glad I thought of it."

Adonai raised her hand to say something, before lowering it with a sigh, **"Of course, my priest..."**

A crack of his neck later, and Templar raised his comms once again, "Let us begin preparations to leave this place. It is time to show the people of Vale the true might of the-"

{RRRRRIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPP}

The door to the effigy chamber was ripped out of the wall, off of its motors and hinges-

{TOSS}

{CRASH}

{CLATTER}

-And thrown across the room, crashing against the other side of the wall, leaving a sizeable dent in the metal surface, before cluttering against the ground, and falling still.

"Going somewhere, Templar?"

In the entryway to the effigy chamber, stood Ruby and Attis, the both of them covered in smoking Grimm blood, and the both of them staring down Templar and Adonai with eager, angry eyes.

"You aren't going anywhere."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two more chapters to go~  
> Two more chapters to go~  
> Then I can finally put this arc to rest~  
> Two more chapters to go~
> 
> In all seriousness, thank you all so much for keeping up with this arc and liking it so much! I have to admit, this arc hasn't been my best in terms of writing, but don't worry, next arc is going to be a proper banger, I'll give you that!
> 
> And, as I always say, stay safe, stay healthy, and I shall see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


End file.
